da mrbet：
da bwin： Just by reading the title alone you may have chuckled to yourself and thought “what a load of nonsense”, but there is definitely evidence to suggest that Crystal Palace’s star man Wilfried Zaha is nowhere near as effective when he isn’t playing alongside a target man.
The evidence
Of course, the Ivory Coast international is a fantastic player. One who can win games on his own for the Eagles at times. However, when he is upfront on his own, or alongside Andros Townsend, he hardly sees the ball as compared to when he is playing alongside Christian Benteke or Connor Wickham – or sees it in the areas that he would like to, at least.
The stats are as follows. In the first three games of this season, when the 26-year-old started alongside Benteke, he hit two goals and was picking the ball up in advanced areas thanks to the Belgian’s aerial ability and hold-up play.
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In the games since Benteke’s injury, which he is yet to recover from, Zaha has scored just one goal in 14 Premier League games, which simply isn’t good enough for a player of his ability.
Even when Wickham made his long-awaited comeback at Selhurst Park from an injury that has kept him out for over two years in the game against Cardiff on Boxing Day, the former Manchester United winger looked far more dangerous and even found himself in a one-on-one position thanks to the 25-year-old’s physicality and clever knock-down.
Time will tell
Now that Wickham is fit again and ready to be involved once more, and Benteke is almost back with the squad as well, Zaha has no excuses if he has a poor second half to the season.
Palace are expected to sign a striker in the January transfer window as well which will allow Zaha, who has been playing as a makeshift centre-forward, to return to his favoured position on the wing.
However, if he is to become a truly world-class forward, he must learn how to play without depending on a more physical presence to get him into the game.