Eze is the star player in this Palace team, especially with Michael Olise departing for Bayern Munich in the summer.
Should play as a left-sided number 10 if Palace continue with their 3-4-2-1 formation.
Primary set piece taker and penalty taker makes him a fantastic midfielder asset.
His xGA (i.e. expected goals + expected assists) last year was 0.69 – that’s very respectable, and he’s historically overperforming his xG by ~25% which is the sign of a good finisher.
For context, the xGA for similarly priced players at £7.5m is 0.61 for Anthony Gordon, 0.65 for Luis Diaz, 0.59 for Bowen. For the £7m players it’s 0.66 for Mbuemo ((historically underperforms his xG by 25%), 0.55 for Martinelli and 0.72 for Bailey (highly skewed towards assists 0.28xG + 0.44 xA).
Add in that he is on penalties, so you expect a degree of consistency to his returns, he improved towards the end of last season, looked sharp in the Euros, and Palace’s fixtures at the start of the season are decent.
Jordan Ayew (£5.5m)/ Daichi Kamada (£5.5m)
One of these players will occupy the right-sided number 10 role, with Kamada having the advantage here due to his technical ability on the ball.
Kamada has also worked with Glasner before at Eintracht Frankfurt, meaning he’s already familiar with the tactical requirements of the manager’s setup.
However, should Kamada happen to play alongside Wharton/Doucoure in central midfield, we could see Ayew benched, with Eze and Mateta playing as the two front men in a 3-5-2 setup.
Ismaila Sarr
New signing who will rotate with Ayew in the RW spot.
Adam Wharton (£5m) / Cheick Doucouré (£5m)
Both players will occupy the holding midfield positions.
Unlikely to be serious goal threats due to their defensive responsibilities.
