‘Better and better’ – Palace boss hails ex-Celtic forward after brace in Wolves victory

Crystal Palace boss Roy Hodgson has been asked how he is getting the best out of Odsonne Edouard after the French forward bagged a brace in their 3-2 win over Wolves on Sunday.

The 25-year-old opened the scoring for the Eagles against Gary O’Neil’s side when he got onto the end of Tyrick Mitchell’s cross and converted past Jose Sa.

He doubled his tally later in the second half when he linked up well with Jean Philippe Mateta and struck a low drive into the bottom left-hand corner.

Edouard has scored three goals in Palace’s first four Premier League games.

The Eagles paid £14million to secure the forward on a four-year deal from Celtic in 2021.

“He came in from Celtic, where he was unbelievably highly regarded,” said Hodgson.

“I don’t know how many goals he scored, probably too many for me to count.

“He was a big, big star at Celtic, in a team which was a star team in the league, Champions League and Europa League – we had to pay a lot of money for him.

“When I came back to the club, he perhaps hadn’t established himself as the main man as much as he would have liked as a centre forward.

“He got that position when we came in, and quite simply, he has become better and better when knowing how we want to play and how the players around him want to play.

“He hasn’t lost the technique, talent or the skill – all the things that made him a star at Celtic.

“I spoke to Brendan Rodgers not so long ago and he was glowing in his praise.”

PICTURE: KEITH GILLARD