Sky Sports presenter Joe Thomlinson has claimed on the Football Daily YouTube channel that Eberechi Eze can step up at Crystal Palace and replace Conor Gallagher.
Crystal Palace have hugely benefited from their London counterparts Chelsea this season having taken Marc Guehi as well as Conor Gallagher on loan, but despite the latter’s move only being temporary, having established himself as a member of the England squad this campaign, it looks to be a superb piece of business.
Can Eze replace Gallagher?
Yes!
No!
Gallagher currently has eight goals and three assists this season under Patrick Vieira and has certainly improved a lot from his spell at relegated West Brom last campaign, but while it’s great what he’s done right now, the Eagles will know they’ll have to prepare for life without him next season when he returns to Chelsea.
This is when Thomlinson believes that Eberechi Eze, who’s only started one league game this season, can step up and fill the void.
He said: “I can see Eberechi Eze kind of just filling naturally into that Conor Gallagher role. I’m not sure that they need to do quite as much work to replace Conor Gallagher as people have been making out.
“Eberechi Eze has not played an awful lot of minutes this season, it’s looked a bit of an awkward fit when, is he playing on the left and Zaha’s through the middle or where does everyone fit when Edouard’s in?
“I think that it works and makes natural sense to have Zaha left, Olise right, Eze in the 10 space and Mateta or Edouard, whoever, up top.”
TIF Thoughts on Eze…
The young Englishman has become a bit forgotten at Selhurst Park, which is through no fault of his own as he picked up a serious injury last season, while the performances of Gallagher and Michael Olise have seen him struggle to establish himself under Vieira.
This has seen him linked with a big-money move to Newcastle United this summer, however, with Gallagher set to leave, it would not make a lot of sense for Vieira to sanction such a sale, especially when just last season, Eze recorded four goals and six assists and created the most goal-creating actions per 90 minutes in the team (FBRef), so he just clearly needs a run of games to rediscover his best form.
In other news: Dan Cook claims Crystal Palace may have ‘fantastic’ Gallagher replacement