Tuesday 13 December 2016 14:27, UK
Alan Pardew believes Wilfried Zaha should be in the England squad and has encouraged Gareth Southgate to step up his efforts to secure the player.
The Crystal Palace forward is in fine form and scored a stunning goal in his side's 3-3 draw at Hull on Saturday.
Although he has two England caps, both came in friendlies and Zaha has not played for the country in more than three years.
Last month, he swapped his international allegiance to Ivory Coast and Pardew thinks England are in serious danger of missing out on a strong addition to their squad.
He said: "The form he's in just now, England are making a big mistake letting him slip through the net, they really are.
"Gareth is someone I know very well and we've spoken about Wilf. You've got to be really proactive with someone like Wilf if you want to secure him. I keep encouraging him, Dan Ashworth as well.
"When I look at Wilf and I look at the talent, I can't see that talent in too many English players in the Premier League who are playing week in, week out.
"Even when he doesn't play well, he does his defensive duties and he has to do his job. A little bit of that goes unnoticed.
"But he's stacking up the numbers and he's doing everything else. England really need to keep an eye on that situation.
"He's in brilliant form. A lot of people criticised him for his lack of assists and lack of goals but the solution lay on the training ground, in himself and my coaches.
"Myself, Kevin Keen and Keith Millen have been grinding on him about his finishing and his end product and now it's becoming a feature of his game."
Palace play Manchester United in the Premier League on Wednesday as they look to pull away from the relegation zone.
With a difficult run of matches coming up, Pardew maintains games further down the line are more likely to dictate what kind of season his team ultimately enjoys.
He added: "For us, it's a tough run of games. We have United, we have Chelsea at the weekend, Watford away and Arsenal away.
"It's not going to define our season but if we can pick up some points in this spell, the spell after is a lot friendlier and it's a good opportunity for us.
"If we can keep ourselves in and around the middle through these games, I think we will have a good, strong finish."
Palace have scored 10 goals in their last three games, but they have also conceded eight along with another 13 in six defeats previously.
Pardew said: "Perhaps Southampton [when Palace won 3-0] was the benchmark in terms of a defensive display. We need to reproduce that against a United team that's found a bit of form.
"The defenders I'm playing are the defenders who have been here for two or three years. It's not like there's anyone new in there.
"Sometimes it's a little bit of confidence, sometimes it's a little bit of luck here and there as well. Defending is a team duty, never more so than now in the Premier League.
"Everyone has a responsibility to defend. You've got to find solutions. We need to get back to how we performed against Southampton."
