Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca has insisted Cole Palmer’s recent struggles are not his fault, claiming the 22-year-old’s 16-game goal drought is a “mental thing” rather than a “tactical or technical” issue.
Palmer is Chelsea’s joint top scorer this season with 14 goals in 39 games across all competitions. However, the 22-year-old netted those 14 goals in his first 23 appearances this season and has now gone 16 games without finding the back of the net.
Palmer’s lack of form has coincided with Chelsea’s own struggles and the Blues have dropped from second in the Premier League to sixth since he last scored. “For sure, it’s mental,” Maresca said when asked about Palmer’s goal drought.
“I don’t think it’s tactical, I don’t think it’s technical, because Cole is still the same player that scored this season with us – 14 goals in the Premier League in 20 games.
“Cole is the same one. The style of football we play is the same one. The manager is the same one. The club is the same one. So nothing changes around Cole and Cole doesn’t change.
“It’s just mentally in this moment. We try always to set up our game to put our best player in a condition to be dangerous. We have done since we started. We are doing that every game.
“If you go back game by game, he had at least every game one or two chances. It’s not about how the team is playing. Again, it’s the same one. If you want to see it as the team playing a different way, you’ve seen it that way, but the reality is not that.
“The reality is that Cole is the same, the style of play is the same, the manager is the same, the club is the same. It’s just football that, in this moment, he is missing the goal. No more than that.”
Chelsea have dropped out of the Champions League places and currently sit two points behind fifth-placed Newcastle and Maresca has admitted that he understands why supporters have been left frustrated.
“I can understand, we are trying to keep them happy,” he explained. “I think the fans are the same that time ago they were thinking that Chelsea is back, they were showing that they were happy and now probably because we are not winning the same amount of games that we were winning at the beginning, they are showing that they are not happy.
“So in the way we accept when they were thinking that Chelsea is back, we need to accept now that they are not happy.
“The only thing I can say and I’ve said it many times is that the players are working hard every day to bring this club where this club has to be and the club has a vision, the journey has just started and I think we are going in the right direction.”
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