Roy Hodgson denies Wilfried Zaha ‘attitude’ claims

by Graeme Jackson

Monday Apr 09, 2018. 15:00

Crystal Palace manager Roy Hodgson has denied claims that Ivory Coast star Wilfried Zaha has an attitude problem.

The English press has suggested that Zaha, who has clearly keen Palace’s outstanding player this season, has brought a lot of attention on himself and is becoming ‘too big for his boots’ at the Premier League strugglers.

However, Hodgson has blown this out of the water, saying he gives his all for the Eagles and is a popular figure in the dressing room.

"He has no problems with his teammates; he's a very popular member of the team,” said Hodgson after his side’s 2-2 draw with Bournemouth this past weekend.

"I'm watching the game, you're obviously focusing a lot more and sometimes some of those reactions you're referring to I won't notice because I'm following the ball and making certain we're defending it properly.

"I don't know about him playing on the edge. I thought he was very disciplined, his teamwork, both him and [Andros] Townsend did very well up front. They haven't done it for a long time and they're not natural forwards, either of them.

"He's [Zaha] a good player. The fact is if you're playing against Wilf Zaha you can never relax; you've always got to be worried and he was a constant menace to the Bournemouth defence. If I'd taken him off the field there'd have been a collective sigh of relief from the Bournemouth defence."