Speaking following Jairo Riedewald's Man of the Match winning performance against Arsenal on Saturday, Palace manager Roy Hodgson recalled his conversation with the makeshift fullback on his recent positional change.
The Dutchman has been drafted in lately to replace countryman Patrick van Aanholt at left-back, a position the No.44 is not accustomed to.
But Hodgson has revealed that he could see Riedewald's potential in the back four and that he spoke with the 23-year-old about his feelings on making the switch in advance of the injury crisis.
"We don’t have any natural left-back cover and we don’t have any natural right-back cover," the manager recalled, "and I knew that I was going into a season with two good fullbacks - right and left - but if either of them got injured, it was a different story.