Calum McFarlane has publicly defended Cole Palmer amid a season in which the Chelsea forward\u2019s output has fallen well short of his earlier campaigns. McFarlane described the situation as largely down to fitness and adaptation rather than a loss of form, and he backed Palmer to play a decisive role from now until the end of the season and into the World Cup.<\/p>\n
Palmer has 10 goals across all competitions this term, compared with 18 the previous season and 27 under Mauricio Pochettino. His overall goal contributions have declined sharply from 42 in his debut season and 32 in Enzo Maresca\u2019s first year to just 13 this campaign. In the Premier League he has provided only one assist, and of his nine league goals five have been penalties.<\/p>\n
McFarlane pointed to the impact of a groin problem diagnosed as pubalgia after Palmer pulled out of the warm-up before Chelsea\u2019s second game. The manager noted the player\u2019s recent progress and his struggle with basic actions early in the season. Palmer himself admitted in April that he was only just starting to feel comfortable shooting again, and sprinting was also a challenge for the 23-year-old.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been a difficult period for Cole,\u201d McFarlane stressed. \u201cHe\u2019s had his first injury that he\u2019s pretty much ever had in his career and he\u2019s had to learn how to deal with that.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t agree with the narrative that he isn\u2019t playing well. There are obviously games where he can impact more but there have also been a lot of occasions where he\u2019s created a lot of good chances for players. He can\u2019t control whether that\u2019s finished.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just a case of building that consistency. I\u2019m really pleased with Cole. He shows us his talent every single day, his energy and his enthusiasm to play. He\u2019s still a top, top player, one of the best in the world. I have no concerns over Cole being ready to impact games from now to the end of the season, and hopefully in the World Cup, in big moments for England.\u201d<\/p>\n
Statistically Palmer is still creating 1.23 chances per 90, though 78 players in the division have produced more and five teammates have created more opportunities. Navigating injury and tactical changes under Liam Rosenior has been difficult, and McFarlane has indicated he will lean on Maresca\u2019s principles to find stability and restore Palmer\u2019s influence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
McFarlane backs Cole Palmer amid pubalgia recovery, data shows drop in goals and chances this term.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13613,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[190,172],"tags":[1081,1162,1637],"class_list":["post-13614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea","category-epl","tag-adaptation","tag-analytics","tag-assists"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13614"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13614\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}