Chelsea legend John Obi Mikel has credited Mauricio Pochettino with allowing Cole Palmer to fully express himself at Stamford Bridge this season. The former Manchester City ace joined the Blues over the summer and has quickly emerged as one of their most important attacking threats.
Palmer has scored six goals and registered four assists in all competitions so far this season and was recently rewarded for his strong club form with a debut England call-up. Mikel believes that Pochettino is largely responsible for Palmer’s rise to prominence by helping to translate his ‘arrogance’ and ‘cheekiness’ into his performances on the pitch.
Speaking on CNN, Mikel said: “What he does with young players is absolutely fantastic. Look what he’s doing with Palmer now. He’s come from Manchester City. He didn’t play as many games as he wanted. He’s come to Chelsea and he’s performing really well. It’s like a different player.
“He’s creating chances, scoring goals and also the confidence that he has, the arrogance that he has now, and I think that transfers from the manager. The manager’s probably given him that and said: ‘Go out there, be who you are and perform the way you want to perform’, and that freedom has just given him that.
“He expresses himself, a little bit of arrogance, a little bit of cheekiness here and there. That’s what we want, that’s what we need and the performances will come with that.”
Palmer has been developing at an excellent rate since joining Chelsea over the summer, with the 21-year-old now an established starter after spending years on the fringes at City. It remains to be seen if he can keep up his form until the end of the campaign in order to secure a place in the England squad for next summer’s Euros in Germany.
The forward recently thanked Pochettino for giving him the freedom to play his natural game at Chelsea, saying: “I think he’s given me the confidence and the licence to go where I want on the pitch, where I can use my strengths. I like to play in all the positions, false nine, right, middle. Wherever he puts me I’m happy to play there.
“A lot of people told me how he is with young players. Ever since I went to Chelsea I can see it so I’m enjoying working with him and I’m excited to carry on working with him. It all happened really fast, to be fair. I spoke to someone at Chelsea and I was speaking to my dad but I really didn’t know what to do.
“I was just thinking about it for a couple of days, near enough every minute of the day, but then I just thought for my career I had to go and get regular game time. It was a big move for me. I’ve never been out of Manchester, I’ve not been on loan or anything like that, so to move down there on my own was a big thing.”
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