Crystal Palace are back in action this afternoon in a repeat of Tuesday’s Carabao Cup battle, as the Eagles travel to Old Trafford to face Manchester United in the Premier League.
Earlier this week, Roy Hodgson’s side were defeated 3-0 in the league cup at this afternoon’s venue, as the two heavily rotated sides clashed for a place in the next round of the competition.
With the more favoured team expected to be restored against the Red Devils today, it’s hoped that the south Londoners can return to the capital more uplifted than they did last time out.
What is the latest Crystal Palace team news?
Besides the poor result and dreary performance in Manchester on Tuesday night, the narrative of the game was the injury to Dean Henderson.
On his return to his former club, the £20m shot-stopper was forced to withdraw after just 19 minutes on his debut, with Hodgson confirming that the goalkeeper will undergo scans to determine his fitness for this afternoon and going forward.
"He’s had a scan. The initial scan wasn’t very positive, I’m sorry to say, but he has another scan in a week’s time and maybe we’ll be lucky and that will show somewhat less damage than we saw in the first one, but it didn’t look like good news," the veteran revealed to reporters (via the club's official website) ahead of kick-off.
The Englishman joins a host of Palace stars on the sidelines, with Michael Olise suffering a setback on his road to recovery, and Naouirou Ahamada picking up an injury during training.
The Eagles’ striker Odsonne Edouard remains a doubt due to a hamstring niggle, with Jefferson Lerma nursing a similar problem to pile the pressure on the squad depth.
While injuries are concerning, so is form of late, with Hodgson’s side without a win in their previous three games in all competitions.
Against United last time out, the visitors had just 31% of possession, and failed to win a single corner in comparison to United’s seven during the 90-minute brawl.
Only Jean-Philippe Mateta and Jairo Riedewald from the starting 11 managed to secure Sofascore match ratings exceeding 7.0, with one first team regular having a shocker against Erik ten Hag’s side.
Should Jeffrey Schlupp be dropped against Manchester United?
Jeffrey Schlupp was particularly poor against the Red Devils, recording a Sofascore match rating of 6.3 for his lacklustre performance in Manchester.
The Ghanaian has maintained an average match rating in the Premier League this season of only 6.83, suggesting that time for rotation in the side could beckon, particularly as other players are pushing for places in the squad.
As per Sofascore, against United, the Premier League winner recorded no shots, and made just 26 touches, which included only 14 completed passes in the 60 minutes that he was on the pitch.
Former Racing Post editor Bruce Millington dubbed the midfielder as “poor”, adding that the 30-year-old is “getting worse” as his performances tick on for the Eagles.
With intel on how his side performed against Ten Hag’s inconsistent side earlier this week, Hodgson could test the waters by fielding a rotational talent such as Mateta or academy graduate Jesurun Rak-Sakyi ahead of Schlupp this afternoon.
Having failed to win any of his attempted aerial duels, and winning just 50% of his ground duels, via Sofascore, the former Leicester City man was ineffective against United’s midfield, with one fan accusing him of simply “watching” Casemiro.
The Brazilian went on to score against Palace, suggesting the lack of presence and threat Schlupp provided when fielded against this afternoon’s opposition on Tuesday.
Hodgson could make a point by dropping the £50k-per-week 30-year-old to allow other talents to make their mark, however, only time will tell if the manager will revise his favoured 11.