Cole Palmer is still pretty young and shy, understandably. This is his first proper season as a regular starter in the Premier League, and he’s probably spoken to more cameras in the last 6 months than he had in the preceding 6 years.
But just as he’s developing into a key player on the field for Chelsea, he’s also developing into a trusted presence with the media off it. He says interesting things, often with a bit of a cheeky edge which you don’t get with other players.
His analysis of Chelsea’s win over Tottenham was interesting in that he broke down exactly what his team had had to go to get through their rivals’ unique defensive strategy after they were reduced to ten and then nine men:
“It’s definitely easier to play against nine men, but on the other hand we knew we needed to win the game when they went down to 10 men. Then when they went down to nine especially, we knew we needed to score, to keep pressing, to keep making the runs in behind because their line was so high,” he said in an interview on the club’s official website.
“‘It can be difficult when the line’s so high and you need to make runs in behind. They maintained the line very well to be fair to them, so it was difficult, but as it went on we figured out how to get in behind. The coaches just said to us at half-time to keep pushing and the chances will come. We knew that and we’re just glad we took them.”
We’d love more insight like that from players on a regular basis in these things. Cole is exactly the kind of player you want out there unlocking defences in those situations, and sure enough we did it eventually.
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