Crystal Palace manager Roy Hodgson has been criticised by fans for a rant about his younger players after the Eagles lost 2-1 at home to Tottenham Hotspur on Friday night.
Palace held their own against top-of-the-table Spurs until the 53rd minute, when a Joel Ward own goal gave Ange Postecoglou's side the lead. The Lilywhites went on to double their advantage when Son Heung-min netted 13 minutes later before Jordan Ayew bagged a 94th-minute concession.
Hodgson, whose squad is depleted by injuries to stars like Eberechi Eze and Michael Olise, turned to a number of young prospects midway through the second-half as he tried to spark a reaction from the south Londoners. Summer signing Matheus França, 19; academy product Jesurun Rak-Sakyi, 21; and Naouirou Ahamada, 21, all replaced senior players, but the manager was unimpressed by what he saw.
“There was no disappointment today. Maybe the young substitutes, who we like to think we can believe in and help us to a different level, didn’t show that,” Hodgson said in his post-match press conference.
“They didn’t do anything for us at all, really. “We became much weaker when I made the substitutions. But unfortunately, sometimes when a game is drifting away from you at 2-0, one is tempted to do that [turn to young players]. Partly because we need to see those players as well – we need to see if they really are going to be able to help us out.
“We didn’t get any help today, but we got a lot of help from the first group of players in the first half. I thought they were very good.
“If the game had ended with us continuing as we had done in the first half and continued giving the same performance and coming away with a result in the game or even a draw, I would be sitting here really pleased with what I had seen.”
Hodgson's comments have drawn criticism from fans, particularly because Palace opened a new £20m academy facility in 2021 and have produced current first-team players Tyrick Mitchell and Nathaniel Clyne, as well as big name stars like Wilfried Zaha, Victor Moses and Aaron Wan-Bissaka in recent years.
The manager himself oversaw Wan-Bissaka and Mitchell’s rises, and went on to protect Brazilian attacker França, stressing that the teenager needs more time to adapt to the Premier League.
“I feel sorry for França,” he said. “For some reason people have tried to imbue him with qualities that we can’t expect to see from him. He’s 19 years of age. He's got a handful of games in Brazil behind him and we’re asking him to go out and play against Tottenham.”
The game was Hodgson's 500th in charge of an English club in all competitions, while Spurs moved five points clear at the top of the league.
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