Patrick Vieira urges Crystal Palace forwards to develop ‘killing instinct’

Patrick Vieira wants to see more of a “killing instinct” from his array of attacking players at Crystal Palace.

Wilfried Zaha returned from the Africa Cup of Nations to score a fine equaliser in Wednesday’s 1-1 draw at Norwich but also missed a penalty which would have secured three points for the visitors.

Vieira had previously called for more consistency from the Ivory Coast international and that was laid bare during a topsy-turvy performance at Carrow Road.

But the Eagles boss is also keen for his other attacking players to do their bit, with on-loan Chelsea midfielder Conor Gallagher still topping the scoring charts for Palace this season with seven goals.

“Yes, we have players who are capable of scoring goals and creating chances but that is not enough – we need to have this killing instinct to score these goals,” said Vieira.

“The attacking force, the way we play and you see the situations we are creating, in both areas in offensive and defensive we need to be more ruthless.

“That will come with experience and playing together and when you look at how we improve from the first game of the season, I think we are a better team.

“We still have some parts of our game that need to improve to win football matches, we are conscious of that and my responsibility will be to put more emphasis on those details to allow us to win football matches.”

Palace make the short journey to Brentford on Saturday having won just one of their 11 Premier League games on the road under Vieira, with only Everton taking a fewer percentage of their points from away games.

Zaha is likely to keep his place in the side but Vieira also wants his team-mates to understand the role they play in giving the forward a chance to reach his maximum