Crystal Palace Boss Frank de Boer Critiques His Side's Performance After Penultimate Pre-Season Game

Crystal Palace boss Frank de Boer has expressed satisfaction with his side's pre-season jaunt to France, pinpointing both the positive and negative elements of the performance after their penultimate pre-season match. The Eagles played out an entertaining 1-1 draw with Ligue Un side Metz, with Wilfried Zaha netting a well-struck volley for the South London side.

Speaking to the club's official website, de Boer declared that he was generally pleased with the pre-season preparations, but contending that the team still had some areas in need of hard work: 

“I thought we controlled the game and we created a number of chances. Christian Benteke was unlucky not to have scored having hit the bar on a couple of occasions and overall I felt we controlled the game.

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“On 75 minutes I was very satisfied but then our shape was not so good as it had been but even though you want to win this type of game overall we can be satisfied with the performance.”

Crystal Palace's new signing Jairo Riedewald made his non-competitive debut for the club, having been expertly plucked from Ajax from de Boer for £7.6m. The 20-year-old is a raw talent, but de Boer is highly confident of the player's potential:

"Jairo is an experienced player even though he is still a youngster he has been involved in many games and came in and did very well whilst Jason started a little nervous but after that he played his own game and can be very positive about his performance.”

Palace have experienced a mixed pre-season campaign so far. They struggled to a 2-0 loss to Liverpool earlier in the month, but bounced back with a convincing 2-0 victory over West Brom. 

The Eagle's face Bundesliga side Schalke at Selhurst Park next Saturday, before taking on Huddersfield Town at home in their first game of the 2017/18 season the following Saturday.