After Crystal Palace’s 4-0 defeat by Newcastle United, Roy Hodgson sought to manage the expectations surrounding his young players.
“I never judge players when a game is over,” the Palace manager said of Jesurun Rak-Sakyi and Matheus Franca. “The game was over at half-time — it’s a wonderful time to come on. I’m pleased for them. They’ve got a bit of football. It’s handy. But if I were them and you’re going to start writing how good they were in that 15, 20 minutes, I’d advise them not to start reading the newspaper.”
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In the context of that defeat, in which none of his senior players had performed particularly well, and where both Rak-Sakyi and Franca offered some reasons to be cheerful, the comments were peculiar and unhelpful.
A week later, and after another defeat (this time against Tottenham Hotspur), and in another press conference, Hodgson returned — unprompted — to the subject of young players. And again, his comments seemed to be negative.
First, though, the context. At Newcastle, Hodgson was asked directly whether the young players’ performance was one positive he could take from the game. Hodgson seemed to interpret that as a leading question, suggesting they had played well. In response, he rebuffed any idea that their performance ought to be talked up.
After the Spurs defeat, the question posed in his post-match press conference made no mention of the substitutes or the young players. “You spoke about disappointment after Newcastle and not wanting to feel that again,” he was asked. “Is it a slightly different feeling after (this) game?”
“There was no disappointment today,” Hodgson responded. “Maybe the young substitutes, who we like to think we can believe in and would help us to a different level, didn’t show that. They didn’t do anything for us at all, really. We became much weaker when I made the substitutions.
“But unfortunately, sometimes when the game is drifting away from you one is tempted to do that because we need to see these players. We certainly didn’t get any help today but we got a lot of help from the first group of players, I thought they were very good.”
Matheus Franca struggled when he came on against Tottenham (Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)That particular comment, widely shared on social media, prompted a ferocious reaction — a mix of anger, irritation and disappointment
But there was more to Hodgson’s comments. “They need more time,” he added. “I feel sorry for Franca. For some reason, people have tried to imbue him with qualities that we can’t expect to see from him. He’s 19. He’s got a handful of games in Brazil behind him and now we’re asking him to go out and play against Tottenham, the team running away at the top of the Premier League at the moment. The intensity, strength, power, that’s something we’ll need to work on. There’s plenty of talent there.
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“Jes (Rak-Sakyi), fortunately, is a little further forward than some of the other ones you might mention because he has got a couple of games under his belt and he is learning on the job. The major job is to keep working with these players in training and keep making certain that they understand in terms of our attacking and defending, and how intensive and physical this league is.”
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The 64 minutes that proved Rak-Sakyi can have a Premier League future
That was more considered than the initial comment that — even considering his more positive remarks a few minutes later — feels unnecessary
Hodgson does have previous when it comes to discussing young players. After 18-year-old forward Brandon Pierrick’s six-minute substitute appearance at Liverpool in June 2020, Hodgson said: “He should be very grateful. I’m half-expecting that when I go into training tomorrow there might be a nice bottle of red wine for me, thanking me for giving him the opportunity to play at Anfield. I’m probably hoping in vain, but that would be nice.”
That was likely an attempt to keep Pierrick grounded, as he did have a tendency to get ahead of himself. But it was an odd comment nonetheless.
The Spurs incident can be explained from both sides. From Hodgson’s perspective, it was a chance to point out that while he needs to give the youngsters opportunities to develop, they are also — understandably — not yet at the level required to sufficiently influence Premier League games.
Roy Hodgson’s comments about his young players angered some Palace fans (Glyn Kirk/AFP via Getty Images)Hodgson is frustrated at the paucity of options he has in attack. The failure of the Palace hierarchy to secure attacking players in the summer transfer window, coupled with Michael Olise’s injury and Wilfried Zaha’s decision not to sign a new contract, left the squad woefully short in wide areas. Palace should not be in a position where there is such a responsibility on two players with such limited experience.
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The supporters, too, are irritated at the lack of options. Without Olise and Eberechi Eze, also nursing a hamstring injury, there is little to be excited and entertained by, which means fans understandably cling to whatever positives are thrown up. That was particularly evident after the defeat to Newcastle, where supporters felt Franca and Rak-Sakyi had shown something to be optimistic about. So to hear Hodgson knock that down almost immediately would have felt even more deflating.
There is always more focus on young players because of the potential they offer. For Franca, a transfer fee of more than £20million ($24.3m) adds to that, although Hodgson has placed him in the same bracket as academy graduates Rak-Sakyi and David Ozoh.
That may be a fair reflection of Franca’s current level of ability — and Hodgson is right to say that the Brazilian has been discussed in terms way above his level of experience — but that doesn’t make it any less demoralising to hear. And giving supporters, occasionally at least, some reasons to be optimistic can help keep them onside.
The issue is less related to the accuracy of Hodgson’s comments — that will always be subjective — and more to whether they were necessary in the first place. Hodgson never singles out senior players for this sort of criticism, so why did he make an example of the youngsters?
“Young lads, they’re going to be good one week, they’re going to be bad one week,” Gabriel Agbonlahor, the former Aston Villa striker who made his Premier League debut aged 19, said on Talksport. “They’re still new to this. What about the experienced players you had on the pitch? They did nothing all game.”
One interpretation is that Hodgson was misunderstood and meant that it was a mistake to bring on those young players with the game situation as it was. But when those comments after the Spurs defeat are considered alongside the ones at Newcastle, not independently of each other, it seems, at best, a clumsy way of making his point.
Whatever Hodgson meant, neither he nor the players should be in a position where this has become such a highly contentious point of discussion. Palace’s failure to strengthen their attack means that has intensified the focus on their youngest players. That is the real problem.
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(Top photos: Jesurun Rak-Sakyi and Matheus Franca; both Getty Images)
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