Most important player of the season for their club? It has to be brilliant Wilf Zaha
WILFRIED ZAHA has barely got a mention in any Player Of The Season polls but nobody has been more important to their club this year.
Crystal Palace were a sinking ship when they lost their first seven Premier League games without scoring a goal, but they have had two saviours.
One is boss Roy Hodgson, who has used all his experience to steer them towards safety, just as he did with Fulham 10 years ago.
And the other is Zaha, who has attracted more than his fair share of ‘diving’ controversies.
When we talk about players being the biggest single influence on their teams, it’s easy to think of Mo Salah at Liverpool, Kevin de Bruyne at Manchester City and Harry Kane at Tottenham.
But, along with Salah, none has been more influential than Zaha. Without him, Palace would have sunk long ago.
Look at the stats and judge for yourselves.
In his absence, they have not won a single point in nine games and have scored only three goals. With Zaha, it’s 35 points from 26 games.
He has contributed seven goals (all from open play), two assists and 213 dribbles – more than anyone in the Premier League.
Watford forward Richarlison remains way out in front as the most-fouled player in the division but Zaha gets kicked every week – if he had been fit the whole season he would have been up there with the Brazilian winger for bruises collected in his team’s cause.
People point out that Zaha has been booked four times for simulation – more than any other player – since the start of the 2015-16 season.
But can you point to a single incident where he has dived over thin air? I can’t think of one occasion when you can accuse him outright of cheating.
Yes, when Zaha feels he has been fouled he looks as if he is going to burst into tears but it hurts when you are kicked on the shin or you get your ankle tapped. And, yes, there have been cases when he has gone down in the box when perhaps staying on his feet would have been easier.
I was not sure about the penalty he ‘won’ against Manchester City on New Year’s Eve, for example, but I had every sympathy for him at Watford last weekend.
When he stumbled over in the first half, not many thought it was a penalty – although Christian Kabasele had a handful of his shirt.
But the second incident, when he was booked for diving, was a foul by Adrian Mariappa and certainly wasn’t simulation.
I can understand Zaha’s frustration when he talks of an agenda against him. I wouldn’t
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When will you be happy with your boss? know about that, but I will say that fouls in the box have to be judged on the merits of each challenge, not the reputations of the players involved.
He is not the first player to suffer this kind of attention but Zaha’s issues with referees and gravity remind me of Gareth Bale’s final season at Tottenham Hotspur.
When you are sprinting at full tilt, as Zaha often does when he makes those surging runs into the box, it doesn’t take much contact to throw you off balance and make you go down.
If someone looks as if they are going to punch you in the face, the natural reaction is to flinch. By the same token, if you are a winger and you fear you are about to get wiped out by a defender in a 50-50 challenge, it’s human nature to
TO exist on the same planet as Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo, Mo Salah would have to string together 10 seasons as exceptional as his first at
Liverpool. But his penalty took
Egypt to the World Cup, he could win the Champions League and his 43 goals are the most in Europe’s top leagues – so why not the Ballon d’or?
I was slated for suggesting he could end Ronaldo and Messi’s domination of the award. Yet on every big occasion this season, Salah (right) has delivered. try to ride the tackle instead of risking serious injury.
It is unfair when players who bring that flair and excitement to the game are punished for self-preservation.
It makes me laugh when some pundits take the moral high ground about players falling theatrically in the box when they weren’t averse to doing it themselves.
Zaha has not even won the most penalties for his team this season: Raheem Sterling has won six to the Ivory Coast winger’s four, which is as many as Dominic Calvert-lewin at Everton – but I don’t hear anyone calling out Calvertlewin, and rightly so.
Five years ago, when he signed for Manchester United as a 20-year-old, by his own admission Zaha wasn’t mature enough to play for a top-four club.
But his performances for Palace this season speak for themselves and, at 25, I believe he is now ready to step up.
If Tottenham, Chelsea or Arsenal came calling for Zaha this summer, he would fit any of them like a hand in glove.
It’s gone from the boy accused of crying wolf to a big club crying out for Wilf.