He’s scored eight league goals already.
Crystal Palace are said to have their eyes on an “exciting” striker who’s really impressed in a top European league.
Palace’s mixed start to season
It’s been a fairly mixed start to the new Premier League campaign for Eagles boss Roy Hodgson, who’s watched on from the dugout as his side win four, lose four and draw three of their opening eight league matches.
Palace won their first since late September last weekend with a 2-0 win victory over Burnley, coming after back-to-back defeats courtesy of high-flying Newcastle and Tottenham.
Jeff Schlupp and Tyrick Mitchell grabbed the goals, with star midfielder Eberechi Eze’s return from injury also coming as a huge positive for Palace on a great afternoon overall. However, Hodgson told club media afterwards that his side can very much still improve.
“I think we can play better than we actually did,” said Hodgson on Palace’s win over Burnley (via cpfc.co.uk). “So when [one] calls it the ideal away performance, I thought when we did win the ball back, we sometimes surrendered it a little bit more cheaply than we needed to because we have a lot of good quality players on our team.
“Normally, if we get hold of the ball, I would have expected a little bit more from us. I thought Burnley were good, I thought they put us under a lot of pressure. So, I thought it was an outstanding defensive performance throughout. And I thought towards the end of the game as well, the game management was quite good. So, I’m certainly not apologizing for coming away with three points.
“I’m grateful for your sense of a perfect away performance. But I hope I’m not being too harsh on myself if [I think] we can do even better, especially on the ball, than we did today.”
One area of the squad which may need shoring up, sooner rather than later, is centre-forward. Indeed, only Fulham, Bournemouth, Burnley and Sheffield United have scored less than Palace so far.
Palace eyeing Karim Konate
According to 90min, Hodgson’s side are aiming to fix that issue. It is believed Palace are eyeing up Red Bull Salzburg striker Karim Konate, alongside a host of other London clubs like Arsenal, Spurs and West Ham.
They’ve kept watch over his performances in Austria recently, with the Ivory Coast international scoring eight goals already this term.
Konate is playing a big role for Salzburg in their title push, most recently scoring both goals in their 2-0 win away at Tirol in the Austrian Bundesliga at the weekend.
Bayern Munich sporting director, during his time at Salzburg, heaped praise on Konate and believes he is an “exciting” forward to watch out for.
“For me, Karim is one of the most talented and exciting players I have ever seen and we know which strikers were here,” said Freund on Konate (via sport.orf.at).
“He is an exceptional player and I am almost certain that he will have a great career ahead of him because he is clear-headed, works hard and knows what he wants. I’m also betting that he will be the top scorer in Austria this year.”
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