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This article is part of Football FanCast’s Pundit View series, which provides opinion and analysis on recent quotes from journalists, pundits, players and managers…
In his Premier League predictions for this weekend’s round of fixtures, BBC pundit Mark Lawrenson had some interesting words to say on Crystal Palace when previewing the Eagles’ game against Manchester United.
Roy Hodgson’s side have started the season slowly, recording just a single point from games against Everton and Sheffield United whilst failing to score a goal in either match.
Their next game against the Red Devils presumably won’t be what the south Londoners were hoping for after suffering defeat to the Blades, seeing as United have already run riot over Chelsea this season.
What did he say?
Lawrenson said: “Roy Hodgson’s team are in danger of becoming known as ‘Crystal Palace nil’. It is a real worry for them – where are their goals going to come from? Until the January transfer window comes round, I think they will really struggle.”
Extremely hard to disagree
The Eagles are pretty toothless up top and it is becoming increasingly confusing as to why they didn’t sign a new striker in the summer window.
Their current options – Christian Benteke, Jordan Ayew and Connor Wickham – netted just one, one and zero goals respectively in the Premier League last season, whilst Alexander Sorloth also failed to score in the league and has since been loaned out to Trabzonspor.
The trio’s terrible goalscoring form shouldn’t come as a shock to Palace – even the season before last, they amassed just 10 league goals between each other.
That’s 12 goals in total, across two entire league campaigns, for three different professional strikers – to put it lightly, that isn’t good enough for a Premier League side.
With a real defensive gem in Aaron Wan-Bissaka now also missing, more goals may go in at the other end which further increases the need for Palace to net some themselves, but that doesn’t look like happening anytime soon.
It’s extremely hard to disagree with Lawrenson’s comments and it’s looking like a tough season for Palace.
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