Crystal Palace travel to Burnley this Saturday for their first game outside of London in over three months.
The Eagles have endured a turbulent run of fixtures over the last few weeks, taking on back-to-back champions Manchester City, Arsenal, Leicester, Chelsea and European champions Liverpool with just a single point to show for their efforts, despite all of them being well-fought contests.
In Burnley’s case, Sean Dyche’s men have won their last two games by a 3-0 scoreline, rising to seventh in impressive fashion.
Let’s take a look at the XI that Hodgson should put out against the Clarets…
Firstly, Hodgson will need to address some injury issues that will mean he is forced to select a different XI to the one that started against Liverpool anyway.
Joel Ward is injured after a clash of knees, while Gary Cahill is a doubt for the game according to The Evening Standard.
Mamadou Sakho also requires a few more matches with the U23 side to build up his match fitness.
As a result, we think that Hodgson should bring forgotten man Scott Dann back into the fold.
The former Blackburn man wins 3.3 aerial duels per game, and this particular trait will be vital against the nuisance that is Ashley Barnes – we have already outlined that the former Brighton man is one to keep an eye on.
To compare, Tomkins only wins one aerial duel per game, Cahill two and Sakho 0.7.
Additionally, it is expected that Martin Kelly will fill in for Ward at right-back as Palace have no other options in that role – one would assume that the backline will be slightly rusty given the fact that Dann hasn’t started a league game since August, while Kelly has predominately appeared at centre-back this term.
Because of this presumed rustiness, we have placed Cheikhou Kouyate in a slightly deeper role to screen the back four and mop up – the Senegalese giant wins 2.9 aerial duels per game, and will undoubtedly add a significant physical presence ahead of the defence.
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