“Quite unusual for a manager” – Gary Neville admits shock at what he’s heard about Cole Palmer | OneFootball

Gary Neville has admitted he was shocked to hear Liam Rosenior admit he was saving Cole Palmer as a super sub for the second half against Arsenal.

The Blues crashed out of the Carabao Cup after a 1-0 defeat at The Emirates in the second leg of the semi final on Tuesday evening.

Chelsea trailed 3-2 from the first leg and simply couldn’t find the breakthrough they needed, with Kai Havertz scoring with the last kick of the game.

Gary Neville surprised at Liam Rosenior’s Cole Palmer comments

Rosenior sprung a surprise by fielding a back five, with Palmer and Estevao both named amongst the substitutes.

Reece James was left out of the squad completely along with Pedro Neto, and Chelsea’s plan was clearly to just stay in the game for as long as possible.

Palmer wasn’t able to make an impact from the bench. (Photo by Clive Mason/Getty Images)

The first half wasn’t pretty and the Blues created very little, and many would have thought Palmer would have been introduced at half time.

The defensive structure was strong, but Chelsea just didn’t look like scoring, even when Palmer and Estevao were eventually introduced.

Neville, who was commentating on the game for Sky Sports admitted he was surprised to hear Rosenior admit he was saving Palmer as a super sub.

“Yeah he mentioned that in his team talk, when he was asked about Cole Palmer,” he told Sky Sports.

“He said yeah but I want to think about the second half. It’s quite unusual for a manager to talk like that.”

Reece James absence unclear

James was a noticeable absentee from the match day, and there are contrasting reports out there as to why he was missing.

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The Athletic reported he was simply being rested, whilst other sources and Liam Rosenior say he had a knock and failed a late fitness test.

Either way to not have the club captain with the squad for a semi final isn’t a great look, and it will be interesting if he returns for the trip to Wolves on Saturday.