Roy Hodgson believes Crystal Palace recent addition Jefferson Lerma will provide a welcome midfield selection dilemma.
The 28-year-old Columbian international joined the Eagles last month after spending five years on the south coast with Bournemouth.
Lerma started in last night’s 2-1 friendly defeat against Millonarios in Chicago before eventually making way for Cheick Doucoure.
Palace manager Hodgson was impressed by Lerma’s contribution and hopes the upcoming battle he now faces to nail down a starting spot can only be a good thing.
He told cpfc.co.uk: “I liked him. I think he did well.
“Luckily we have two good players in what seems to be a good position.
“He was everything I hoped he would be but of course we took him off to put Doucoure on, who is also a player we much admire.
“I have very strong competition in that central midfield.”
Palace took a second half lead through Jake O’Brien’s header, an advantage which proved short lived thanks to Leonardo Castro’s equaliser.
Castro settled the encounter in the Colombian side’s favour late on from the spot.
O’Brien’s goal drew praise from the boss, who also provided an update on Tyrick Mitchell and Will Hughes who were both forced off through injury after the interval.
“It was good for him,” said Hodgson on O’Brien’s header.
“He wasn’t due to play.
“Chris Richards was due to play, but he reported an injury this morning so we had to leave him out of the line-up – and that meant that Jake O’Brien got his chance.
“He certainly took his chance well with the goal he scored and I thought he did quite well defensively too in a very difficult period of time for us.”
The SE25 boss added: “Mitchell has a strain in his quad muscle.
“He felt a sharp pain when he tried to slide in to stop the goal being scored, so that could be a dangerous one for us.
“The player who was the recipient of that wicked challenge in the second half (Hughes), we don’t know yet if that’s going to put him out of action because those challenges do put people out of action.
“They’re the challenges which twist people’s knees and twist people’s ankles.”
