Lee Carsley has praised Romain Esse’s attitude as the England Under-21 international looks to force his way back into the first team at Crystal Palace.
Winger Esse has not featured for Palace since he was substituted at half-time during their Carabao Cup victory over Millwall in September and has been publicly criticised by manager Oliver Glasner.
The 20-year-old was called up to play for England’s U21s following Nico O’Reilly’s promotion to the senior squad last week, and Carsley has called for patience as Esse looks to earn the trust of Glasner following a difficult start to life at Selhurst Park.
“We have to be patient with these young players and understand that they are young. They need time and support,” Carsley said.
“But he's definitely going in the right direction. He's got a brilliant attitude.”
Esse joined Palace from Millwall for £14million in January, but despite scoring off the bench on his debut against Brentford, the young winger has so far played just 258 minutes.
He was dropped from Palace’s squad for their 2-1 win against West Ham, but has responded well to Glasner’s decision to omit him from the first team, producing two goals and two assists in three games for the club’s U21s.
Esse was an unused substitute as Palace kick-started their Conference League campaign with a 2-0 win against Dynamo Kyiv, but was subsequently left out of the squad as the Eagles’ club-record 19-game unbeaten run came to an end against Everton.
Carsley went on to say that the pressure of making the move from the Championship to the Premier League was not an easy thing for a young player to handle, sympathising with Esse’s plight.
“I'm very impressed with Romain. It's not easy to make a move from one club to another,” Carsley continued.
“He's a player that I've enjoyed working with. I left him out of the initial squad. But the fact that he got called up, as we needed a player, shows you are never too far away from the squad.
“That goes for a lot of other players that aren't with us. We watch games every weekend and there are a lot of players that we're monitoring.”
