Vibrant Gallagher leads way in Vieira’s revolution
Midfielder is thriving in box-to-box role at Palace, but loanee still has sights on a place in Tuchel’s Chelsea XI
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Rodri, Manchester City’s £63million midfielder, must have felt considerably older than his 25 years in the final moments of his side’s loss to Crystal Palace last week.
A draining afternoon was at last coming to an end as the exhausted Spaniard trundled back towards his own goal, trying to stop a Palace counter-attack with as much speed as his heavy legs could muster.
Panting and visibly sagging, Rodri might have thought he had done his job when he reached the edge of his penalty box. Just as he was catching his breath, though, a blond-haired blur was suddenly surging past him. Conor Gallagher had started the move deep inside his own half but here he was – legs pumping, hair bouncing – in the City area, smashing his shot into the net and sealing a momentous victory for his team.
It was a goal that encapsulated Gallagher’s impact on the Premier League this season, and a moment which further underlined the 21-year-old’s status as one of the division’s most energetic, tireless operators. City had enjoyed almost 70 per cent of possession, making the Palace midfield run and run despite their one-man advantage, but still Gallagher had more to give, even in the 88th minute, as his opponents ran out of steam.
To those who have seen Gallagher grow as a footballer over the past few years, this enthusiasm will have come as no surprise. It was the midfielder at his breathless best, bursting from one penalty box to the other and then making a decisive impact when he got there.
“He is obviously super fit, but he has an attitude that goes with it,” says Johnnie Jackson, the Charlton Athletic caretaker manager who was on Lee Bowyer’s coaching staff during Gallagher’s loan spell there in 2019. “He enjoys the graft. He presses so aggressively and he loves getting after people, making tackles. They can all run, but there is a mindset that comes with it. Conor is willing to do it.” Gallagher’s all-action approach has made him the most important player of the first few months of Patrick Vieira’s tenure in south London.
No one has created more chances, scored more goals, registered more assists or taken more shots for Palace this season. Gallagher has also conceded the most fouls, which is an indication of his willingness to defend as well as attack.
It has been a long time since Palace had a player of Gallagher’s mould: the Chelsea loanee is scoring and assisting goals at a faster rate than any other Palace midfielder since their promotion in 2013. “He is bringing us a different profile of player,” Vieira said earlier this season, before Gallagher won back-to-back player-ofthe-month awards.
It is thanks to Vieira that Gallagher is there at all, with the new manager having played a crucial role in convincing him to join the club on loan. A host of teams were interested, but Vieira promised Gallagher a specific role – box to box, pressing high – and he has kept his word.
The sales pitch was helped, too, by the presence of Marc Guehi at Palace. Guehi and Gallagher have been team-mates and friends for years, first in the Chelsea academy, then in the England youth ranks and then on loan at Swansea City. For
Gallagher, this is just a temporary stop. It is his fourth loan move, and each has offered a different sort of footballing education. At Charlton, he had his first taste of senior football, revelling in an adventurous midfield role. At Swansea, it was a more possession-based game with Steve Cooper. And then last season, at West Bromwich Albion, he learnt how to take a more disciplined approach under Sam Allardyce.
“I did not know him at all when he arrived at Charlton,” Jackson says. “But on day one, me and Lee looked at each other and said, ‘Wow, he can play’. The way he passed and received the ball was pretty much on another level. With that, and his energy, you knew he was a player. In terms of his attributes and attitude, he is probably the best young player I have ever worked with.”
Such was Gallagher’s impact at Charlton, where he scored six goals in his first 17 senior games, that he was quickly relocated to Swansea. “We were gutted when Chelsea took him back and sent him to Swansea,” Jackson says. “It affected us.”
Gallagher’s main aim is to establish himself at Chelsea. They considered keeping him this season, with Thomas Tuchel impressed by his pre-season work, and the success of Mason Mount and Reece James shows there is a pathway into the first team.
Clearly, it is a big ask for any young player to break into a side of Chelsea’s class, and Gallagher is grounded enough to realise that. He could hardly be doing more to prove his worth, though, and even if Chelsea take an alternative approach, there will be no shortage of clubs interested in one of the Premier League’s most vibrant talents.