The curious case of Cole Palmer: What has gone wrong for Chelsea star? | OneFootball

Confidence, Enzo Maresca’s tactics or is there a deeper problem?

Sunday’s 2-2 draw with Ipswich was 14th straight match in which Palmer has failed to score

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When Cole Palmer’s name is read out in Chelsea’s starting line-up at Stamford Bridge, each syllable is drawn out, said with more volume, and his name prompts a greater cheer than any of his team-mates.

But that show has fallen flat over the past three months, Sunday’s 2-2 draw with lowly Ipswich the 14th straight match in which he failed to score. Something is off.

Few can forget how astonishingly well Palmer took to life at the Bridge following his 2023 move from Manchester City, where he saw opportunities as too few and far between. Across Europe’s five major leagues, only Harry Kane and Kylian Mbappe outdid Palmer for league goal contributions last season. The Chelsea man registered 33 in 34, the highest in the Premier League - remarkable given his age and even more extraordinary given this was his first season with a new club.

Palmer’s form has dipped this season

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He won Premier League Young Player of the Season and PFA Fans' Player of the Year, earning a spot in the England squad for Euro 2024, where his performances off the bench were as positive and impactful as his displays for Chelsea.

He scored a nerveless penalty in the quarter-final penalty shootout win against Switzerland, assisted Ollie Watkins’s last-minute winner in the semi-final against the Netherlands and scored the equaliser in the final against Spain, just three minutes after coming on.

The version of Palmer which Chelsea are getting at the moment is a far cry from that earlier model.

Since notching an early goal in the 2-2 draw with Bournemouth on January 14, he has gone three long months - 1,145 minutes of game time - without scoring. Of his last 41 shots in the Premier League, none have gone in.

Arsenal’s Kai Havterz has more goals in all competitions than Palmer this season, and he has been out injured since February 2.

Against Ipswich, Palmer appeared just as inhibited as he has for weeks. Last season, Sunday would have come so much more easily to him. Against newly promoted clubs last term, he scored or assisted 11 of Chelsea’s 13 goals. Against Ipswich, he achieved little beyond assisting Jadon Sancho’s stunning equaliser - and Sancho did all the hard work himself.

Palmer is evidently lacking confidence. To watch him during this three-month trough is to notice how much less frequently he is taking men on and taking risks. He is no longer beating players at will, like last season, and is affording defenders the time to block and goalkeepers the time to brace themselves for his shots. Passes are not wrapped with the same conviction. Risk has left his game. He appears to be in his own head.

Enzo Maresca’s style of play is not helping Palmer

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In one sense, this is all perfectly natural. Palmer is one of the Premier League’s best players, and eventually opposition defences catch on and double up on such individuals. Bukayo Saka and Mohamed Salah do not enjoy the sort of space opponents gave them during their breakout seasons in the Premier League. The same has happened to Palmer.

Yet it is not as simple as concluding that teams have worked him out. Sure, he is no longer gifted the space to roam that teams mistakenly allowed him last season, but he still drops deep to receive the ball and still floats in and around the pocket.

Partly responsible for the drop-off is Maresca’s style of play - methodical, possession-based, completely opposed to Palmer’s more dynamic and off-the-cuff approach. And the drawbacks of Maresca’s style for Palmer have been exacerbated by those around him.

While striker Nicolas Jackson (on an 11-game goal drought of his own) and midfielders Moises Caicedo and Enzo Fernandez are well suited to Palmer’s game, so many of Chelsea’s wingers slow attacks down, wasting a man advantage on a swift breakaway and allowing the opposition to get reset.

Only Noni Madueke is as direct and dangerous as Palmer would want alongside him. Pedro Neto, Christopher Nkunku (when he plays wide) and Sancho, for all their quality, dawdle on the ball for too long. That kills any tempo, limits space, and thus limits the threat Palmer can have in the final third.

Palmer’s assist tally has also been hit by misfiring team-mates. He created more chances than any player in Europe’s top five leagues between early December and early February. None of them were converted, so he must not blame himself there.

Palmer’s off spell is not down to any one thing; it is a perfect storm of problems. Low confidence, off-par team-mates, opponents paying greater attention to him, maybe even some fatigue, too.

Last season, Palmer led the march that saw Mauricio Pochettino's Chelsea climb from mid-table to sixth by winning their final five games of the campaign. A year on, the opposite is in danger of happening: a good season petering out.

Chelsea know the real Palmer will return - he’s too good not to. It’s just a matter of when that happens. To ensure Chelsea’s season doesn’t continue to unravel, the sooner the better.