What the Premier League is all about: Generational talent pushes Casemiro out of the lineup, Eagles dependent on two men

After a brief January hibernation, the English Premier League is finally back! The 23rd round offered a number of interesting moments, and in our regular weekly series we’ll look at the stars of Manchester United, Crystal Palace and Liverpool.

To start with, just a quick look back at what may have been the performance of a lifetime for the Reds right-back. Twenty-year-old Conor Bradley became only the second under-21 defender in Premier League history to have a hand in three goals (1+2) in a single game. The first was Trent Alexander Arnold in 2019.

Mainoo = United’s saviour of the season?

When 18-year-old Kobbie Mainoo made his Premier League debut in the Manchester United starting line-up in November, the Red Devils notched their highest league triumph of the season so far. Since the 3-0 win at Everton, the young defensive midfielder has only missed two PL games, and United have only taken a point from them.

Against Wolves, the young Englishman scored in the 97th minute to win 4:3. Compared to both competitors for the defensive midfielder position, he has something extra. He is more reliable defensively than Scott McTominay and also better in movement than Casemiro. After all, while McTominay came on for Casemiro in the 73rd minute, Mainoo played until the end.

Rasmus Hojlund mentioned after the game that the entire United cabinet considers Mainoo a generational talent. The British media is even speculating about a summer Euro nomination. That’s more science fiction after all. However, if the youngster typologically similar to N’golo Kante continues to perform like this, with the form of Kalvin Phillips, he could make the nomination.

Crystal Palace as a stable team in the Premier League

Crystal Palace and especially coach Roy Hodgson have faced a lot of criticism in recent weeks. Fans don’t like the fact that the club hasn’t made steps forward in a long time. In terms of the table, the Eagles are the most stable team in the Premier League, in the past 10 seasons they have finished between 10th and 15th each time, gaining between 41 and 49 points.

Crystal Palace will probably save themselves this year too, thanks to two men in particular. With both Michael Olise and Eberechi Eze playing, the Eagles are averaging 1.5 points per round. When one or both of them are missing, it’s less than a point per game.

Against Sheffield, the 3-2 win was basically of their own making. Eze two goals, Olise one shot and an assist. Other than that, again, chaos in defence which is a big exclamation point. The fans are asking for one thing, don’t settle for salvation, that is to say goodbye to Hodgson and work on the whole team’s play.

Source: Premier League