How have Crystal Palace been coping without jetsetting duo Yannick Bolasie and Mile Jedinak asks debut writer Karl Eldridge.
The simple answer is surprisingly well.
Everyone feared the worst when Bolasie and Jedinak left to join their international team mates overseas to compete in the African Cup of Nations and the Asia Cup respectively, however, Palace have found their form in recent weeks without them. Why is that?
It started with the sacking of Neil Warnock and the swift appointment of Palace legend Alan Pardew. He was very quick to adjust tactics and that showed in the first game against Tottenham Hotspur. That is not the complete story.
Without Jedinak and Bolasie in the team, everyone assumed we were in for a rough time against some tough opposition, and you cannot blame them. Just 44% of Palace goals this year have come from the two of them.
Let us start with the role Mile Jedinak plays for us. The defensive midfield marvel has been ever present in the Palace line up for some time and it is well and truly deserved. There is no wonder the statistical website Who Scored have rated the Aussie in the top five midfielders in the world at the moment.
He has been in impeccable form scoring five goals and assisting with two others, 28% of our total goal contribution. That is not the only thing he brings to the field, he is also a great reader of the game and is not afraid of doing the dirty stuff and getting involved when it matters.
It is the reason why we all thought we were doomed ahead of this latest run of fixtures without our captain but we were wrong. Step up Joe Ledley.
Take a look at Jedinak’s heat map against QPR on WhoScored.com.
Jedinak was very disciplined and stayed in the middle for the vast majority of the game. Although he was playing in the middle of a three man midfield his primary role was to sit back and start a quick counter attack.
Compare that with Ledley from the Spurs game. He was key in the win against Spurs and you can see that from the heat map. He played the Jedinak role perfectly and very rarely passed the half way line, except to win the penalty of course. This also shows in the next fixture against Burnley as well.
This heat map does not show the whole picture. In fact, we started off playing a 4-4-2 and then moved to a 4-5-1 after that abysmal first twenty minutes. It still shows how we have asked Ledley to play that Jedinak role and sit back and start the counter attack. The same can be said for the game against Southampton. The Welshman has shown how much quality he has in the last few games and that we can rely on him to fill that defensive midfield role.
There is only one reason Ledley will have to give way to Jedinak when he comes back regardless of how well he has played and that is simple. Jedinak is one of the best midfielders Palace have ever had.
Mile Jedinak season statistics from Who Scored.
- 18 Premier League appearances
- 1617 minutes of Premier League action
- 5 goals
- 2 assists
- 3 yellow
- 1 red
- 1.3 shots per game
- 67.5% pass success rate
- 4.6 aerial duels won per game
- 2 man of the match awards
- 7.64 average rating
As I mentioned, there is a reason why he is currently the fifth best midfielder in the world.
Now let us take a look at Yannick Bolasie and what he has done for us this year.
Bolasie has had an excellent year so far. He, apart from Jedinak, was probably the first name on the team sheet each week. The winger has attempted more dribbles per game than any other Palace player and has been fouled more times than any other Palace player.
He strikes fear into the opposition when he runs at them as he is so unpredictable. You just do not know what he is going to do next. He provides a key pass a game, which is only bettered by Jason Puncheon and James McArthur but it is not all good. Apart from Chamakh, he has the worst first touch in the entire squad. On average he loses the ball 2.7 times a game and is also dispossessed 1.7 time a game.
In his last game he managed to dribble the ball eight times which is more than any other player in the game. That is all well and good but Bolasie needs to be able to provide an end product. Although he has excelled this year, he still has some work to do. He has only been directly involved in four of our goals which equates to 16%. Bolasie contributes towards a goal every 422 minutes and if he is to ever outgrow Palace he will need to work on this.
The direct comparison for Bolasie would be Wilfried Zaha but I am going to concentrate on Puncheon, the reason for this is because we looked to Bolasie as our ‘make something happen’ player and Puncheon is the player we look to for that now.
The difference between Bolasie and Puncheon is easy to figure out. Puncheon has the ability to slow things down and think about what he wants to do before he does it. In contrast, Bolasie does his trickery and then decides what to do. When we played Spurs, Puncheon had a poor first half but he turned it on in the second.
I do not know what Pardew said to Puncheon at half time but he made an amazing turn around. He was in the middle of everything and attempted nine dribbles with one of them leading to a goal. He really got the Spurs defence riled up because he was causing them so much hassle.
Against Burnley it was much a similar story. Puncheon had a poor first half, then a sublime second. The goal was a fantastic hit from about twenty yards out to the goalkeepers right, which was the direct result of a dribble which started at the half way line. He also managed to bag himself an assist with a lovely cross field ball which Murray dummied to allow Gayle a shot on goal.
Puncheon has finally hit the form he reached last season. He has been probably the most important player in the squad this month. Since Bolasie left for the AFCON, Puncheon has shown the world what he is really about. I think that this is mainly down to Alan Pardew restoring his faith in his game.
Where does that leave us when they return?
Well, for me Jedinak will undoubtedly walk straight back into the team, possibly as an Asian Cup winning captain. Bolasie on the other hand will have to work hard to get back in the starting line up. With Gayle laying claim to a wide position and Zaha finally starting to return to his potential we know so well, it could be tricky for the DR Congo winger to get his place back.
