Roy Hodgson makes Crystal Palace admission amid £17m star man’s major change

Crystal Palace boss Roy Hodgson would be glad to see midfielder Eberechi Eze break into the England team but is not going to put pressure on Three Lions boss Gareth Southgate.

Eze looks like a star reborn following the arrival of Hodgson to replace Patrick Vieira last month. The midfielder has scored three goals and provided an assist in his last three games for the Eagles.

Prior to Hodgson’s arrival, Eze was at his lowest and could barely get a game under Vieira who once went 16 games with just one win to show for it.

The 24-year-old was close to breaking into the England squad back in 2020, but suffered an Achilles injury that ruled him out of the Euros, and ultimately his form took a hit.

With his newfound form, manager Roy Hodgson would want to see him back in the fold for his country even though he admits he’s not a big fan of putting pressure on the England boss.

He told the press: “I never push in press conferences or say, this player who is playing in the team that I am coaching is so good that he should be playing for England.

“The people watching for Gareth Southgate at the moment will be making their assessments – they don’t need any help or advice from me on that subject.

“If you are talking about a player’s ambition, with as young as he is, a massive possibility for him to keep improving and doing well with every Premier League game he plays, if I was him, I would be saying: ‘I’m so good, that I’m going to make that my ambition’.

“The only way he will do that is by producing more of these performances and hoping that Gareth and Steve Holland [Southagte’s assistant] watch him and come to the same conclusion that this is a guy who can help us out.”

Eze is now Palace’s top scorer this season with seven goals, one more than star man Wilfried Zaha who has been battling with a groin injury. The Eagles take on relegation-threatened Everton at Selhurst this weekend.