“It’s not tactical” – Enzo Maresca dodges blame for Cole Palmer’s collapse in form | OneFootball

In the embargoed section of yesterday’s press conference, manager Enzo Maresca was asked about Cole Palmer’s continued goal drought, which stretches all the way back to mid-January, incredibly.

The coach gave his thoughts on why Palmer, who had been on a ridiculous hot streak for more than a year after joining Chelsea, had suddenly gone cold:

“For sure it’s a mental thing, it’s not tactical or technical,” said Maresca.

“Cole is still the player who scored 14 goals in 20 games. The style is the same, the manager is the same, the club is the same. Nothing has changed around Cole. It’s just mentally in this moment.

“You can see he’s a little bit worried because he wants to help the team. You can see he’s struggling a bit on that. But he showed how happy he was after Fulham. It’s just a matter [of whether] we can win games. For sure he’s going to score goals.

“If you go back game by game, he had at least every game one or two chances, so it’s not about how the team is playing.”

Maresca a little too keen to take the blame off himself with Palmer comments

Enzo Maresca gives Cole Palmer instructions. (Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)

You can understand what he means, but by being at pains to point out it’s not a “tactical” thing it does rather give the sense that Maresca is absolving himself of any blame, or really of any influence in improving things.

Confidence has certainly come into it, but there are tactical issues too, and there are ways that the coach could make it easier for the midfielder to succeed. He cold help his confidence, for one. Maresca ramped the pressure up further on his talisman by saying the team wouldn’t make the top 5 without him finding his scoring form again.