Why Liverpool’s Dominic Solanke could be the man to save Crystal Palace’s season
Crystal Palace have looked a little bit short of firepower up front. It’s becoming clearer every day that Zaha can’t do everything for them. Currently holding onto 14th place with only 18 points to their name, this is not that start to the season that the palace faithful were hoping for.
Crystal Palace have 4 recognised strikers in their squad but not one of them has succeeded in finding the back of the net this season. Conor Wickham is yet to feature from the start this term. Christian Benteke picked yet another knock and has only played 4 matches for them this season.
Young Norwegian striker Alexander Sorloth has yet to make a real impression this season. The most productive of their strikers is Jordan Ayew, who has one assist to his name in 11 appearances.
Roy Hodgson has had to make drastic changes to the way his team is playing to actually be able to grind out the results they felt they deserve. This meant new positions for some players and no place in the line-up for some Palace regulars.
Over the course of the season, Wilfried Zaha and Andros Townsend have occupied the central striker role between the both of them. With 6 goals between them, they have together been Palace’s biggest threat going forward.
It’s quite obvious that Palace would benefit greatly from the signing of a goal-scoring striker as they’ve only managed to score a total of 17 goals in the premier league so far, which is bad. According to reports from Evening Standard, the Eagles want Dominic Solanke of Liverpool.
Yet to feature for Liverpool this season, he best displayed his talent at the FIFA U20 World Cup which took place in 2017. He was the recipient of the golden ball award for his performances throughout and was also England’s top scorer in that tournament with 4 goals to his name.
Standing at over 6 feet, he could be the ideal Roy Hodgson striker as he has both pace and technical ability. Capable of holding up the play very well, he is also a threat in the air in the opposition box.
He tends to link up well the wingers and always looks to get on the end of crosses. Built quite well, he uses his strength to try and bully defenders off the ball. He would be a top signing for any premier league team struggling to find goals.
While he loves to score goals, he is extremely unselfish and if played alongside talented players like Townsend, Zaha and Luka Milivojevic, he could start banging goals in game after game.