The reason behind the emotional display of Crystal Palace’s young talent Romain Esse, who was seen in tears at Anfield after the Eagles’ final match, a 1-1 draw with Liverpool, has been clarified following the release of footage showing Mohamed Salah comforting the player.
The 20-year-old joined Crystal Palace in January and was part of the team that triumphed in the FA Cup against Manchester City, where he was listed on the substitutes’ bench at Wembley but did not participate in the match.
To date, he has made only seven appearances in the Premier League, scoring during his debut against Brentford and starting just once in the concluding match of the season at Selhurst Park against Wolves.
He also had a brief appearance at Anfield, with the primary focus being his poignant reaction at the end of the game.
Now, further information has emerged regarding the possible reasons for his emotional response.
In the footage posted to social media, Esse could be seen in deep conversation with Salah.
There was also a short snippet of him talking to Joel Ward, who will be leaving Palace after more than a decade at the club come the end of the season.
The young forward’s reaction is believed to have stemmed from a dressing down he received from manager Oliver Glasner for his performance during the 11 minutes he was on the pitch at Anfield.
Esse was brought on in the 79th minute, but was then replaced by Matheus Franca in stoppage time.
While Glasner did not specifically comment on the reason why he opted to replace the sub, he did say after the game that Esse had been made aware of the reasoning, while also criticising his side’s overall performance, as per The Athletic:”He knows why, that’s enough,” the Palace boss stated.
“I’m not really pleased with our performance.
Not in general but a few players didn’t play 100 per cent for the team (in) how we want to play. I didn’t like to see this.
“That’s why we got the draw, there were so many situations we could have won this game.
I don’t forget our start to the season where it was similar (with Palace failing to win any of the first eight games), we missed our chances because of a lack of determination and this is (the same) today.”