Roy Hodgson has likened winger Wilfried Zaha to Lionel Messi prior to Palace’s relegation battle against Huddersfield Town tomorrow afternoon. Zaha is set for a return to the starting 11 after an appearance off the bench in the loss to Chelsea last weekend.
Prior to the game at Stamford Bridge, Zaha had been out since the beginning of February, which has seemingly affected the team drastically as palace have not picked up a single point all campaign without Zaha in their side. Palace in fact, have failed to win premier League game without Zaha since September 2016.
Hodgson spoke to The Mirror about Zaha’s impact on a game and on the team and compared this to the impact Lionel Messi makes at Barcelona.
He has the exceptional ability to run with the ball and beat people. Those type of players are very important as we saw in the Chelsea-Barcelona game and Lionel Messi.
Palace also welcome back 3 major players for the visit to Huddersfield; Reuben Loftus-Cheek, Mamadou Sakho and Yohan Cabaye are also available again. The trio haven’t played together since the 2-2 home draw against Bournemouth on December 9th.
Hodgson’s side can potentially move out of the relegation places with a victory tomorrow. The win would be the first since January 13th for Palace and put them in good spirits ahead of the huge fixture against Liverpool at Selhurst Park after the international break.
