Crystal Palace midfielder Chung-Yong Lee has let rip against manager Alan Pardew when speaking to Sport Seoul, a publication from his home country.
Lee has only played 16 games for the Eagles this season and scored twice in all competitions. He vented his frustration at Pardew’s tactics regarding his team selection.
Pardew runs the team with very short-term vision. We have a great squad but he plays the same players again and again until someone gets injured. Then his replacement cannot play well because he is playing for the first time in two months. I think that’s why we have not done well in the latter half of season.
The South-Korean also claimed that Pardew forgot how many substitutions he had made in a recent fixture and said that he had to remind him that he had used all three.
He told me to warm up, then we used all three substitutes, so I sat on the bench again. Five minutes later, he told me to warm up again so I told him there were no substitutes left. He just said: ‘Oh, sorry’.
The 27-year-old also expressed his anger about how Pardew had him training hard all week only to be left out of the matchday squad.
Pardew also made me train as a starter for the whole week and decided to leave me out on matchday as an injured player who had not trained all week recovered and felt okay on the day. That was absurd.
Lee spoke about how he was convinced to join Palace by Pardew after his expressed his long-term interest in him, however admitted he has struggled to regain his place in the team after his injury.
Pardew said he had wanted to sign me at Newcastle as well. It seemed that he really wanted to sign me so I decided to join Crystal Palace. But I got injured in January and returned in April. During that time, Crystal Palace did really well with Jason Puncheon, Yannick Bolasie and Wilfried Zaha. So my place was gone.
Crystal Palace currently sit 16th in the Barclays Premier League, eight points clear of 18th-placed Norwich. Their next fixture is a clash at St. James’ Park with relegation-threatened Newcastle United.
