The Crystal Palace winger outshone his Manchester United and Southampton counterparts while playing for his country on Friday.
Crystal Palace’s Wilfried Zaha celebrates
Remember John Barnes against Brazil? Well, it was something like that – Wilfried Zaha whizzing his way through a sea of opposition defenders en route to hitting the back of the net and sending the England supporters wild.
Only this time it wasn’t a happy wildness but rather something more incredulous, following Zaha’s decision to pick the Ivory Coast over England at the end of last year.
The Crystal Palace winger has enjoying his best ever season at Premier League level, scoring five goals and making eight in 25 outings for the Eagles.
It’s no wonder then that Three Lions boss Gareth Southgate, a former Palace player himself, tried to get Zaha to change his mind over switching his allegiance.
Instead, Southgate was forced to turn to the likes of Jesse Lingard (Manchester United) and Nathan Redmond (Southampton) for England’s March fixtures against Germany and Lithuania.
As far as many fans are concerned, the pair aren’t fit to lace Zaha’s boots…
In all competitions this season Lingard – a former Manchester United teammate of Zaha’s – has scored the same amount of goals as the Ivorian, but managed five fewer assists.
Saints’ Redmond, meanwhile, has scored one more goal than the pair of them (six) but has only one assist to his name despite playing 12 times more in total.
Is the Crystal Palace winger better than his Manchester United and Southampton counterparts?
Southampton’s Nathan Redmond with Manchester United pair Jesse Lingard and Marcus Rashford during England training
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