Mauricio Pochettino shares how Chelsea boss Liam Rosenior can get the best out of Cole Palmer
Mauricio Pochettino shares how Chelsea boss Liam Rosenior can get the best out of Cole Palmer
USMNT boss Mauricio Pochettino has given his two cents on how Chelsea head coach Liam Rosenior can get the best out of Cole Palmer.
Palmer has been a revelation since joining Chelsea in 2023 and has arguably been the club's best signing since a Todd Boehly-led consortium took ownership of the west London outfit.
Interestingly, Pochettino was appointed Chelsea head coach the same period, and Palmer’s best season so far in a Blues shirt was unarguably his debut campaign at the club.
The England international registered 42 goal contributions in 48 appearances across all competitions during the 2023/24 campaign, finishing second in the Premier League scoring chart with 22 goals.
Palmer set a new record after scoring a hat-trick in Chelsea’s 3-1 win against Wolverhampton Wanderers on Saturday. However, there is no denying the fact that the former Manchester City man has not been at his best over the past couple of months.
Speaking on the High Performance podcast, Pochettino stated that Palmer needs to be given freedom, suggesting that ‘mechanical’ instructions will not bring out the best version of the 23-year-old.
“With Cole Palmer, you cannot say – move from here to there,” Pochettino said. “That is your movement, and it’s mechanical. No no. Of course, it [has to be] mechanical in some aspects of the game when you don’t have the ball. But after, it is your quality and your capacity to understand the game. What is the demand of the game, the situation, your intuition, the capacity to see a space, arrive or to dribble and shoot
“We are not going to cut this potential, this is why football is so emotional, because a player like him has the capacity to create that emotion that makes people go crazy.”
Palmer has been plagued by fitness issues this season and has scored eight goals in 17 appearances in all competitions.
Liam Rosenior heaps praise on Cole Palmer after hat-trick in Chelsea’s 3-1 win over Wolves
Rosenior labelled Palmer ‘unstoppable’ and a ‘world-class player’ after the forward’s stunning first-half hat-trick inspired Chelsea to a 3-1 victory at the Molineux Stadium. Palmer scored twice from the spot and a third from open play in the opening 38 minutes.
Speaking after the match, Rosenior was all praise for Palmer and said:
“We changed the system a little bit for the first time and the players, to put that into practice in the first half the way that they did, were excellent. Some of our passages of play – obviously Cole gets the three goals – but some of our football was everything I want to see. Cole was a part of that and we know what a world-class player he is. He's played a lot of football over the last year with not much rest, but when he's at his best, he's unstoppable. I'm delighted to be working with him.”
Palmer’s three-goal haul moved him beyond the 50-goal mark since his move from Manchester City.