Hodgson’s difficulty as Crystal Palace front man isn’t hitting the mark ahead of relegation battle

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With the business end of the Premier League campaign fast approaching, Roy Hodgson needs everyone playing to their maximum if he wants to keep Crystal Palace from falling through the trap door and into the English Championship.

The size of the task that the 75-year-old has ahead of him is immense.

According to WhoScored, the south Londoners haven’t yet won a game in 2023, and though they might appear to be sitting pretty in 12th position, they’re actually just four points ahead of bottom club, Southampton.

In their final 10 fixtures, they do have to play the Saints, and five other teams that currently sit below them in the Premier League table: Nottingham Forest, Leeds United, West Ham United, Bournemouth, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Everton.

To that end, their Premier League fate is very much still in their own hands despite a terrible run of results.

They will of course need every player to play their part, but one journalist believes that front man, Odsonne Edouard, hasn’t really been anything like the player that the Eagles would’ve hoped for.

“I’ve been really disappointed in Edouard because he had a good goalscoring record in Scotland with Celtic, but he just hasn’t been up to scratch,” Daily Express scribe, Ryan Taylor, said to GiveMeSport.

“That was evident in their trip to Arsenal when he missed a great chance at 0-0, which typifies their struggles in front of goal.”

Across the 2022/23 campaign, Edouard has just three goals in the English top-flight and five in total, per WhoScored, which isn’t anywhere close to being good enough for a striker.

If he’s going to come good, then there’s no better time to do so than over the next 10 games. Do that, and Palace might just be looking forward to another Premier League campaign next season.

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