Patrick Vieira: Liverpool defeat underlines where Crystal Palace need to improve

Patrick Vieira once again highlighted his Crystal Palace side’s inability to find the back of the net after the 3-1 defeat at the hands of Liverpool.

The Reds opened the scoring from a corner in the eighth minute after Virgil Van Dijk was left unmarked from an Andrew Robertson corner and punished Palace by planting a powerful header past Vicente Guaita.

Jurgen Klopp’s side doubled their lead when Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain was found at the back post by Robertson, and the midfielder buried a shot past Guaita. Roberto Firmino was offside in the build-up but VAR ruled the Brazilian’s position did not impact the goal.

The Eagles pulled one back in the 55th minute when Jeffrey Schlupp split the Liverpool defence with a perfectly-weighted pass. The through ball found Jean-Philippe Mateta, who had the simple task of rolling the ball across to Odsonne Edouard to tap into an empty net.

Five of Palace’s eight shots were on target, but Alisson made four saves during the contest to ensure his side went back to Merseyside with all three points.

“When Liverpool had their good period in the first half, they scored two goals. When we had our moments in the first half, we didn’t take our chances,” said Vieira.

“In the second half, we had periods and moments where we didn’t take our chances. The game reflects quite well where we need to improve our maturity.

“Playing that kind of games against those teams will make us improve because when you’re looking at our front three today, games such as this will make them better players.

“It was a difficult challenge for us, and we gave ourselves the best chance to get something from the game. That poor decision from the referee took our hope away.”

The Eagles came out for the second half and had two attempts in quick succession at the Liverpool goal – Conor Gallagher and  Edouard both going close.

When asked about his side’s performance in the second half, Vieira added: “I was really proud – it was a really positive reaction.

“This is what I expected and wanted from them, and they gave it to me.

“We tried our best to come back and try to get some points from the game.”