Enzo Maresca praises Cole Palmer's attitude with the Chelsea boss explaining tactical tweaks for England international
Published 21/11/2024 at 17:02 GMT
Cole Palmer is into his second season at Stamford Bridge and, after being named the Premier League Young Player of the Season in the last campaign, the former Manchester City midfielder is going from strength-to-strength and has become one of Enzo Maresca's most dangerous weapons. The Chelsea boss sat down with TNT Sports to discuss why he has tinkered with Palmer's position in recent weeks.
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Enzo Maresca has praised Cole Palmer's professional attitude as the Chelsea boss looks for new ways to utilise his talisman.
The England international already has seven goals and five assists from 11 Premier League matches this season and is rapidly becoming one of the division's most devastating performers.
With Palmer often played from the right-hand side of midfield or deployed in a more central role, Chelsea fans were given a surprise when he was swapped to the left for their 2-1 win against Newcastle in October.
Maresca's tactical switch paid off as Palmer helped set up Chelsea's first goal before scoring the winner, having also had one chalked off following a VAR call.
Speaking ahead of his return to face former club Leicester City, live on TNT Sports and discovery+, Maresca explained his thinking behind Palmer's change of position.
"The first time we changed him was Newcastle at home. He scored a goal and was probably player of the match in that game," Maresca explained to TNT Sports.
"The reason why was Newcastle had Joelinton, so if we left Cole [Palmer] on that side, he probably [would be] marked man-to-man by Joelinton and it was probably difficult for him, so the idea was to move him from the right pocket to the left pocket and in that game it worked quite well.
"The reason why is to try to give Cole more space because we know that if we are able to [make] contact with him, he has quality and he is going to help us to win the game," he told Rio Ferdinand in the latest edition of Between The Lines.
Maresca first worked with Palmer at Manchester City, where he was an assistant to Pep Guardiola, while the talented attacker was trying to burst through and displace the likes of Jack Grealish, Phil Foden and Bernardo Silva.
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"Everyone at City, they knew how good Cole is. The only problem is that having so many players there, it's difficult to give all of them minutes, so no one at City thought that Cole was not good enough, no doubt," Maresca said.
Going from a fringe player at City to the main man at Chelsea has seemingly been an easy progression for Palmer.
Maresca says that is due to the personality and temperament of the 22-year-old.
"The transition, I said, the good thing for him is that he is today exactly in the same way he was three years ago with the under-23 or two years ago with City. He didn't change," said Maresca.
"He's always the same humble guy, professional. Every time we start the session, he's the first outside playing with the ball. He's like a kid. He loves to play football."
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