Christian Benteke has been under a lot of criticism after he missed a penalty against Bournemouth at the weekend, however there’s some interior Crystal Palace drama as boss Roy Hodgson reveals he was wrong to take it.
There’s nothing worse for fans to see than a manager slating his players, but that’s whats happened in at Selhurst Park. Is it just some petty Crystal Palace drama, or is this something that fans should be worried about?
There was late drama in the game between the Cherries and the Eagles, with Christian Benteke opting to take the late penalty, and ultimately failing to convert it into a goal, which would have secured the three points for Palace.
There was a lot of controversy, as there usually is, on social media, saying that Luka Milivojevic should have been the one to take the huge responsibility. The Serbian midfielder had already converted a penalty earlier on in the game, so you can understand the frustration.
According to Goal, the frustration was emphasised by the Crystal Palace boss, which is always strange to see.
“It was an unilateral decision, no-one on our team was able to wrest the ball from him. We, the management, decide who the penalty takers are and don’t expect players during the course of the game to change those decisions.” – Roy Hodgson on Christian Benteke (via Goal)
You can see the passive aggression in the Crystal Palace manager’s words, which epitomizes the thoughts of the Eagles faithful. Judging by this, you would imagine they’ve had a lot of emphasis on penalties in training, and they’ve had a rule broken by the Belgian striker.
However, Benteke will have also been effected heavily by this, after feeling so confident when stepping up to take it. Not taking advantage of the chance to win the game for your team is enough to make any player feel bad. I imagine there have been words exchanged between Benteke and Hodgson when the cameras aren’t around, and we can only hope they’ve resolved the issue.
What do you think of this? Do you think it’s just petty Crystal Palace drama that will be resolved sooner rather than later, or do you feel this will have a significant impact on Christian Benteke’s Crystal Palace career?
Next: Palace put Tottenham and Arsenal on high alert
One things for sure, Crystal Palace have more things to worry about than a penalty miss, they need to regroup and focus on the rest of their season.