Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca said he has challenged Cole Palmer to be more creative and “take initiative.”
Click here for more football updates.
Check out M88 Mansion’s best offers here.
Maresca to Cole Palmer: “take initiative”
Chelsea kicked off their Club World Cup campaign on Monday with a 2-0 win over LAFC in Atlanta.
It was their first game since beating Real Betis 4-1in the Conference League final to lift the first trophy of the Todd Boehly-Clearlake Capital era.
Maresca’s recent comment came after the England playmaker claimed he was “sick of going backwards or sideways” in May.
After their Club World Cup match, Maresca addressed Palmer’s comments with the 23-year-old directly.
“I had a conversation with Cole [today] and I said to him that I really like the way he was in terms of taking responsibility, taking the initiative on the ball,” said the Chelsea boss.
“He was trying even on our side to receive the ball, trying to go one versus one against the player. This is the Cole that we expect.”
“After the Conference League final he said that he was quite bored receiving the ball and so he decided to do something different. The day after that interview I said to him, I said, ‘but you can do that since the first minute, why are you waiting so long? Why are you waiting? Why don’t you do the same after one minute?’
“Today he was exactly doing what we asked him to do. We are happy when he does that because I said many times that Cole is our best player, he is a top player and hopefully he can continue to do the right things.”
Chelsea off to a good start
Nicolas Jackson set up Pedro Neto’s goal in the 34th minute before Liam Delap, a £30 million signing from Ipswich Town, came on in the 64th.
Delap brought new energy and set up Enzo Fernández’s goal 11 minutes from the end with a run off Palmer’s pass.
However, Chelsea played in front of a sparse 22,137 crowd at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
Asked about the empty seats, Maresca said: “I think the environment was a bit strange, the stadium was not almost empty, not full.”
“But overall I think after three weeks, almost three weeks off, we started quite well, we created chances, we won the game, clean sheet.”
