Frank de Boer Upset by Challenges on Wilfried Zaha From West Bromwich Albion in Pre-Season Friendly
Following Crystal Palace's 2-0 victory against West Bromwich Albion at the Premier League Asia Trophy tournament in Hong Kong, Palace boss Frank De Boer had a few words to say regarding the treatment of Wilfried Zaha during the match.
The Dutchman believes that West Brom's players were consistently giving Zaha the harshest of challenges throughout the match and claims that Tony Pulis' men were intentionally making rough tackles to get Zaha injured, the Daily Mail reports.
In a post-match interview, De Boer let his feeling known, despite the 2-0 win with goals from Luka Milivojevic and Bakary Sako.
Victor Fraile/GettyImages
When asked about West Bromwich Albion, he questioned Pulis' tactics and labelled the tackles displayed by the Baggies as 'crazy'.
"For me if you want to sell the Premier League here — and I saw some signs of wanting to bring the beauty of the game here. But the beauty of the game is not those kind of challenges," the Dutchman said.
"Of course when it's a fair challenge for me it's not a problem but for example for Wilf Zaha they were really looking for him, to injure him and we can't accept that.
Victor Fraile/GettyImages
"No manager can accept that. He's one of the exciting players of the Premier League. I don't want to think that he's out for a couple of weeks or months."
De Boer was upset at the fact that West Brom player Allan Nyom was given a yellow card after a repeated challenge to Zaha.
"When it's fair, you don't hear me complain," he said.
Victor Fraile/GettyImages
"The first challenge I think it was a yellow card and then he knows I can't do another one.
"Now you give him the permission to do another challenge, so I think if you want to sell the Premier League you have to do the job to avoid these crazy kind of challenges."
The Eagles boss had also praised Wilfried Zaha for not reacting to the tackles which were consistently used on him.
Victor Fraile/GettyImages
"I think I have to give Wilf a good compliment because he stayed calm and spoke with his feet and he made a big step in that, so compliments to Wilf."
De Boer also justified his frustrations surrounding the challenges:
ISAAC LAWRENCE/GettyImages
"There were some where they really went for the ball. I had a feeling that they were going more for the legs than the ball at that moment. You know it's hard, but still it's pre-season and every manager wants his players fit to start the league.
"Everybody has their own opinion and I think a lot of times it was fair but there were some challenges that I think there was some doubt about."
