Premier Sport’s Shay Given and Kenny Cunningham were highly critical of the performances of both Will Hughes and Jean-Philippe Mateta in the FA Cup against Stoke City on Tuesday evening.
The two former Ireland internationals were covering Crystal Palace’s fifth-round tie with Stoke at Selhurst Park where the hosts managed to squeeze past the Potters 2-1 courtesy of goals from Cheikhou Kouyate and Jairo Riedewald.
But despite advancing through to the quarter-finals for the second time in four seasons though, Palace didn’t look anywhere near the top level they’ve shown at times under Patrick Vieira in the Premier League this season.
The Frenchman made five changes from his side’s 1-1 draw with Burnley on the weekend but it was the performances of Hughes and Mateta - who have both been regulars in the team of late - that both Given and Cunningham took grievances with.
Mateta signed a bumper four-and-a-half-year contract with the Eagles in January and has been Vieira’s first-choice centre-forward over the last two months with starts in all three FA Cup games and a handful of appearances in the league.
But against the Potters he was ineffective, having only two touches more (35) than goalkeeper Jack Butland (33) and firing four shots out of four off-target.
"I think Patrick and his staff will go into training and think they got away with one because they were very poor,” said Given, who finished his playing career at Stoke in 2017,
“Mateta upfront was winding me up. He wasn’t holding the ball up, he wasn’t getting them up the pitch, he wasn’t linking up play.
“Christian Benteke came on and did more in a couple of minutes than Mateta did in the whole 90.”
Hughes also came under fire for his performance alongside Kouyate in central midfield and in particular for his role in Stoke’s equaliser in the second half.
Tracking Romaine Sawyers, Hughes allowed the Saint Kitts forward to shrug past him before drilling a cross to the back post that Josh Tymon buried past Butland.
“He’s a tidy operator in possession but he can’t run basically,” said Cunningham. “I thought that was Jorginho in disguise. When he’s running back towards his own goal he’s just not quick enough.
“Sawyers didn’t do an awful lot but he just knocks it past Hughes as he hasn’t got the leg speed to deal with it.”
Cunningham went on to describe Palace’s midfield as not having enough balance to it more generally, an issue many Eagles supporters have pointed out ahead of the summer transfer window.
Conor Gallagher has been the standout performer in the middle of the pitch but his loan deal runs out in the summer, while there is a lack of talent in the more orthodox central midfield position.
James McArthur is the best of the group in this role though his contract expires this summer and at 34 he’s not a long-term solution. Likewise, Kouyate (32) sees his deal also up in May while club captain Luka Milivojevic (30) has failed to show any signs that he can fit into Vieira’s system.
The Palace boss has played the versatile Jeffrey Schlupp in midfield at times and can also call upon Tuesday night’s match-winner Jairo Riedewald, though neither would be capable of holding down the position long-term either.
“The balance still isn’t right,” added Cunningham. “That central midfield area needs to improve - the link between the defence and the midfield is just not good enough.
“It was too clunky [against Stoke], Hughes and Kouyate in particular were very uncomfortable receiving the ball on the half-turn.
“If you’re looking at the team long-term and forget about the FA Cup - where are the improvements going to come in this team? I think it’s that [midfield] area that Vieira has to go and make some serious signings in the summer.
“Especially if they’re going to go from being a team that drifts in the mid-table area to a team that can potentially challenge towards the top eight and for European football.
“I think that’s the ambition of the owners but that’s a significant jump for the moment and I don’t think this squad at the moment is good enough to do it.”
