Crystal Palace have already lost Michael Olise this summer and in a bid to replace him are targeting an Ebere Eze-like gem.
The departure of Michael Olise didn’t come as a shock to anyone familiar with Crystal Palace, as it seemed like a given for months.
Olise has headed to Bayern Munich already and even sent his farewell message to Eagles supporters.
After the exit, a replacement for Olise is being sought after and there are several options already being widely linked to Selhurst Park.
But one of the targets interestingly is very similar to Ebere Eze in his style of play and stats too.
Maghnes Akliouche is just like Ebere Eze
Earlier this week, Crystal Palace were linked with making a move to sign Jean-Philippe Mateta’s French teammate at the Olympics, Maghnes Akliouche.
The 22-year-old is very talented and enjoyed a really impressive campaign at Monaco last time out with seven goals and four assists.
On FBRef though, while looking at players similar to Akliouche, Eze happens to rank as number one. Which could see Palace with two Eze’s effectively on either side of the pitch.
| Stat per 90 | Akliouche | Eze |
| Shot creating actions | 4.91 | 4.82 |
| Passes completed % | 77.4% | 77% |
| Progressive passes | 5.19 | 4.07 |
| Progressive carries | 2.57 | 2.98 |
| Successful take-ons | 2.06 | 3.02 |
From this, we can see that they are very similar with Eze only having more progressive carries and take-ons per 90 than Akliouche.
Akliouche is incredibly creative as we can see from this and he could be an ideal player to succeed Olise on the right side.
Quite clearly he needs a little bit more to reach the levels of Olise, especially with the step-up to the Premier League level which is a tougher league than Ligue 1.
- READ MORE: Crystal Palace transfer rumours: Every player linked to and from Selhurst Park this summer
How does Akliouche compare to other Palace targets?
Akliouche is absolutely the least notable of the players Palace are targeting to replace Olise, with Jaden Philogene and Antonio Nusa being higher profile.
- READ MORE: Who is Antonio Nusa? Get to know the forward linked as Crystal Palace’s Michael Olise replacement
These two would also likely cost more than Akliouche, particularly Nusa who is quite widely known as one of Europe’s biggest talents.
Philogene on the other hand is a player Palace have faced plenty of competition for with Ipswich, Aston Villa and Everton all showing interest.
It’s hard to choose which of the three would be the best option, but whoever Dougie Freedman selects, is likely to be a success.
