Cole Palmer

[SebastianBlue]

Presently they are.

All I'm saying is that I disagree with the whole "imagine how good he'd be with better players around him" thing. Football doesn't work like that.

When you're the best player on your team, everything runs through you and it's flattering.

Cole Palmer is a very, very good player but let's get it right; he's thriving in a lower pressure environment, where he's less worried about making mistakes. He wouldn't be putting up these numbers for us because we wouldn't depend on him the way they currently do.

It's not a dig at either Cole or Chelsea but look at the two squads. That's the reality.

I think a very good example of what you are referring to is Grealish at Villa and Grealish at City.

He was incredibly important to our treble winning season (and has been important this year, in a somewhat diminished capacity), but he looks nowhere near the “standout” player he did at Villa because everything doesn’t go through him in our system, his role is very different to what it was at Villa (he has to be sound on both sides of the ball at all times or he gets dropped), and he faces completely different opposition setups with us (gone are the days where teams would try to slug it out with his team, creating huge amounts of space for him to run in to and get early unchallenged shots away on goal every third minute). And, of course, he is surrounded by other world class players that demand the ball as much (or more) as he does.

 

[Vialli98]

All I'm saying is that I disagree with the whole "imagine how good he'd be with better players around him" thing. Football doesn't work like that.

When you're the best player on your team, everything runs through you and it's flattering.

Cole Palmer is a very, very good player but let's get it right; he's thriving in a lower pressure environment, where he's less worried about making mistakes. He wouldn't be putting up these numbers for us because we wouldn't depend on him the way they currently do.

It's not a dig at either Cole or Chelsea but look at the two squads. That's the reality.

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with this take. It’s perfectly okay to acknowledge that Palmer is benefiting from the lower pressures at Chelsea compared to what he’d experience at City fighting for titles and CLs. There’s actually very little jeopardy in our games these days. It’s been a point of discussion among Chelsea fans. A lot of us, despite absolutely loving him right now and what he’s doing for us, are very interested in seeing what he’s like next season we’re playing in games that matter again.


I’m buzzing as a Chelsea fan that he made the move but I’m also pleased for him. He took quite a big risk leaving City and joining a basket case of a club but it’s worked wonders for him.

 

[lasereyes]

This thread seems very dismissive of Palmer's penalty taking where with him converting all nine penalties he has taken in the Premier League only Yaya (11/11) has posted a better 100% conversion rate from the spot in the competition's history.

It takes technique, composure and mental strength to consistently score penalties and if the suggestion is that most players would score 9/9, I'd just point out that both Maradona and Messi have missed penalties.

And we have missed some crucial penalties! Imagine we score the pen vs Spurs in CL or at Anfield 2018 to name a couple.

 

[SebastianBlue]

And we have missed some crucial penalties! Imagine we score the pen vs Spurs in CL or at Anfield 2018 to name a couple.

Not sure Palmer could have helped us with those! ;-)

 

[halfcenturyup]

This thread is fucking mistake.

Nothing wrong with this thread, or any other thread on the whole forum tbh. The only problem, as always, is the people posting on it.

 

[halfcenturyup]

The point about penalties being stat-padding given the league conversion rate (meaning the difference between the best and worst penalty takers is nominal) is very much relevant. That is ignoring that he didn’t earn most of the penalties he took, as well, which for me is another reason they probably shouldn’t be included in direct comparisons of goal scorers.

:)

 

[blueju]

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with this take. It’s perfectly okay to acknowledge that Palmer is benefiting from the lower pressures at Chelsea compared to what he’d experience at City fighting for titles and CLs. There’s actually very little jeopardy in our games these days. It’s been a point of discussion among Chelsea fans. A lot of us, despite absolutely loving him right now and what he’s doing for us, are very interested in seeing what he’s like next season we’re playing in games that matter again.


I’m buzzing as a Chelsea fan that he made the move but I’m also pleased for him. He took quite a big risk leaving City and joining a basket case of a club but it’s worked wonders for him.

That’s a very good, clear and unbiased opinion. I was told by a Preston lad on my team who has played lower league professionally much of it in Germany, coaches at a school football academy here and also coaches us, just the other day, that watching City is boring, I had to explain about the ten man defences we’ve faced for years and the fact that when a lot of teams go toe to toe they can get very good results against us but surely if such a knowledgeable lad swallowed the medias bullshit then we’ve no chance with the majority of numpties.
Cole had nowhere near the freedom he has in your games which is maybe a large part of his frustration at City?

 

[I'm With Stupid]

But Jackson has been on the pitch when other penalties were awarded before we signed Palmer, and he either didn't step up to take it or someone else pulled rank. We were given a penalty West Ham away for example, which was before we signed Palmer, and Jackson was on the pitch at the time but it was Enzo who stepped up to take it. He missed it and we lost the game. You are largely right though, but I think Palmer must have shown something in training for him to be given the responsibility as the new lad. I'd have thought with Enzo and Sterling on the pitch, they'd want to be the man for the job but they trusted Palmer that day.

One of the pundits (I forget who) was criticising them for being all too keen to take a penalty in a game where they're 4-0 up, but not fighting over who gets to take it when it actually matters.

 

[Craig]

I'd love to know how Chelsea have been awarded twice as many penalties as us. Given the respective league positions I'd assume we attack more than they do. Not that I'm suspicious or anything, obviously!

They have more players that dribble, more pace and teams allow them a lot more room to use that pace as they don’t consistently park the bus the way they all do against us.

 

[jacko74]

We don't fall over so much.

I genuinely think this is the case, it simply not part of Pep's ethos and that's reflected in the players on the pitch.

We clearly don't routinely go down at the slightest touch because on the rare occasion one of our players does attempt to do it it's usually comically blatant.

Also our style of play doesn't often see any of our forwards tearing into the penalty area at full pelt, where the slightest touch from a defender can be more easily exaggerated.

Sterling was probably the most prolific diver we have had in recent years but even he was pretty hopeless at it!

I actually used to get quite frustrated with Aguero for his determination to stay on his feet when being blatantly fouled in the area.