The Crystal Palace U21s played in the EFL Trophy last night and Ademola Ola-Adebomi put in a great performance which should excite Roy Hodgson.
The striker continued his fine form this season.
So, how did Crystal Palace prospect Ademola Ola-Adebomi perform? Let’s take a look…
What’s the story?
Palace played in their final EFL group stage match and sadly they will not be advancing to the knockouts of the competition.
Their game last night was against Stevenage, who are currently fifth in League One and battling for promotion. With this in mind, it was a very hard fixture for the Palace U21s, especially away from home.
Ola-Adebomi was playing up front for the Eagles and he can be very proud of his performance on the night despite the team losing 5-2.
He was given a rating of 7.6/10 which was the best rating out of the Crystal Palace squad. Ola-Adebomi won five ground duels, eight aerial duels and most importantly, he managed to score a goal, via SofaScore.
Ademola Ola-Adebomi’s EFL Trophy performance shows he has a bright future at Crystal Palace
The 20 year-old centre-forward has been on fire this season for the U21s and it is really refreshing to see an exciting prospect consistently perform well.
This season in Premier League 2, Ola-Adebomi has seven goals in his eight appearances. He was nominated for the PL2 Player of the Month for his performances in October.
He has clearly got an eye for goal and it was great to see that he physically competed with Stevenage. As well as winning multiple ground and aerial duels, the 20 year-old’s goal came from a towering header.
With Jean-Philippe Mateta not performing well lately in his cameo performances, there is an argument to suggest that Ola-Adebomi could be fighting for a place on the bench in the first team.
We have seen exciting prospect Jesurun Rak-Sakyi break into the first-team this season and Ola-Adebomi make the bench against Manchester United.
Mateta is yet to score in the Premier League this season and if this continues whilst Ola-Adebomi carries on scoring in the U21s then there is no reason not to give the exciting young talent some minutes in the first team to see if he can meet the high ceiling it looks like he has.
With Mateta not scoring in the division, an exciting prospect in the academy scoring for fun and scoring against League One opposition should excite Roy Hodgson. He is not good enough to start yet but it is good to know there is a possible option to add attacking depth to the bench if needed.
