€80m deal has made Cole Palmer worse claims Sky Sports pundit | OneFootball

Joao Pedro’s arrival and instant impressive impact for Chelsea at the Club World Cup had a lot of fans believing that the club were now sorted up front.

Some of them even bought into the idea that it was a good idea to sell Nicolas Jackson, who has been our number one forward for the last two years. Just a month on, it’s already looking a dodgy decision.

One person who really believes that is Paul Merson, who was on “The Good the Bad and the Football” podcast this week with an axe to grind about the Senegal star.

Jackson a “bad sell” by Chelsea claims pundit

Nicolas Jackson playing for Bayern. (Photo by Adam Pretty/Getty Images)

“I think Jackson was a bad sell, I really did. I thought Jackson made [Cole] Palmer and Palmer made Jackson, you know as a centre forward. Put it this way as a midfield player you like to pass the ball, you want pace up front,” the Chelsea supporting pundit explained.

“It’s a dream, and he would always go and it would open the game up and Palmer would get on the ball, he’d have space. Now all of a sudden he’s gone.”

Chelsea lose pressing intensity and pace in behind

There’s no doubt that Palmer and Jackson had developed a great partnership which is now lost. JP’s pressing also isn’t as good as Jackson’s, nor does he stretch the play as well in behind, as Merson points out:

“All of a sudden these flair players like your [Enzo] Fernandez-s and your Palmers don’t get time on the ball.

“And then all of a sudden what you do when you don’t get time on the ball, I’m just going to go further and further and further back and get the ball off the centre-half and you’re not going to hurt anybody back there. I think that’s a big problem.”