“Our plan was executed by the players” – Patrick Vieira opens up on Crystal Palace strategy that made it ‘really difficult’ for Liverpool

Crystal Palace manager Patrick Vieira has shared his thoughts on his side's 1-1 draw against Liverpool in the Premier League on Monday, August 15. He stressed the importance of staying calm while playing at Anfield and believes that his players executed their plans well.

Palace struggled to get out of their half early on in the game and relied majorly on counter-attacks. It worked in the 32nd minute as Eberechi Eze did well to control the ball and find Wilfried Zaha, who scored past Alisson Becker.

Palace stayed in shape and were helped by Darwin Nunez's sending off in the 57th minute for headbutting Joachim Andersen. Luis Diaz then scored an excellent equalizer in the 61st minute but the Reds had to settle for a point.

Speaking after the match, Vieira was complimentary of his side, as he said (via Liverpool Echo):

“We are really happy with a point. Overall I think Liverpool had the chances, we had a couple of good ones. But I’m happy with the point. It’s not easy to stay calm here. With the crowd and the atmosphere we managed the situation really well. We needed to be calm and concentrated on what we wanted to do and we did that."

He added:

“Our plan was executed by the players. We didn’t show any kind of frustration. We remained calm and composed and we made it really difficult for them. The first 15-20 minutes was a bit challenging with the runs behind our back line but we managed to defend that quite well.”

Zaha had a couple of good opportunities to score a winner for Palace but was unable to do so. Vieira admitted that they could have scored a winner but is still pleased with his side. He said:

“We managed to stay in the game and got the first goal. At places like this you need a solid team performance and that’s what we had today."

He added:

“Wilfried didn’t touch the ball very much but he was really dangerous tonight. We could have won it but we could have lost it as well. I’m pleased with the quality we showed today and showed more sides of our game we need to show more often.”

Liverpool have now drawn both of their Premier League matches so far this season, having drawn 2-2 against newly-promoted Fulham on the opening weekend.

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Liverpool gear up to face Manchester United

Jurgen Klopp's side will next face arch-rivals Manchester United in the Premier League on August 22. The match will take place at Old Trafford, where Liverpool won 5-0 last season.

Erik ten Hag's side have started the campaign poorly as well, losing 2-1 against Brighton & Hove Albion and 4-0 against Brentford.

With both sides needing to open their win accounts for the season, it will be an enticing North West derby.