Ex-Ireland international and current First Team coach with Crystal Palace Steven Reid chatted to Keith Andrews and Eoin earlier on the Keith Andrews Show about his career ahead his showdown with former side West Brom this Sunday.
Reid, since hanging up his boots in July 2015 and joining the coaching ranks at Crystal Palace last September, said that he has learned a great deal from former England coach Roy Hodgson during their 8 months working alongside each other.
The 37-year-old also said Hodgson is a man never to take a day off, even sometimes leading team training sessions on the Sunday after a match. Naturally, it's lead to a lot of players holding the former Fulham manager in high regard.
"Massively [on learning from Hodgson]. You get moments during the season where age for me the age part of it is irrelevant because he’s still the most enthusiastic every day.
"He comes in on days where managers might not wander out on a Sunday to take a session if there’s a small group.
"But he’s out there, never takes a day off, it’s been incredible.
"I remember when he got the England job and I was still at WBA there was one or two negative headlines and I remember saying at the time you can’t comment on a manager like Roy Hodgson unless you’ve worked with him.
"All those that have have got the utmost respect for him, the way he works, and i think that enthusiasm has rubbed off the players. It wasn’t a case of after the Stoke game, lets give the lads off till Thursday or Friday like some might do, we’d been back in Tuesday, Wednesday working on our shape again and the lads bought into that.
"I think they looked around and thought actually that’s what’s got us into that position. This is what we do now. There wasn’t a case of we’re safe now and take the foot off the peddle; we want to finish the season on a high.
"I think it’d actually be a disappointment now if we got beat at the weekend and ended up finishing 14th or 15th. I think we’d end the season a little bit disappointed.
The conversation then flowed to Palace front-man Wilfried Zaha, who again has impressed this term with 8 goals in 27 starts. As Reid noted, the tricky forward has shown flashes of what made Irishman Damien Duff a household name.
“I actually had a chat with him yesterday and I just said to him I just love the way you go out there and enjoy playing.
"He literally goes out there, training, playing, like he was playing with his mates in the park.
"There’s no fear in him. Probably something that goes a bit under the radar is how strong he is and how much he wants to be out there.
"He’s had two injuries this season, both occasions were probably thee month injuries. And he’s got back in six weeks from them. They’re the bits that people don’t see.
"His desire to get out there, to play, to put his body on the line and perform has been incredible."
"Having said that, he’s some talent as well. There’s been moments of individual brilliance that were maybe [like] Damien Duff in his prime."
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