Crystal Palace manager Roy Hodgson has admitted that he has been left ‘amazed’ by the maturity and quality of promising defender Aaron Wan-Bissaka.
The 20-year-old has stepped up remarkably well as Hodgson contends with an injury crisis with his defensive options at Selhurst Park. Since making his senior debut with the team against Tottenham at the end of February, Wan-Bissaka has enjoyed an involved role in the squad.
Wan-Bissaka was particularly impressive in Palace’s heartbreaking home defeat against Manchester United.
Speaking after the Eagles’ 2-0 win at Huddersfield at the weekend, Hodgson was quick to praise the Congolese defender.
To come in like he did against Tottenham and then Manchester United and Chelsea and now Huddersfield, that’s four really, really tough games.
I’m amazed really at how well he’s handled it because for long periods he was down with the Under-23s and just made sporadic appearances with the first-team squad.
It was about two months ago now where I said ‘I’d like you training with us more regularly.
Palace will be relying on the likes of Wan-Bissaka to step up and continue to perform well, with the club still firmly placed in the mix for the relegation battle.
Hodgson will be hoping to have more members of his squad available to him for the run-in towards the end of the season. However, as he has alluded to, he clearly trusts players like Wan-Bissaka to perform when called upon.
We’ve had Joel Ward now injured for three or four months – he at the start of the season was the right-back – and then of course Timothy Fosu-Mensah who couldn’t play against Manchester United anyway so it’s these type of things that made me lift Aaron up a bit earlier than I would otherwise normally have done, but I’m glad I have done because he’s handled it.
