Palace are considering selling the Frenchman who RB Leipzig have wanted in the last two weeks of the transfer window. But after scoring a hat-trick in Tuesday’s 4-0 EFL Cup win against Plymouth, Mateta came off the bench to set up two goals in Palace’s 3-2 win over Wolves on Sunday.
“That’s why we kept him,” Hodgson said. “Not playing as regularly as he would have liked he would have been keen to try his luck elsewhere but I and the club wanted to keep him.”
“When you’re the team that only plays one game a week and you have a very good XI that doesn’t get injured, it’s very tough for those who aren’t in the first XI. But if I let that happen.” Any player who wasn’t in the starting XI would be all we had. That has to be said.
“You try to give them minutes and find space for them. There was a place in Plymouth and there was a place here and both times JP held up his hand and said, ‘Now you’ve given me a chance.’ Look what I can do.’ Great. I have always believed that to be the case. He has to keep going like this, keep fighting alongside Odsonne Edouard for a place in the team and he has to deliver.”
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Edouard scored a brace at Selhurst Park and Hodgson was equally impressed as was Mateta’s compatriot.
“He was very good throughout. His raiding game was good, his moves were very good. Even at moments when I didn’t think we were playing anywhere near as well as we could, he was one of the brighter minds.”
“It was an excellent result. After a first half that fell far short of our expectations, I wasn’t happy with the performance. We did better in the second half and scored three very good goals.”
“Today’s win was only marred by that last-minute goal. We shouldn’t concede such goals in the 96th minute of the game. It didn’t cost us any points, but it cost me a little bit of confidence.”
Source : www.standard.co.uk