Stoke City boss Michael O’Neill says he’ll be asking his players to take motivation from the players within the Crystal Palace team who were not long ago playing in the Championship.
The Potters travel to Selhurst Park on Tuesday evening to face Palace in the fifth round of the FA Cup, with a place in the competition’s quarter-finals up for grabs for the victor.
The Eagles are currently mid-table in the Premier League in Patrick Vieira’s first season as the club’s manager and has guided them to the fifth round by beating Millwall and Hartlepool United.
Some of Palace’s best performers so far this season have been Palace’s younger crop of players, many of whom were signed off the back of successful campaigns in the second tier.
Chelsea loanee Conor Gallagher is the clear example, with the midfielder having spent time in the English Football League with both Charlton and Swansea before stepping up to the Premier League with West Brom and then Palace.
He’s currently the joint top scorer for the club along with Wilfried Zaha and is likely to be starting on Tuesday night when Stoke come to south London.
Michael Olise is another player who has stood out this season after a strong showing for Reading last year in the Championship, while Marc Guehi (Swansea) and Eberechi Eze (QPR) are the same having also impressed in the second tier.
"You've seen already the quality of Olise - we dealt with him playing for Reading last season," said O’Neill in his pre-match press conference.
"Eze, we dealt with him when he was at QPR. Conor Gallagher, we would have played against Conor when he was both on loan at Charlton and Swansea.
"So I think Palace are quite interesting for me, and it's something we'll talk to our players about; we are playing against a very good side.
"But what I also like about this game is that we're playing against players who, in the past the 18 months to two years, have been playing in the Championship, they stepped up from the Championship.
"Guehi's another example on loan at Swansea, centre back. So that's a challenge for our players; you've dealt with these lads in the Championship, you're now gonna have to deal with them in the Premier League.
"You know, I would imagine, particularly our young players have all got aspirations at one point to try and play in the Premier League.
"So they'll see players that have made that step and hopefully that'll give them the belief that they're capable of making that step themselves.”
And while there are enough players to worry about in the Palace starting XI for O’Neill, the former Northern Ireland boss said the strength in depth Vieira has at his disposal is hard to contend with.
"I can't really control what team Patrick will pick, that will be down to him, but you only have to look at the likes of Palace's bench and possibly players that haven't been on the bench on Saturday, to know that whatever team you face is going to be extremely strong," he said.
"I think they've got they've got a lot of attacking talent, you know, obviously, (Odsonne) Edouard down from Scotland who I watched considerably when he was at Celtic, so I know of his quality, they still have Benteke there as well.
"So look, I think Palace are a very exciting team to watch. I think at home as well they get on the front foot, they get the ball into wide areas early, and you have to deal with that attacking threat and that pace.”
