I think if a soccer player steps onto the pitch and a shadow follows him from the moment the game starts until the very end, that would be one of the greatest compliments I could receive.
Cole Palmer hasn’t gotten to that point yet.
Eden Hazard and Palmer are completely different players in terms of style, but there are many comparisons to be made as players and icons who have made a difference and made a difference.
Hazard was a marked man. He was mostly man-marked towards the end of the game, and they kept kicking him and putting him on the ground. But with Hazard, he would often get up, never get past the man-mark, come back and do it again, and then score or score a goal to have the last laugh. He also had the physicality to hold the ball and bounce players off.
Palmer is getting the same treatment now, which is a huge testament to where he is as a player.
Lewis Cook man-marked him on Saturday night and, had it not been for Anthony Taylor, he could have been sent off for repeatedly fouling Palmer.
Enzo Maresca said about the situation:
“That kind of player is always going to get this. Cook marked him man-to-man for 95 minutes. Or maybe not 95 minutes, after we put him out wide. But he was man-to-man the whole game and it wasn’t easy for Cole.
“It’s not easy for any player, but we have to find different solutions.”
Palmer looked frustrated at times, and you could see it and feel it. And he played a pretty quiet game by his standards. But this is just something new he has to deal with. When you’re the biggest threat on the field, you’re often the target. This is another step in Palmer’s development, and he’ll have to learn how to deal with it with the coaches, just like Hazar did.
Palmer doesn’t have the dribbling ability and low center of gravity that Hazard has, and despite his height, he lacks Hazard’s physicality. There aren’t many better dribblers who can throw the ball far from a standing position than Hazard. Palmer doesn’t really do that.
But he will have to find a way to lose his marker, a way to frustrate him. He can do this by making a clever pass, perhaps by drawing his marker out of position, or by taking him out wide or to the other end of the pitch.
We’ve seen that Palmer can beat people, but he doesn’t have the size or speed to be a devastating dribbler.
But he will learn to cope with being man-marked and constantly fouled, and that will be up to him and his coaches, but there is no doubt that he will find a way to improve and overcome the next challenge in his career because he believes in himself so much and knows how good he is.
It’s also a huge compliment and a sign of how much he’s grown in just one season.