Saturday, October 28
 

Roy Hodgson: 'EFL Cup is important to Crystal Palace'

Crystal Palace manager Roy Hodgson insists that his side will not prioritise their Premier League match with West Ham ahead of their EFL Cup trip to Bristol City.

Crystal Palace manager Roy Hodgson has insisted that he will not prioritise the Premier League over the EFL Cup as he believes that his side can succeed on both fronts.

The Eagles currently sit rock-bottom of the Premier League table and five points from safety having lost eight of their opening nine matches, and on Tuesday they travel to a Bristol City side fighting for a playoff spot in the Championship.

Hodgson confirmed that he will make changes for the fourth-round trip to Ashton Gate, but rejected the suggestion that the EFL Cup is less of a priority.

"I am hoping to [make changes], I'd like to because we have some very, very good players. For example, we have two centre-backs who played virtually all of last year in Tomkins and Kelly and at the moment, they're not getting a game and it would be interesting for me to see them," he told reporters.

"We've got a Welsh international goalkeeper on the bench, for example, so there are lots of situations like that where people are crying out for a game, and it would be wrong of me I think not to give them a chance in a midweek game to show what they can do. I'm hoping we'll have a strong team going to Bristol.

"We are going to go there and try to win the game - it's not a question of we don't care about Tuesday because we have got a match on the Saturday. At the moment, I think we are capable of doing both of those things. We don't have an enormous amount of midweek games at Crystal Palace - once we're out of this cup, we won't have any more midweek games until such time as we perhaps play in the FA Cup, so we have no reason to start protecting ourselves.

"It's more a question of maybe giving one or two players who have been champing at the bit to try to get a chance to show what they can do vis-a-vis the ones I am choosing in the first team at the moment to show they they have got the quality we are looking for too."

Palace's next league game sees them host fellow strugglers West Ham United on Saturday.

Read Next:
Hodgson: 'Palace unfortunate to lose'
>
You May Like
Recommended Next on SM
Hodgson: 'Palace unfortunate to lose'
Result: England win under-17s World Cup
Result: Man City regain five point lead at top
Result: Palace snatch late draw against West Ham
Premier League Table
TeamPWDLFAGDPTS
1Manchester CityMan City109103562928
2Manchester UnitedMan Utd107212341923
3Tottenham HotspurSpurs106221971220
4Arsenal106131913619
5Chelsea105231710717
6Liverpool104421716116
7Watford104331518-315
8Newcastle UnitedNewcastle9423108214
9Burnley934289-113
10Southampton933389-112
11Huddersfield TownHuddersfield10334713-612
12Brighton & Hove AlbionBrighton9324910-111
13Stoke CityStoke103251120-911
14West Bromwich AlbionWest Brom10244913-410
15Leicester CityLeicester92341214-29
16West Ham UnitedWest Ham102351019-99
17Swansea CitySwansea10226712-58
18Bournemouth10226613-78
19Everton9225718-118
20Crystal Palace10118421-174
Scroll for more - Tap for full version
Premier League Table
TeamPWDLFAGDPTS
1Manchester CityMan City109103562928
2Manchester UnitedMan Utd107212341923
3Tottenham HotspurSpurs106221971220
4Arsenal106131913619
5Chelsea105231710717
6Liverpool104421716116
7Watford104331518-315
8Newcastle UnitedNewcastle9423108214
9Burnley934289-113
10Southampton933389-112
11Huddersfield TownHuddersfield10334713-612
12Brighton & Hove AlbionBrighton9324910-111
13Stoke CityStoke103251120-911
14West Bromwich AlbionWest Brom10244913-410
15Leicester CityLeicester92341214-29
16West Ham UnitedWest Ham102351019-99
17Swansea CitySwansea10226712-58
18Bournemouth10226613-78
19Everton9225718-118
20Crystal Palace10118421-174
Scroll for more - Tap for full version

This site uses cookies for Analytics. Click to accept and dismiss this message.