Crystal Palace Debut: Eze Praises Zaha

Crystal Palace Debut: Eze Praises Zaha

By Admin

New Crystal Palace signing Eberechi Eze hailed the quality of Wilfried Zaha after playing alongside the Ivorian forward in the Eagles 3-0 win over Charlton Athletic in a pre-season friendly.

The 22-year-old Anglo-Nigerian moved a short mile from Queens Park Rangers in a five-year deal worth a reported 20 million on Friday.

He was thrust into the starting XI on Saturday afternoon, playing alongside Zaha and Ghana international Jordan Ayew, the duo getting the goals while Eze was taken off in the second half for Jeffrey Schlupp.

Eze enjoyed his first outing in a Palace shirt but was most appreciative of Zaha.

“It was good,” he said on the club website after the game. “[I] enjoyed it. Linking with the attacking players was fun, it was good for me to get my fitness up and its just been a good performance.

“[Wilfried Zaha is] an amazing player. Its good to play with guys like him and guys of his quality, because they see things others dont see and it makes life a lot easier for yourself.”

Eze asserted that his fitness is in shape having already started doing that with QPR and he is fully aware of what manager Roy Hodgsons demands are.

“[Fitness] is good. Ive obviously been training with QPR, doing a bit. But games like this are what I need to top me up, he continued.

“I know that [roaming] is what the manager wants me to do, he wants me to link-up and feel free to go where I want to go and where I feel comfortable – which is obviously inside. But it gives me a license to be free, which is good.”

Hodgson praised Ezes performance as excellent and a promising debut, saying he hardly did any wrong in the 45 minutes he played.

“He was excellent in the first half. It was as if hes been with us longer than one day and one days training, Hodgson said.

His understanding of the position was very good…It was a very promising debut for the team. I dont think he did very much wrong at all and, like the other forwards, he got in for plenty of goal chances and shots at goal. Were looking forward to working with him.”