Andros Townsend lauds 'incredible' Crystal Palace depth after last season's injury nightmare
Andros Townsend has hailed Crystal Palace's "incredible" depth and says they now have a squad capable of steering them through the busy Christmas period.
Palace boss Roy Hodgson battled one of the biggest injury pile-ups of his career across December and January last season, with as many as 11 senior first team players out at certain times.
However, after a summer of exciting investment and a couple of players stepping up in Tyrick Mitchell and Jairo Riedewald, Palace's squad is looking younger and deeper for this most hectic of campaigns.
"I think we've got almost every player back fit," said Townsend. "We picked up a couple of injuries during the international break but you can see the players that are training, the players that didn't start [against Brighton], we've got an incredibly deep squad this season and I'm sure when it comes to December, Januray and February when you're playing three times a week the deep squad will help us."
Michy Batshuayi was one of Hodgson's summer recruits, but was denied a first goal back at the club when his thunderous finish against Brighton was ruled out for a narrow offside. Sunday was the Belgian's first Premier League start of the season, and Townsend is backing him to start firing soon.
"Of course, he is a goalscorer," said the winger. "He was the last time he was here, he was everywhere he has been, and he'll score goals for us if myself, Jeffrey [Schlupp], Ebs [Eze] and Wilf [Zaha] can create chances in the box he is going to score goals. The more games we play together the better we can combine."
