Dougie Freedman has shouldered some of the blame for the slow start to Antonio Pedroza’s Crystal Palace career.

The 21-year-old seems to finally have found his feet in England, impressing in his first league start in the 2-1 defeat to Portsmouth last Tuesday and off the bench in the 2-2 draw at champions Reading on Saturday.

But it has taken him nine months to break into the first team since signing from Mexican club Jaguares in August as he struggled to adapt to life back in the country where he was born.

And Freedman wants Palace to learn from their mistakes with Pedroza and make sure it does not happen again.

“He has found it hard to settle and I think we did not help the situation,” he said.

“We have to look at how people settle in and maybe we could do a bit more to help out.

“We put them in digs when they are young and maybe that didn’t help him.

“Every individual is different and maybe he needed his own independence rather than living with a local family.

“Maybe we need to do more outside the club as well.

“But now he has been here nine months he has pulled through that and is playing well, his performance has been good the past six weeks in training and in games.

“When I first signed him I knew how good he was and I would like to think one of the things I am good at is spotting a player.

“My signings have been good and I think I know what I am doing, especially when it comes to forward players.”

Pedroza’s inclusion, and that of youngster Kyle de Silva, has seen Jermaine Easter left out of the last four squads but Freedman insisted there is nothing more to it than assessing his options.

“I am trying to see what I have got in the squad,” he said.

“I need to see who is ready for next year and that has meant some players have had to miss out.

“Jermaine has done very well for us this season and played a lot of games.

“He is a good guy and I know what he can do for us.”

Palace end their season at home to Cardiff City – the team that beat them on penalties in the Carling Cup semi-finals – on Saturday.