Enzo Maresca said he has challenged Cole Palmer to be more creative and “take initiative” after the England playmaker claimed he was “sick of going backwards or sideways” during the Conference League final in May.
Chelsea kicked off their Club World Cup campaign on Monday with a 2-0 win over LAFC in Atlanta, their first game since beating Real Betis 4-1 to lift the first trophy of the Todd Boehly-Clearlake Capital era.
After that match in Wroclaw, Poland, Palmer hinted at a frustration in Chelsea’s approach by claiming he took a personal decision to try and make something happen in the final third.
While praising his performance against LAFC — beaten by goals from Pedro Neto and substitute Enzo Fernández in front of a sparse 22,137 crowd at Mercedes-Benz Stadium — Maresca confirmed he 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.”
Nicolas Jackson assisted Neto’s 34th-minute opener before he was replaced on 64 minutes by Liam Delap, a £30 million summer signing from Ipswich Town. Delap added a fresh spark to an ailing performance, spinning in behind from Palmer’s pass to assist Fernández’s goal 11 minutes from time.
Maresca previously said he has given Delap no assurances over his place in the team, but praised Jackson’s response to renewed competition for his spot in the lineup.
“I’m encouraged to see how Nico reacted to that. Last season, it was him with Marc Guiu, who is very young, so I am quite encouraged to see how Nico is going to deal with competition. Both are very good number nines and hopefully both they can score goals and assist like today because I prefer to have four or five who score 10 or 12 goals each rather than one striker who scored 40 goals.
“Last year, we tried to use different threats, a different weapon. Also we had two, three months without Nico, without Guiu. We tried to find different solutions, but when you have two strikers like Nico and Liam, it is a good feeling because you know you can choose one of them and it’ll be a good choice.”
Asked about the swathes of 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.”
Chelsea next face Brazilian giants Flamengo in Philadelphia on Friday — the same day LAFC play African club Espérance Sportive de Tunis in Tennessee.
“We prepared this game also thinking that the environment was a bit different, but no doubt that the next one will be a nice one because we know that the Brazilian teams, they always bring many, many fans. so we try to be ready for the next one,” Maresca added.
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