It may take some time for Daichi Kamada to get fully up to speed at Crystal Palace, but his debut was steadily assured and offered glimpses of the shrewd recruitment he will surely prove to be.
Palace went down 2-1 at Brentford in their season opener, yet Kamada was one of their better performers.
Handed a start by Oliver Glasner, he operated as one of two No10s, alongside the bright, lively and desperately unlucky Eberechi Eze.
Kamada complemented Eze well enough, and their chemistry within Glasner’s favoured 3-4-2-1 system will only continue to grow.
Against Brentford, though, Kamada and Eze were key to Palace’s fast start, carrying the ball forward with intent once they had pinched it from the Bees.
Eze went close to rolling a free-kick low round the wall and into the net to give Palace the lead.
The foul that led to that free-kick came after Kamada’s intense pressing forced Brentford goalkeeper Mark Flekken into a lax pass out from the back which went straight to Eze.
Kamada so nearly put Jean-Philippe Mateta through on goal in the first half too, but the Frenchman could not quite latch on as the pass was just slightly overhit.
The close control of the 28-year-old free signing from Lazio was detectable early on in the west London sun, as he kept Palace attacks ticking over, spreading left to Tyrick Mitchell or right to Daniel Munoz at wing-back.
Kamada, like a number of his team-mates in yellow, saw his influence wane as the contest wore on, with Palace players visibly tired. On 70 minutes, he was replaced by Jordan Ayew. Five minutes later Palace were behind again and Glasner left switching to a 4-4-2 in search of a second equaliser which never materialised.
“For Daichi, it’s like for everyone, it was OK today”, Glasner said when asked about Kamada’s debut display after the match.
“The performance was OK in many parts, but it was not on our top level. For him, the same - it was OK.
“He did many things that were very good, like being in the pocket for getting the passes. But also he had this three against two, with a better ball to JP [needed]. So it was OK.”
Kamada showed last season at Lazio and for four years prior to that at Eintracht Frankfurt that, at his best, he is a highly productive playmaker.
Glasner has managed him before, at Eintracht, and will no doubt be relaxed about how to get Kamada ticking. Certainly, the Japanese is a very different profile of player from Michael Olise, whose position he has inherited in the team.
Eze has gone from partnering a world-class inverted natural winger to playing with a bona-fide attacking midfielder. It will take time to adapt.
For Kamada, a decent if unspectacular start to life at Palace.
