On Sunday, Crystal Palace earned a trip to Wembley following a convincing 4-0 win over Everton in the FA Cup Quarter-Final.
The south Londoners were superb, and apart from a shaky opening 15 minutes, the Eagles were rarely threatened by the Toffees at Selhurst Park.
After full-time, Crystal Palace posted photos of their players celebrating in the dressing room, where an interesting tactical detail was revealed.
What’s the story?
Well, as you can see below, Patrick Vieira decided to assign an Everton player to each Crystal Palace player’s spot in the dressing room.
We can clearly see a printout of Seamus Coleman above where Tyrick Mitchell is sitting.
Additionally, there is a photo of Ben Godfrey above what appears to be Marc Guéhi’s seat.
Interestingly, both photos include their height, so we believe this had something to do with man-to-man marking from corners.
Crystal Palace shone against Everton
Clearly, Vieira done his homework before the FA Cup Quarter-Final, and it paid off.
In the early stages of the campaign, we saw flashes of brilliance from this young Crystal Palace side, although signs of poor game management were evident with a number of late goals conceded, as well as corners.
However, against Everton, there was a maturity about the display, which spoke volumes about how much progress the Eagles have made under Vieira.
They rarely looked threatened, and also managed to better Frank Lampard’s side in terms of possession, shots, dribbles, corners and tackles (WhoScored).
If the Frenchman is capable of developing his side this quickly, who knows what Crystal Palace will be capable of next season.
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