Patrick Vieira has told Odsonne Edouard to add more “bite” to his attacking threat to thrive at Crystal Palace.
The 24-year-old fired a smart finish from Jeffrey Schlupp’s through-ball as Palace eased past Oxford in the second round of the Carabao Cup.
Edouard notched his first goal in 15 matches for the Eagles and boss Vieira told the former Celtic striker to keep grafting to add teeth to his finishing prowess.
“This is what he needs, to score goals, that will build the confidence,” said Vieira.
“He needs to be more decisive inside the box, to have more bite.
“He’s a really, really talented player, he can do a lot of things with the ball at his feet and his movement is really good.
“We have to keep being more demanding of him, we have to ask him to do more and more.
“We as a staff have to work with him to get the best out of him. We will do half of the step and he has to do the other half of the step, for him to be consistent.”
Luka Milivojevic converted a penalty to gloss the score at the death, which proved harsh on Karl Robinson’s organised and talented League One side.
Robinson was left frustrated to see Jean-Philippe Mateta escape punishment from referee Peter Bankes for what he considered a clear elbow on John Mousinho.
“Wait until you see it, he’s swung the arm,” said Robinson.
“Now for me, we’ve been beaten with tremendous grace tonight. You’ve seen in the past when lower-league teams try to rough up Premier League teams.
“But we didn’t do that, we’ve treated them with tremendous respect.
“We’ve not changed our game, we’ve played our way, and showed tremendous competency in our ball manipulation and our rotations.
“And then, for that to be missed, I had a phone call from PGMOL on Monday to apologise for the penalty they missed and the sending off. And I’ll probably get another phone call tomorrow.
“I’m really, really pleased and proud of my players tonight though. What a great night for our football club, from how we played to how we conducted ourselves; that performance was excellent.”
