Journalist Dean Jones has claimed that Crystal Palace are content with Jean-Philippe Mateta and they believe that he can be the main man going forward.
Jean-Philippe Mateta has featured just 14 times and scored three goals in the Premier League for Palace this season, and signed a permanent deal with the club in January after being on loan for a full year from FSV Mainz, according to Transfermarkt.
Palace have a pool of forwards to choose from, including Cristian Benteke, Odsonne Edouard, Jordan Ayew, and even Wilfred Zaha has played up front, so the loan striker position has been somewhat shared this season. But Mateta has been the man up top in recent times and has two goals in his last three games.
Interestingly, it’s been reported that Crystal Palace are interested in signing Andre Silva.
With Patrick Vieira signing the French forward on a permanent deal in January, Dean Jones spoke to GIVEMESPORT and confirmed that Palace will look to use him as the “main man” in the future.
“Palace are being linked with new strikers like Andre Silva, but from what I’m told, the vision is that Mateta becomes the main man in that attack rather than signing a new big-name. They still have hope and belief that he can be the answer Vieira is looking for as that forward,” Jones said.
TIF Thoughts on Dean Jones’s comments…
Jean-Philippe Mateta signed a permanent deal for Palace in January for a fee of £9.90 million and has had a mixed bag in terms of stats this campaign for the Eagles. In the FA Cup, he has featured four times and has two goals, but in the Premier League, he has just three goals in 14 appearances.
In the league, Mateta averages just 1.2 shots per game, with an average of 0.7 of those being on target. He also loses the ball on average 5.1 times every 47 minutes. But Jones has still claimed that although Palace are linked with other strikers, they are content with their French forward.