The striker position at Crystal Palace has always been one that has lacked quality and, most importantly, goals.
Alexander Sorloth, Odsonne Edouard, and Jean-Phillipe Mateta have all been purchased in an attempt to fix the issue, but none of them have delivered.
However, there is a centre-forward who has thrived since leaving the Eagles in 2022, and his goals could have helped Roy Hodgson’s side gather more points this season.
With that in mind, let’s take a look at the individual who would have fit into the current Palace system like a glove.
Jean Phillipe-Mateta’s Palace career
After impressing enough on loan from Mainz in 2021, Palace opted to sign Mateta on a permanent deal worth around £8m in January 2022.
However, he hasn’t quite proved to be the reliable finisher that Palace would have hoped he would develop into, with the French attacker netting five goals in 22 Premier League appearances during his first campaign.
The following season, Mateta featured in 29 matches across the league campaign, but he only started six matches, with then-boss Patrick Vieira preferring Wilfried Zaha, Edouard, and Jordan Ayew over the striker.
That said, at the start of this campaign, it looked as though the 26-year-old could have finally found his feet in a Palace shirt, as he netted a hat-trick against Plymouth in the EFL Cup while picking up three assists in his first three league appearances.
Unfortunately, since then, Mateta has netted just three times across 21 appearances in all competitions, leaving the Eagles yearning for one of their former stars.
Christian Benteke’s stats since leaving the Eagles
In 2016, Christian Benteke swapped Liverpool for London in a four-year deal reportedly worth £27m, and the Belgian started his Eagles career off with a bang.
In his first season, Benteke started 36 Premier League games and scored an impressive 15 goals, which is one less than what Mateta has scored in his entire 92 appearances for Palace.
However, right at the start of the following campaign, the Belgian suffered an injury that saw him miss 11 games. This was the first setback of his Palace career, but unfortunately, not his last.
A knee injury kept Benteke out of 28 games for the Eagles during the 2018/19 campaign, and he never fully recovered from that point on, with his overall record at Palace ending in 2022 at 37 goals and 12 assists in 177 appearances.
D.C. United
41
15
Crystal Palace
177
37
Liverpool
42
10
Aston Villa
101
49
KRC Genk
51
20
Fast forward to today, and Benteke is scoring goals for fun in the United States with D.C. United, the club he moved to following his contract expiring at Selhurst Park.
Throughout the 2023 MLS season, the 33-year-old netted 14 goals in 31 appearances, proving that with a run of games, he can still score goals.
With creativity now flowing out of Palace’s team via Eberechi Eze, Michael Olise, Daniel Munoz, and Adam Wharton, it is reasonable to presume that Benteke would have thrived in the penalty box, where he is “unstoppable” as per Pep Guardiola.
The Palace faithful's recent memory of Benteke won’t be that of a clinical goal-scorer, but you have to wonder how his career would have turned out without the injuries, while his continued heroics elsewhere may represent a source of frustration.
With Mateta – who has netted just eight times since Benteke's exit – struggling to fire, a new centre-forward must be a priority for the club this summer.