Crystal Palace hero John Salako has hailed the impact of Roy Hodgson last season.
Hodgson returned to Palace last season after the dismissal of Patrick Vieira and guided them to Premier League safety.
Salako told Palace’s website: “Roy is a football man, he’s so experienced and a great guy. He did a great job here before and proved to be what we actually needed. Ray Lewington is one of the best coaches in the business and combined with Paddy McCarthy coming in as his assistant was the perfect, perfect remedy to get us back in form.
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“There was something missing, maybe confidence, just a bit of intensity, desire to get forward and to play the ball quicker. Roy, Ray and Paddy just brought that and a little bit of confidence, and a little bit more tempo and runs forward and all of a sudden [Ebere] Eze, [Michael] Olise and [Wilfried] Zaha come to life.
“Winning against Leicester and then Leeds away was incredible and then a third win in a row against Southampton. Obviously we drew against Everton, but the performances were absolutely incredible.
“I think the West Ham game was the best game, 4-3. Three set-pieces we were like ‘wow, what’s going on?!’ We lost against Spurs, but bounced back and beat Bournemouth. Five wins, two draws and two losses going into the last day, home and hosed.”