Seen a lot said about Jairo Riedewald over the last couple of days.

Thought JR was good yesterday but it's evident that certain aspects of his natural game are very different to the way that Hodgson and Lewington want him to play

[fairly long thread, soz] #cpfc

Hodgson alluded to this after the Fulham game in which Riedewald scored his first goal for the club.

"We’ve always been impressed with Jairo’s ability on the ball – we’ve never lost faith in him, in that respect. [cont]

"We’re just delighted we’ve managed to introduce some other elements into his game which means we can really take advantage of the quality he has on the ball."

Riedewald naturally enjoys being the pivot who drops deep, turns and starts an attack. It's how FdB wanted to play.

But the problem now is that it's not how the coaching staff want to play.

In the 1st half JR dropped deep a few times to collect the ball but was met with a "higher, Jairo" each time from the bench.

Come to think of it, I can't remember many Palace goals where the build-up included much involvement from the central midfielders. (I'm sure there are exceptions)

Whoever plays in CM (espec. in the 4-4-2) has far more responsibility out of possession rather than in possession.

And the best evidence was in the second half yesterday. Palace had a couple of free-kicks and throw-ins deep in their half to which JR naturally responded by dropping deep (often deeper than the taker) but at least three times Lewington shouted "higher, Jairo, second balls!"

The point being that those free-kicks were going to go over the midfield and towards Benteke's chest/head. And if Palace lost possession then Milivojevic and Riedewald would be there to win loose/"second" balls.

The problem for Riedewald, I think, is that he is better in possession than he is when Palace don't have the ball (which is a lot). He's a good tackler but he's not quite the midfield destroyer or the harrier mould that Milivojevic and McArthur are.

JR is clearly very, very good. Definitely one of Palace's best technical players and has added a lot to his game (and obviously worked tremendously hard) to work his way back into Hodgson's plans. Remember, he was surplus to requirements about two years ago.

But you can't completely change a player's natural game to fit your system, in the same way that you can't change your system for one player.

That's why I think McArthur will remain the first choice next to Milivojevic. It's not really a case of either side being right/wrong