Twitter laughs as Roy Hodgson fails to pluck one out of the sky during Crystal Palace’s win
Twitter laughs when Roy Hodgson fails to pluck one out of the air during Crystal Palace’s victory over West Ham… though some defend the 75-year-old boss, praising his ‘Golden Touch’
- Crystal Palace boss Roy Hodgson has been mocked for his ball control in a 4-3 win
- The 75-year-old was ironically praised for his ‘Golden Touch’ of a wayward ball
- Palace’s thrilling 4-3 win over West Ham puts them above Chelsea on the table
Twitter lightly laughed at Roy Hodgson after he showed off his skills on the ball during Crystal Palace’s thrilling 4-3 win over London rivals West Ham on Saturday.
Midway through the first half, a wayward kick took the ball to the side of the pitch, and the 75-year-old Palace boss put his foot out to deal with it, though he didn’t pluck it from the air, sending it instead. spinning in open space.
He wore a suit and tie on the touchline, not a tracksuit, which may have hindered his efforts to bring the ball down – and it caused a frenzy on social media.
BT Sport, who showed Saturday afternoon’s kick-off live, shared a clip of Hodgson’s ball skills with the caption: ‘Not the best touches, Roy!’ and a smiling crying emoji.
Roy Hodgson tried to knock down a wayward ball in Crystal Palace’s victory on Saturday
BT Sport claimed the Crystal Palace boss was ‘not showing the best ball sense’ during play
But others defended the Crystal Palace boss, possibly tongue in cheek. One responded to BT saying ‘What are you talking about, he played it perfectly in space’.
One said the ex-England boss was ‘channelling’ Belgium striker Romelu Lukaku at the time, which happened as his team were 2-1 up in the game despite an initial deficit.
Another fan went even further, praising Hodgson for a ‘Golden Touch’, while another openly admitted that the 75-year-old’s ball control was ‘still better than mine’.
Several fans were quick to pledge their support to Hodgson for his ball skills against West Ham
While one supporter erroneously added five years by rounding the former England manager’s age to the nearest decade, they said it was ‘pretty cool for someone close to 80 tbh’.
Another could only imagine the memes that would have resulted from a finer touch usually reserved for social media clips. “I wish he took that guy down,” one fan mused, “the content would have been outrageous.”
Since the beginning of April, Palace have won four of their six league matches, drawn and lost just once with Tuesday’s 2-0 defeat on the road at Wolves.
Fans praised the ex-England boss’s ‘great’ control but wished he had brought the ball down
Saturday’s victory over struggling West Ham lifted Crystal Palace to 11th in the Premier League.
It lifted them above Chelsea, although they have played an extra two games compared to Frank Lampard’s Blues, who don’t play until Tuesday.
Crystal Palace’s next game is also a London derby, this time a trip to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium this Saturday.