Chelsea’s Loic Remy is the wrong striker for Crystal Palace

Chelsea forward Loic Remy is rumored to be on the way to Crystal Palace if the Blues can complete their move for Alexandre Pato

Crystal Palace desperately need to add a striker in the January transfer window and Chelsea’s Loic Remy is one of the best number nines available. That doesn’t mean he’s the solution to Palace’s striking problem. In fact, Remy is the wrong striker for Alan Pardew’s club.

If Remy does complete his rumored move to Palace, he’ll likely improve the Eagles. After all, they’re forced to rely on Connor Wickham at the moment and he’s produced almost nothing on the season. In fact, he’s only provided one goal and two assists in his 12 Premier League appearances. Remy can certainly provide more production than that.

That doesn’t mean that the speedy Frenchman is the right striker for Palace though. There are lots of potential options that would be an improvement over Wickham’s impotence. In fact, quite a few of those options would come significantly cheaper than the Chelsea man.

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Pardew and the Eagles should be searching for more than just a modest improvement over their current options. They should be looking to sign a true target man who can maximize the impact of their talented wingers. Remy can provide space for the wingers to run and can threaten opponents with runs in behind the back four, but he’s not the classic number nine Palace need.

You need only look at the struggles of Palace’s backup strikers to show that smaller, speed dependent strikers aren’t the best option for Palace. While Loic Remy is significantly more talented than either Frazier Campbell or Dwight Gayle, they approach the game in similar manners. Neither of them have managed to overtake the failing Wickham in the Palace lineup this season which speaks to their ineffectiveness.

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Pardew has stuck with Wickham up top because he realizes that the Englishman is the right type of striker for Palace to utilize. Wingers like Yannick Bolasie (when fit) and Wilfried Zaha can play their best when they have a big centre forward to cross the ball in towards. Loic Remy, for all of his quality, just isn’t that player.

In the interest of fairness, Remy isn’t the only striker that Pardew and Palace have chased during the window. They’ve chased a plethora of other attacking targets and quite a few of those were classic centre forwards. It’s entirely possible that Palace is going after Remy because he’s their best option this late in the window. You can’t fault the Eagles for their effort to sign a quality number nine.

If Loic Remy moves to Crystal Palace he’ll improve their squad and most will label it a successful signing. In some ways, it will be, but it won’t maximize their season. They can only fulfill their full potential if they’re able to add a classic centre forward to bang in goals created by their excellent wing play.