Dutch midfielder Jairo Riedewald has challenged Crystal Palace to demonstrate better confidence in possession following a late draw with principal rivals Brighton.
The Eagles failed to create a shot from open play throughout the entirety of the match, with their goal coming from Wilfried Zaha’s 19th-minute penalty after Tariq Lamptey was adjudged to have pulled Michy Batshuayi down in the Brighton box.
Riedewald, a 2017 signing in the short-lived Frank de Boer period, made his first Premier League start since a 3-0 defeat to Leicester in the 2019/20 season. He came in ahead of captain Luka Milivojevic to replace the injured James McCarthy, who sustained his injury on international duty.
Hodgson’s faith in the 23-year-old was seemingly justified. Riedewald produced an impressive dynamic midfield display. A pass success rate of 95.8 per cent was the highest of any player to feature in the draw, whilst Riedewald managed 4 clearances and won 4 ground duels as per SofaScore. He consistently demonstrated his composure, vision, and presence on the pitch both defensively and in transition with the ball.
Roy Hodgson has previously labelled Riedewald as a ‘superb professional’ after seeing limited windows of opportunity to rack up minutes on the pitch.
However, Riedewald also believes Palace need to be more progressive in their build-up play. He told Standard Sport:
“I think when we had the ball we had a few opportunities to play a bit more, to take the extra pass in the midfield or with strikers, to keep the ball for a bit longer and we didn’t take that opportunity to keep the ball in possession and hold the ball for a little bit more.
“We just chose the long ball, especially in the second half we played long balls a bit more and the pitch is going to be big, take that space to play in. They did that very well.
“It depends with every game. In this game, with a little bit more confidence and composure on the ball they have to run after the ball as well so they lose energy.
“I think when we had the ball we had a few opportunities to keep the ball on the ground and play football but we didn’t do it, they got the ball again and came again very strong with five, six attackers.
“We defended very well and they just scored in the last five or six minutes which is always tough to take.”
The typically peripheral player was unfortunate not to cap his performance with a fine assist after Michy Batshuayi had a goal chalked off for a marginal offside decision.
Read Crystal Palace Verdict
Jairo is beyond justified in coming out and lightly critiquing a lack of offensive ambition.
Although Palace were unlucky not to have scored a second goal, both the possession and shooting stats are demonstrative of a lack of creativity.
Palace should equally be proud that they managed some superb defensive play, reducing Brighton to only three of their shots firing on target. However, Palace will need to capitalise on offensive breaks soon if they are to rectify the attacking woes seen on Sunday.
