"Chris [Richards] has been really unlucky with injuries, because that has definitely stopped his progress,” Vieira said of the American defender. “But he had a really solid game against [Manchester] United and he showed his strength in the one-v-ones and inside the box. He can help the team to be more competitive.
“You see, I am not surprised about [Will Hughes’] performance. Last year, when he had this run of games, he played well. He just has to keep working well in training, which he has been doing, and of course his performances will make it difficult for me to make the decisions.
"[Joachim Andersen] is not going to be involved in the game tomorrow, it will be a couple of weeks. We just have to wait for him to come back.
"Nathan [Ferguson] started training with the team. For Macca [James McArthur] it will be next week where he can get a little bit more involved. For both players we are still a couple of weeks away to think about them getting involved"
Vieira welcomes a Newcastle side full of confidence at the weekend, and says it is not a stretch of the imagination to consider them as title challengers this season.
“It will be a really good challenge,” he said. “I strongly believe that with the way they perform there is no reason why they can’t believe in themselves to be part of the teams who have a chance [of winning the league].
“This is a team who play with a lot of intensity. This is a team who are physically really strong. It will be important for us to match that level of competitiveness. We played there twice, it was challenging but we managed not to concede goals and to play some good football at times.
“It will be important to focus on ourselves and try to score goals. It will be difficult because of how good they are defensively, but we create enough chances to score goals.
“It is a team that believes in themselves and in the way they want to play the game. It is clear that [they know] their roles and responsibilities on the field. They are having a good run, they are in a good period, and it will be an exciting challenge for ourselves.”
The manager hopes that the last-minute equaliser against Manchester United can provide the confidence to keep improving, as he searches for more consistent results.
“It was important for us to get something from that game, but to get something the performance will dictate it,” Vieira said. “Against United, we defended well as a team. When you look at our front players, they worked hard.
“Our back four, our holding midfielders, we played a really good game of football together. That allowed us to get what we deserved at the end with the free-kick of Michael [Olise]. The performances will, the majority of times, dictate the result and against Newcastle it won’t be different, so we have to give a good performance because of the quality of the team.
“We want to score more goals and create more chances. It’s also about how we manage our possession. There are times when we can release the ball quicker, make better decisions.
“In the United game we managed to win a lot of second balls, but we lost it straight away after. It’s about how you keep that possession to create chances. The quality is there.
“It’s important for us to be more ruthless in front of goal and put the ball in the back of the net.”