Can Chelsea kick-start faltering Cole Palmer?
Cole Palmer was named the world’s eighth-best player at the Ballon d’Or ceremony in September, but both the data and the eye test show a decline in form.
The 23-year-old is still considered “untouchable” at Chelsea. Former head coach Enzo Maresca described him as the club’s “best player”, while his successor, Liam Rosenior, has had many meetings with his star forward since taking over.
However, as the PFA Young Player of the Year himself admits, Palmer is not yet at his fluent and best performance; There are also several mitigating factors that contributed to this decline.
Firstly, as Maheta Molango, chief executive of the Professional Footballers’ Association, has said, the England striker is likely suffering from burnout.
“When I look at someone like Cole Palmer, I go three summers in a row without a break,” Molango said at the Financial Times’ Football Business Summit.
“People say he’s a millionaire, yes he is. But that doesn’t give you an extra lung or an extra leg. I want to see Cole Palmer on the field because he’s the one who makes me dream.”
He played 112 times for club and national teams in three years with no summer break; This includes World Cup matches with Chelsea, the European Championship with England and the European Under-21 Championship before that.
His managers did not see it as a coincidence that Palmer’s fitness had declined as the demands on him increased. The striker began struggling with a painful, recurring groin problem at the end of last season.
He only partially recovered by December, returning more than six weeks later and Chelsea’s medical team continuing to monitor him closely.
Asked by BBC Sport about Palmer’s performance after the 2-1 away defeat against Arsenal, Rosenior said: “He played 83 minutes. It was tactical.
“When I got her and Enzo [Fernandez] off, they were both on yellow cards and I wanted Garna [Alejandro Garnacho] and Liam [Delap] To come and refresh us, I felt they did so. Definitely in good condition to start the game [against Aston Villa] On Wednesday.”
However, it may have come as a surprise to some that Palmer, often the source of goals and creativity, was withdrawn as Chelsea chased the equaliser. But statistics show that this was not an unfair decision made in the heat of the moment.
