Cole Palmer has had a few quiet games in a row now – and oddly enough, that’s just what has prompted Liam Twomey to write about him for the Athletic.
Since arriving at Chelsea, the attacking midfielder has scored and assisted so regularly that the fact he’s now gone three games without a goal contributions is notable. Twomey calls in a “mini slump”, but points out how that highlights “the remarkably high standards of attacking production he has maintained since arriving at Stamford Bridge last year.”
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Rio Ferdinand doing pundit work.
Gianfranco Zola working as a pundit.
Enzo Maresca and Steve Cooper at the King Power (Photo by Darren Walsh/Chelsea FC)
While we all want Palmer scoring and creating goals, it’s important that this team is still able to get good results without their star man doing everything for them.
Mauricio Pochettino attempts to claim his team weren’t “Cole Palmer FC”, in his own words, rather backfired when they lost the subsequent game to Arsenal 5-0. But this season we’ve seen players like Nicolas Jackson go up a level and take the burden off Palmer a little.
Cole Palmer fouled by Ndidi.
Cole Palmer fouled by Ndidi.
Central position opens Palmer up to battering
So what’s behind Palmer’s slowdown? How is his form declining while the team are improving? Twomey notes that one major aspect is how the attacker is getting marked tightly and rather roughly. He’s being fouled 2.5 times per 90, up from just 0.9 last year. That’s a vast increase.
That is also a result of Enzo Maresca’s decision to move him inside from the right and play him centrally almost without fail. Instead of having one man to beat, he’s right in the mix and is constantly getting his ankles clipped or a shoulder barge just as he gets going.
With Enzo Fernandez now finding a little form, it seems very possible we get another shift – could Palmer return to the right and let Enzo take the kicks in the middle? It’s something we’re sure Maresca is thinking about.