Jim Daly, Chloe Petts, Adam Sells and Jesse Boyce discussed all of the latest Crystal Palace news on the most recent edition of the FYP Podcast and they spent some time talking about Luka Milivojevic following his red card in the Eagles’ loss to Wolverhampton Wanderers last Friday during the show.
Milivojevic received a red card in the 86th minute of the game, with the south London club trailing by two goals at the time and while the Eagles appealed the player’s suspension, with Roy Hodgson having declared that a three-game ban “would be a gross injustice” it has since been confirmed that the 29-year-old midfielder’s suspension ‘has been upheld by the FA.’
When asked who should step into Palace’s midfield in place of the Serbian for the south London club’s next three games during this recent edition of the FYP Podcast, Petts shared that she doesn’t “really mind” and suggested that she is just happy it won’t be £14.4m-rated Milivojevic in the midfield, saying:
“I don’t really mind, if I’m honest, I just think not Luka, because he slows the game down so much. He’s got some decent qualities – his direct free-kicks are good, but his corners aren’t all that.”
TIF Thoughts on what Petts had to say about Milivojevic…
It’s clear that Petts doesn’t think Milivojevic will be a major loss for the Eagles over the next few games and maybe she has a point, given that the Palace captain’s overall WhoScored rating (6.20) for the 2020/21 campaign also suggests that he has not enjoyed a great start to the season, with Milivojevic currently ranked as the club’s fourth-lowest rated player in the league this term.
Milivojevic started pre-season slower than many of his teammates and perhaps this explains why he has started just two of Palace’s league games so far this term and maybe this has played a part in him enduring the relatively poor start to the season that his WhoScored rating would suggest.
Will Milivojevic be a big miss for Palace?
YES
NO
However, perhaps the podcaster overlooked some of the positives to his game in what she had to say, as you could argue that Milivojevic is a great ball-progressor, given he has played the sixth-highest number of progressive passes (12) and the third-highest number of passes to the final third (15) of any Eagles player this season, as per FBref, despite only starting two league games.
The stats website also shows that Milivojevic has completed the third-highest number of passes (138) and maintained the fourth-highest pass completion percentage (85.2%) of any Palace player in the league this term, so maybe this highlights what he brings to the table for his side and perhaps Hodgson values this part of his game highly, given that he indicated that the Serbian’s suspension would be a tough pill to swallow.