Out with the old, and in with the new.
There is a new era dawning in South London.
Crystal Palace have enjoyed a productive, efficient and tremendous summer transfer window transforming what was an ageing, rigid and in-balanced squad into arguably one of the most exciting outside the Premier League’s so called ‘top-six’ clubs.
New coach Patrick Vieira has been significantly backed in this window, and now possesses a thrilling group of players at his disposal, filled with youthful exuberance, quality, precision, industry and dynamism, a far cry from the depleted squad Roy Hodgson possessed in the latter years of his reign.
The squad desperately needed a revamp, a refreshed outlook and Vieira has now got what he needs to take the club into the next level.
Roy Hogdson could only take the club as far as he could, year-after-year consummately steering them away from the dreaded state of relegation, and therefore solidifying their positioning as a stable Premier League outfit.
Vieira will now be tasked in leading this new-look Palace side into much more loftier waters, and the players he now holds at his disposal means the expectations to deliver are now higher than ever.
Marc Guehi, Joachim Andersen, Michael Olise, Will Hughes, and Connor Gallagher have all been recruited to provide the club with a much more attractive and pleasing-on-the-eye outfit, one that will certainly excite the Selhurst Park faithful.
Though, arguably the most exciting capture of the lot could certainly be the dramatic transfer deadline day capture of Celtic’s French goal-machine Odsonne Edouard, bought for a fee of around £14.67m.
The 23-year-old became Palace’s seventh signing of the summer in a deal that could potentially rise as high as £18 million via add-ons, depending upon the level of success Edouard enjoys at Selhurst Park.
The whole deal in all fairness plainly reads ‘bargain’.
There is much for Palace fans to be excited about in Crystal Palace’s acquisition of Edouard. The club have for a long while needed a consistent goalscorer, or even a player who exudes goals not just in scoring them but creating them also.
The Paris Saint-Germain academy product’s ability is far from limited to just his goalscoring, but it is his record in finding the back of the net that firstly stands out above all else.
Since his move to Celtic Park from Paris Saint-Germain, his goalscoring record reads at 77 goals in 150 games for the Scottish giants, an astonishing rate.
Every single season, Edouard is guaranteed over 20 goals. 23 during the 2018/19 first domestic treble winning campaign under Brendan Rodgers, 29 in another treble triumph during the 2019/20 season and 22 goals last season while Celtic unfortunately finished trophyless.
Despite a healthy goal-return last season, Edouard did have his difficulties largely as a result of him wanting a move away from Scotland to a much bigger outfit. There is now an opportunity for the striker to kick on in a career where his impressive rise has somewhat faltered.
The promise of a move away from Celtic before the 2020/21 campaign failed to materialise, leaving him unsettled, but he still recorded such impressive numbers scoring 22 goals in 40 appearances in all competitions. He averaged a goal every 99 minutes in the Scottish Premiership last season, a superb return by anyone’s standards.
His underlying stats were excellent, with an average expected goals (xG) of 0.74 per 90 minutes, and 0.21 expected assists (xA) per 90 meaning the Frenchman is an incredibly efficient goalscorer as well as a flamboyant creator. Crystal Palace hugely require both, as evidenced by their only two goals in the opening 3 Premier League games so far.
At times so far this season, Vieira’s attacks have often looked disjointed, or lacking in any real precision and fluidity until Connor Gallagher stepped up to the plate in Wilfried Zaha and Christian Benteke’s influential absence against West Ham. In Edouard, Palace can potentially kill two birds with one stone solving both their goalscoring deficiencies and their imbalance when creating chances.
Edouard is a tremendously elegant and multi-functional player. The Frenchman oozes confidence and quality when he steps on the pitch. Up-front maybe his natural position, but his contributions and influence in attack run deeper. This is a footballer who is very technically gifted, with a deceptively good first touch, terrific close control and a vast range of finishing.
As well as being a ruthless goalscorer, Edouard recorded impressive assist numbers in the SPFL, 21 in his five years at Celtic Park, showcasing his creative spark and abilities in the final third.
