Football Season Guide

The way veteran manager Roy Hodgson steadied Palace’s seemingly doomed ship last season and steered it to safety impressed everyone, with the Eagles hoping to carry over the momentum they generated in spring into the new campaign. Happy with the effort put in by his players Hodgson has made just one new signing so far, Guaita will be battling it out with Hennessey for the right to start between the posts, but more importantly for Palace the team’s big star Zaha is so far refusing offers from abroad and seems happy to stay for one more year at the club. Zaha is a key figure in the 4-2-3-1 formation, with the other seemingly indispensable player being the holding midfielder Milivojevic. The Serbian provides great support to the back four, but he also scores lots of goals from direct free-kicks and is a very good deliverer of corners and other set pieces. This pre-season Schlupp has been used a lot as a wide left winger, he is a full-back by trade, which could be his new role if Zaha continues to play in the number ten role, or as a false nine, and Townsend on the right flank. Hodgson hopes that his pivotal centre-back Sakho will enjoy his first injury-free campaign in four years, plus striker Benteke is eager to put the difficult last campaign behind him and the Belgian is potentially someone that could score crucial goals for Palace. Wickham missed the entire last season through injury, while Sorloth joined only in January, but this term both of them should be providing healthy competition for Benteke up front. The deadline signing of Ayew gives Palace another alternative for the number nine role. The Eagles seem to have a very solid starting XI, but the depth of the squad is not very good and several players are indispensable. Zaha is one of them. Palace needed to strengthen more in midfield and Hodgson did that with the signings of Kouyate, expected to be great support for Milivojevic in the double-six role, and playmaker Meyer, who might need time to settle to life in England, but eventually expected to be the go-to-man in midfield.