Patrick Vieira said 17-year-old Academy player Kaden Rodney did well on his Crystal Palace debut against Oxford United despite being played out of position.
Rodney, typically a right-back, was fielded on the left of defence in the 0-2 win, helping Palace keep a clean sheet and looking confident for his first competitive minutes.
He was one of three debutants in the U’s clash, with Sam Johnstone and Killian Phillips also named for the first time.
Asked post-match how he felt they fared, Vieira said: “I have to say I’m really pleased and think Kaden and Killian did really well. Kaden is normally a right-back and today played as a left-back. It’s not his best position but he was really composed, went forward at times and I think tactically he was really good. He is really young but showed something really interesting for us.
“In the first-half we were not into it and needed Sam to make that save in an important moment of the game. that allowed us at half-time to go in at 0-0.”
The manager made nine changes overall from Palace’s 3-1 win over Villa, and sent five substitutes onto the pitch in the second-half.
Explaining his team selection, he said: “We are at the beginning of the season and the players on the field today show me every day that they want to play, they want to start. So today was a good chance for them to show me they want to play every week.
“They did it really well and that will bring more competition and make it more difficult for me to choose the starting XI. That’s what we want – everybody feels really concerned [invested] in what we want to do. We want to take those games and try to go as far as we can.”
Assessing the match as a whole, Vieira added: “It was a challenging game. I think in football if you don’t have the right mentality the opposition can make it really difficult. We were a little bit sloppy in the first-half but we came back in the second-half with better attention and managed to score those two goals. It’s good for us to go to the next round.”
