Crystal Palace are now facing a game without striker Dwight Gayle due to a suspension from last weekend’s outing against West Ham after a silly tackle on Cheikhou Kouyate.
This has created an issue for Alan Pardew’s side, with his preferred hitman forced to the sidelines, he is left with a choice between summer signing Connor Wickham, or Chelsea loanee Patrick Bamford.
So far this season no striker has found a goal for Palace in the Premier League, Yohan Cabaye the top scorer with four goals and three of those coming in the last few weeks from the penalty spot. In fact, the only goals scored by a out-and-out striker from Palace was Gayle’s in a League Cup game, recording a match winning double against Charlton Athletic in the Third Round tie.
The question has to be asked as to whether or not they should have spent some more money on recruiting a higher quality striker than Wickham, who was slightly underwhelming in the games that he played before getting injured. Granted that they did make one of the best pieces of business in getting Cabaye to the club for a record fee, but given that they are now short of scoring targets, it does highlight the issue of spending so much to sign one player. They also sold 32-year-old Glenn Murray to Bournemouth at the end of the transfer, window has scored twice in two appearances for his new club.
The most likely reason for the selling of Murray would have been because he did not fit the style of play which is based around quick ball movement and counter-attacking football. Nor does he possess the speed necessary to get into the team. The same could be said about Wickham, with the forward being built in a more physical way to take the contest to the central-defenders, rather than trying to get around them with speed. This could help the team if they were able to play a supporting role in terms of holding the ball up and spreading it out wide to the quicker wingers and then re-joining the attack to be winning the physical contests in the box.
The loan signing of Bamford has also been disappointing as he has yet to make any sort of meaningful impact on the Palace team, having made one start in the League Cup and only seeing about 16 minutes in the Premier League through two appearances of the bench.
The concerning thing has been that Pardew often chooses to play wingers such as Yannick Bolasie or Bakary Sako in the striker position, while players like Bamford who are actual strikers just sit on the bench. Which begs the question – why sign a recognised striker when you will not use them? Given that Palace have only scored 12 goals so far this season, this is something they should be looking to rectify in the January transfer window.
On the other hand, their opposition for the weekend, Leicester City, have had no striker scoring issues at all this season. Jamie Vardy has been showing his value to the team in hitting 9 goals in as many games, also assisting one more. Another shining light so far this year for the Foxes has been Riyad Mahre, who is having his best season under Claudio Ranieri, already eclipsing his goals and assists for the previous season from seven games played.
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This campaign so far Leicester have scored seven more goals from the same amount of games, however, have conceded 17 goals compared to Palace’s 10. This is the one area where the Eagles do have cover if someone was to get injure, since Damien Delaney went down before the September international break, Brede Hangeland has come into the side and really asserted himself well. When Delaney is back full fit it will give Pardew a difficult decision to make and with the Irishman on the bench last game, it could be a factor for the clash against Leicester City at King Power Stadium on Saturday.
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