Edouard regularly acts as the team’s main creative hub from the front in order to create space and opportunities for his teammates. He loves to drop into the half-space to exchange passes before moving into spaces vacated by the defence. While its so effective and complimentary of Celtic’s attacking play, it is also bamboozling for opposing defenders, they are often left confused as to who to mark.
We all know Crystal Palace need such a player, for too long during Roy Hodgson’s tenure, they’ve heavily relied on the spark and creativity of Wilfried Zaha, often looking lost and hopeless without him. Now under Vieira, Palace possess players who can unlock defences in abundance. Odsonne Edouard is the common denominator, potentially along with Ebere Eze when he returns from injury and Michael Olise too – a trio of creative enforcers who will tantalize the taste buds of Crystal Palace fans.
Edouard’s dribbling abilities emerge from his South American roots. He is rarely exuberant or the showboating type with the ball, but he exhibits an effective use of his control in tight spaces and a technique which few players in the Scottish division can match. It’s abilities such as this, his fantastic movement, and effective link-up play making him such a dangerous outlet within the final third.
Averaging both 0.70 goals per 90 minutes, and 0.15 assists per 90, it’s no wonder why he was the Scottish Premiership’s most deadliest forward.
His goals and assist ratio per 90 last year, read at 0.85. The forward is a creative phenom, performing as Celtic’s driving force spearheading almost every attacking scenario.
Palace have acquired a striker who is more than just a goalscorer. There’s not many strikers in the Premier League currently who can boast at such a wealth of versatile qualities.
It is his movement and positioning which stands out in particular, while the 23-year-old has also demonstrated many of the features required for the role he will likely play under Vieira; excellent at dropping deep, linking up with his fellow forwards, drifting wide and spearheading Vieira’s knack for playing a possession-based game.
That constant movement and mobility will aid Palace’s game considerably, with Edouard just as good in the air as he is with his feet. He is considerably more agile, more flexible and more intelligent than Christian Benteke, whilst also capable of creating openings on his own rather than relying on others to provide for him – as Benteke’s game is based.
Edouard is also highly adaptable too. He has performed admirably and consistently despite the changes in philosophy Celtic underwent in the past few years, from the patient possession-based system under Brendan Rodgers, to the risk-taking approach under former manager Neil Lennon. It is a sign of his suitability to different systems and his versatility also.
He possesses the pass and move intelligence to perform well in a possession-based system and the speed of thought, movement and clinical edge to also thrive in a pressing, and counter-attacking system.
Edouard fits perfectly into the Palace’s refreshing model of recruitment this summer. The risky decision to prioritise youth to reach a degree of sustainability will have been factored heavily in this move. The silky forward will provide plenty of competition for Benteke, but it also means Palace will possess two very different forwards: one who fits Vieira’s mode of playing and the other who will strongly disrupt and dispel opposition forwards to aid his teammates, an effective plan B.
It provides an alternative style of forward player who can be utilised effectively when switching between game-plans during matches. More importantly though, Palace will now no longer just be the defensively resolute and counter-attacking side they were under Roy Hodgson, they will hopefully be more fluid, more expansive and certainly more clinical with the addition of the brilliant Odsonne Edouard.
Lining up alongside Ebere Eze, Michael Olise, Conor Gallagher and Wilfried Zaha will certainly be an absolutey thrilling prospect for Patrick Vieira to unleash, possessing arguably the most exciting of forward lines in the Premier League.
How Crystal Palace could line-up with a fully fit squad to choose from:
If the giant strides Odsonne Edouard enjoyed at Celtic is replicated at Premier League level then the fee, reduced anyway as a result of only having a year left on his contract in Glasgow, then the 23-year-old will prove a yet another superb bargain as Palace continue their impressive transition this summer.
Building such an alternate side takes time, but the capture of a player possessing the abilities of Odsonne Edouard can only compliment Palace’s rebuild even further. What a magnificent summer Crystal Palace have had.
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