‘He’s been Palace’s go-to guy for so long’ – England coach Chris Powell a big admirer of Wilfried Zaha
England coach Chris Powell has showered praise on Crystal Palace’s Wilfried Zaha ahead of tomorrow night’s friendly against the Ivory Coast at Wembley.
Marc Guehi and Tyrick Mitchell were both handed their senior debuts by England manager Gareth Southgate in Saturday’s victory over Switzerland, the former starting.
Chelsea loanee Conor Gallagher, on a season-long stay with the Eagles, also started at the weekend.
Zaha has scored 10 goals for Palace this season in 27 appearances and was excellent in their 4-0 drubbing of Everton in the FA Cup quarter final.
He was capped twice by England at senior level as well as making appearances for their U21 and U19 sides. But he went on to pledge his international allegiance to the Ivory Coast, winning 21 caps since his debut for them in January 2017.
“Wilf Zaha has shown what a top quality Premier League player he has been for a number of years and how important he is to Palace,” Powell, who started his professional playing career on the Eagles’ books, told the South London Press. “He has been their mainstay and go-to guy for a very long time.
“That is slightly changing now with the emergence of [Michael] Olise and the return of [Eberechi]Eze. You add in Guehi and [Joachim] Andersen and they look a really good, well-balanced team.
“There is obviously history with Wilf. He played for England at senior level and also the younger age groups but chose to make a change for, I suppose, family heritage reasons – which is fine.
“It would be interesting if all those guys were on the pitch together, Wilf, Marc, Tyrick and Conor, who is on loan. That would be a wonderful dynamic for all the Palace players and the fans.”
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