Crystal Palace are one of the tamest attacking teams in the Premier League – and could be looking to an international striker to resolve their issues in front of goal.
Odsonne Edouard is the team's top scorer right now with six goals, and after that, Michael Olise (five) is the only player to have bagged more than three. Centre-back Joachim Andersen (two) has scored as many goals as Palace's second-most prolific forward, Jean-Philippe Mateta.
And with more than half the season gone, the Eagles have scored just 22 goals – only Burnley (21) and Sheffield United (15) have netted fewer. If Palace can't improve their output, they could soon be joining them, with their cushion over the bottom three a mere five points. They only scored 40 times last season too, so this is very much a lasting problem that must be addressed.
All this is to say that it's absolutely no surprise that Palace are in the market for a new number nine, with a fresh target now emerging for Roy Hodgson.
Palace and Forest want Cordoba
According to reports in Colombia (via Sport Witness), Palace are interested in Jhon Cordoba, who currently plays for Russian outfit FC Krasnodar. He's apparently on a shortlist of options drawn up "to reinforce the attack" at Selhurst Park this month.
Nottingham Forest, who are also under threat of relegation, are in the race too, but it's not clear at this stage whether Cordoba is ready to pack his bags and move to England before the end of the window.
Premier League warning could scupper deal
Formerly of Espanyol, Granada, Mainz, Cologne and Hertha Berlin, Cordoba has been settled in Krasnodar since the summer of 2021. He's surpassed a century of career goals during his time in Russia (117, to be precise), and is into double figures for this season (11) to go along with four assists.
He's joint-second in the Russian Premier League goal charts with eight goals (none of them penalties), and also ranks fourth for total shots (46), which shows that he can generate plentiful opportunities through the quality of his movement. This kind of No 9 play will be valuable to a Palace side who are currently without chief playmaker Olise, who leads the squad for both key passes (2.67) and expected assists (0.32) per 90 minutes.
Cordoba is also the most-fouled player in the division this season, which suggests that defenders are very much struggling to stop him by fair means. His form in recent months has earned him a first call-up to the Colombia national side, and he'll now hope to feature at Copa America in the United States during the summer.
One potential issue with this deal is that the Premier League intends to do what it can to discourage clubs from doing business with Russian teams amid the ongoing war in Ukraine. The top sides in the country have been prevented from taking part in UEFA competition, and so there may be dissenting voices both inside and outside the club if Palace are seriously considering paying Krasnodar millions for one of their assets.
