The Palace manager confirmed earlier in his pre-match press conference that Wilfried Zaha would be involved at Villa Park following his recovery from an injury sustained against Newcastle United in January.
Reflecting on his team’s form without their No.11, Vieira said: “It’s always about how you look at it. We only lost once, but we didn’t win any games, so outside of those numbers, it’s about the performances of the team in and out of possession.
“I think players grow and take responsibility as well. Looking at Michael Olise, the way he’s been playing recently, he’s shown more maturity in his game, and as a manager, what I want is to have all the best players on the field and all the best players available to play.
“Of course, not having Wilfried was a miss for us, but on the other side I had some players who took responsibility, and I want the other players to take the same kind of responsibility even when Wilfried is here.
“Yes, he’s an important player for us, but it’s not just about him – it’s about how we can perform as a team, and of course if we perform well, Wilfried with his quality will score those goals, so I count on him as much as I count on all the players around him.
“I think at every club you have players who are quite important. If you’re talking about Manchester City, Kevin De Bruyne is important to the way they want to play. Wilfried is important for us as a player.
“He has experience, he can score goals, he is a leader of the group, but at the same time you need those players around [him] with the quality that we have to perform at the level we know that they can do, and they need to do it week after week. I expect more from some players in the squad to perform at a better level.
“It’s good to have everybody back from injuries, and of course it makes it really tough for me to choose the squad and the starting eleven.
“As a football club we have four good centre-backs, and when you look at Tonks [James Tomkins] or Chris [Richards], every time that they played, they did really well for the team, and this is what I want as a manager: to have those kinds of options. That will raise the competitiveness in training and that will be the best for the team.”
