Why Man Utd and Liverpool are monitoring Crystal Palace sensation Olise
It is a familiar feeling for Crystal Palace fans. The transfer market is open for business once more and their skilful, electric wing wizard is being linked with a move away.
For Wilfried Zaha over much of the past decade, read Michael Olise in 2024. A player who came close to joining Chelsea last summer is again being spoken of as a target for bigger clubs, with Manchester United now said to be weighing up an offer. Liverpool have also been linked with a move for the Eagles star. Palace will be bracing themselves for bids.
Still, a sale this month is unlikely. Olise signed a new four-year contract in August and while that deal reportedly contains a release clause, it will not become active until the end of the season. The 22-year-old, who is out injured for the remainder of the month with a hamstring issue, will almost certainly see out the season at Selhurst Park.
Beyond that, who knows. One thing is for sure: Olise will continue to attract interest from clubs higher up the food chain than Palace, who stand to make a healthy profit on the £8m they spent to acquire him from Reading in 2021.
A nominee for the Premier League’s Player of the Month award for December, Olise has been in fantastic form since returning to fitness. He scored a stunning individual goal in a 2-1 defeat by Luton Town in November, before really finding his feet in the final month of 2023.
His last four appearances have brought four goals and an assist, including strikes against Manchester City and Chelsea - two of his suitors - and a brace in a 3-1 victory over Brentford. His performance in that encounter earned him a 9.96 WhoScored rating, far and away his best of the season. Unsurprisingly, he currently tops the WhoScored Premier League form rankings.
"We missed him for six months, but he came back… and since then he's just gone from strength to strength," Hodgson said of the winger after that game.
"What he's done has just been Michael Olise - an outstanding player. His individual performance was a crucial one, I think, in helping us to get the victory."
Olise is now dominating rather than merely decorating games. In December alone he scored double the number of Premier League goals he managed in the entirety of the 2022/23 season. He creates chances as well as converting them: Olise’s rate of 2.7 key passes per 90 ranks him joint-eighth in the division of all those who have played at least 600 minutes.
The London-born Frenchman - he plays for les Bleus at under-21 level but is also eligible for England, Nigeria and Algeria - has become a more rounded player during his time at Palace. His natural ability was obvious from day one, but he is more decisive now than he was two years ago. Olise’s decision-making has got better, while both Patrick Vieira and Roy Hodgson have worked hard to improve his defensive awareness and tactical understanding.
The comparisons to Zaha are inevitable given the latter’s consistent brilliance in south London, but Olise is ahead of where his former teammate was at the same age. Thanks to his glorious left foot, he is a more polished and reliable finisher than Zaha was at 22.
Olise is not as explosive or unpredictable, but his first touch and close control are immaculate; just because defenders know he likes to cut inside onto his left foot, it does not mean they can stop him. There are differences in temperament too: the fiery Zaha always wore his heart on his sleeve, whereas Olise is ice-cold on the pitch and a man of few words off it.
Zaha ended up making 315 appearances for Palace across 12 seasons with his boyhood club. It is safe to say Olise will not be hanging around for that long. If he keeps playing like he did in December, the 22-year-old is destined for the top.
