Star: Wilfried Zaha
(Picture: Action Images via Reuters)Wilfried Zaha says he is happy being part of Crystal Palace’s youthful revolution, as a decision over his future looms.
After a tough start to the season, Palace climbed into the top half of the table with last night’s win, Zaha scoring the winner after Eberechi Eze had cancelled out Adama Traore’s opener.
At 29, Zaha finds himself among the elder statesmen at the club he first joined as a schoolboy, the likes of Eze, Michael Olise, Marc Guehi and Cheick Doucoure among a host of impressive young stars coming to the fore under Patrick Vieira.
Zaha, who was linked with a move to Chelsea late in the summer transfer window, is into the final year of his contract and will be free to negotiate with foreign clubs over a potential free transfer from January 1 unless he agrees a new deal. For now, though, he is enjoying setting the example for the club’s emerging talent.
“Seeing what [the young players] can do, I’m happy I’m part of it,” Zaha said. “Just me telling them about efficiency and needing to show what you can add to the team, that’s what I tell them every game.
“I’m talking to kids who are 19, 20 years old! The bit of experience I have, I try to tell them. Obviously, it’s good to entertain, but at the end of the day: what do you bring to the team?”
Zaha’s strike last night took his tally to five goals in just nine Premier League appearances this term and he is, so far, on course to break his personal record of 14 in a top-flight campaign.
That was set only last year, during Vieira’s first season in charge, and Zaha credited the Frenchman with having transformed his attitude towards goalscoring.
“Having such a legend as your manager makes a difference, because he tells me different things all the time that helps improves me as a man in general,” he added. “How we play allows me to focus on the main thing, and that’s scoring goals. It’s making a difference to my game.
“I feel like it’s a mind shift, where I’ve shifted from just a dribbler to [scoring] goals. When I step on the pitch, my mindset is efficiency. When I dribble, I only dribble when I have to go and get my shot off.”
Vieira, meanwhile, insisted Zaha’s contract situation is not troubling him for now.
“It’s not an issue at all,” he said. “Wilfried knows what the club thinks about him and we know what he thinks about the club.
“There will be a discussion taking place, but for myself and for the club what is important is for him to play at this level and to be consistent and to help those young players around him to grow and we’ll see what will happen.
“When he has a good day, I would say the team has a good day. He’s an important player on and off the field. He’s got the experience.”
