It has been another dismal start to the season for Crystal Palace and the Eagles find themselves languishing 14th in the Premier League standings with only 7 points from their first 8 games.
Roy Hodgson’s men are yet to register their first win at Selhurst Park with the two wins coming away from home at Fulham and Huddersfield Town. As a matter of fact, the Eagles are yet to score their first goal at home this season.
Although Palace have one of the best defensive records amongst the mid-table teams, having shipped only 9 goals so far, they haven’t been able to rack up the goals to force positive results.
Going by the way how the other teams have performed so far, five goals in eight games is not the sort of scoring record that can propel the Eagles to a top-ten finish and they cannot turn their fortunes around unless they start finding the net on a consistent basis.
With Wilfried Zaha, Andros Townsend and Christian Benteke up front, Palace have one of the most potent attacking forces outside the top six clubs in the Premier League but the trio hasn’t been able to live up to the expectations this season.
While Townsend has struggled for form, Zaha has had to carry the team on his shoulders single-handedly and has done it successfully to some extent but the Eagles haven’t been able to cover for his injury.
Christian Benteke, on the other hand, cut a frustrated figure up front and failed to get his name on the scoresheet even once before being sidelined due to a knee injury. The Belgian has undergone a knee surgery as a part of the treatment process and is likely to miss large quarters of the ongoing season.
Palace brought in Jordan Ayew on loan from Swansea City as a back-up for the regular strikers but the Ghanaian hasn’t delivered the goals either. Hodgson has also tried out Alexander Sorloth as the spearhead of the attack and the youngster has shown glimpses of promise but the end product hasn’t been great.
As things stand, Palace need a striker and they might be reluctant to spend too much for that purpose given that they have Benteke on the sidelines.
Isaac Success joined Watford from Spanish Segunda side Granada back in 2016 but has failed to establish himself in the first-team. He has made a total of 27 appearances for the Hornets in the Premier League, out of which only two have been starts. It has been the same story for the young Nigerian this season where he has played a total of 103 minutes in the Premier League across 8 substitute appearances.
Quite clearly, he hasn’t had a chance to make a significant impact, being used as a late substitute in most of the games and his statistics are anything but flattering.
However, he scored twice in the League Cup against Reading and Spurs where he started the game on both occasions.
To put things into perspective, Isaac Success might be a good buy for the Eagles given that he is a striker with a lot of raw talent and Roy Hodgson definitely has the experience and the managerial acumen to bring the best out of the 22-year-old Nigerian.
And it shouldn’t be a difficult job to prise him away from Vicarage Road given that he hasn’t had enough playtime since he joined the club.
A fast, agile and opportunistic striker, Success has the ability to play on either side of the attack or through the centre as the main striker. He has a good technique and combines his pace and strength with his silky dribbling skills to take on the defenders. He is not great with his positioning inside the box which causes him to miss out on opportunities but he will be expected to pick those things up under the tutelage of Roy Hodgson.
That said, Palace should try their luck and sign the youngster in January to solve their goalscoring crisis.