Amid the clamour for James Maddison to be England‘s World Cup wildcard in Qatar, Eberechi Eze’s return to form has largely gone unnoticed.
Considering he was pencilled in for a place in Gareth Southgate’s provisional squad for last summer’s European Championship before rupturing his Achilles tendon, Eze has seemingly featured in the England manager’s thinking more recently than Maddison, whose one, and so far only, international cap was almost three years ago.
For whatever reason, Southgate has appeared reluctant to select Leicester’s MVP, but Fifa’s decision to boost World Cup squad allocations from 23 players in 2018 to 26 this year, means there is room for a maverick pick. Perhaps Eze could be the chosen one instead.
“I think he was there as well to look at Marc [Guehi] and Tyrick [Mitchell],” Eze’s club boss Patrick Vieira said after Saturday’s stalemate against Leicester at the King Power, which Southgate attended.
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“If we perform well as a team, those players are always going to have a chance to go. Ebe is one of them because he has been playing well and scoring goals.
“I always believe that when you’re building a group for a World Cup, you always have one or two surprises, and he can be one of them.”
Eze certainly seems to be peaking at the right time. A well-taken header to kickstart Palace’s comeback against Wolves on Tuesday night took Eze to four direct goal contributions (two goals, two assists) in the Premier League this season. The 24-year-old has also been the Eagles’ top chance creator so far with 16.
“When I talk to the youngsters like Eze and Michael [Olise], as soon as we get on the pitch I’m like: ‘Efficiency is all we need,’ nothing else,” Wilfried Zaha, Palace’s match-winner against Wolves, told Amazon Prime. “Seeing what they can do, I’m happy to be a part of it.”
Encouraging as Eze’s early season output is, raw numbers do a disservice to one of the Premier League’s most watchable players: he glides when most run. Only two players – Arsenal’s Gabriel Jesus and Marcus Tavernier of Bournemouth – have attempted more dribbles than Eze this campaign, while he also features prominently on the “nutmegs” chart too with three.
While there have never been any question marks over Eze’s technical qualities, there perhaps were over his ability to overcome that serious Achilles injury. Eze’s reintegration into the Palace side during 2021-22 was slow and in pre-season he admitted that there had been disagreements between himself and Vieira over his readiness.
Vieira’s cautious management of Eze might have left Palace’s No 10 frustrated but it is a strategy that appears to have paid off in the long run: Eze has started all 10 of his side’s Premier League matches in 2022-23, while only goalkeeper Vicente Guaita and centre-back Marc Guehi have accumulated more minutes.
“He’s getting to his best, but he’s starting to really understand what the game is about – how to be decisive,” Vieira said. “He’s got that talent, but there are still things he can improve in the last third. But since the start of the season, he’s been really important to us and playing really well.”
Given Palace’s relatively kind fixture run between now and the World Cup – Everton (a), Southampton (h), West Ham (a), Nottingham Forest (a) – the in-form Eze might just propel himself into tournament contention once more.
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