Thomas Tuchel’s fascinating explanation of what Cole Palmer’s “strides” told him about Chelsea man’s fitness | OneFootball

Cole Palmer has struggled for form and fitness all year, and that’s why his England place is in doubt. Thomas Tuchel had some nice words, at least.

DOWNLOAD THE OFFICIAL CHELSEA NEWS APP FOR ALL THE LATEST UPDATES – STRAIGHT TO YOUR PHONE! ON THE APP STORE

Thomas Tuchel has just taken a press conference ahead of England’s friendly against Uruguay tonight where he spoke at length about Cole Palmer’s fitness situation.

Palmer will get a chance to impress tonight, with time running out before the World Cup. The good news is that Tuchel says he’s seen big improvements in terms of the attacker’s physical condition lately.

“We saw good data lately. I saw him live against Arsenal and for the first time in a long time, I had the feeling his stride was back to the original lengths,” the manager explained.

“Before, I felt he was not free and the stride was not long enough, the acceleration was not there and the movement was not free.

Tuchel on physical data which tells him Palmer is back to his best

“I got the feedback from him and the feedback from Chelsea was that he felt during this game he was much, much better and he had a very strong game against Aston Villa with a huge physical output that we could see and from there, that was the first step. Before, we saw the physical output is matching also like the impression we have that was lacking something, but he is back to full confidence and we see it in training.”

We’d have to agree, we are seeing a Palmer who looks more capable of hitting top gear recently – the problem is now that he’s fading in games as the fatigue of getting back to playing so much starts to drag him down.

If you enjoy Chelsea News coverage and want to see more of it, add us as a preferred source on Google to make us a favourite and see more of our content.

Check out the latest edition of Simon Phillips’ SPTC podcast here: