Former Chelsea ace John Obi Mikel has admitted he’s worried about Cole Palmer and claimed he “disappears” in games.
Chelsea slipped to a 3-1 win defeat against Flamengo on Friday despite taking the lead through Pedro Neto, but collapsed in the second half.
In six minutes of madness the Blues conceded twice and Nicolas Jackson was sent off for a shocking challenge just four minutes after coming on as a second half substitute.
Enzo Maresca made several changes from the win against LAFC like he said he would with Reece James starting in midfield, Malo Gusto coming in at right back, with Trevoh Chalobah, Enzo Fernandez and Liam Delap all starting.
Palmer retained his place in the line-up but started on the right hand side, which fans had called for a number of times last season.
However, the England international had a very quiet evening and was hardly involved in proceedings and the game just seemed to pass him by.
Palmer struggled to make an impact against Flamengo. (Photo by David Ramos/Getty Images)
Palmer was replaced by Marc Guiu with eight minutes remaining and Mikel has stated he’s concerned the 23-year-old is disappearing in games.
“It is a bit worrying,” He told DAZN.
“Cole is a fantastic player, everything goes through him but sometimes he disappears in games where you don’t see him and that has happened again, but he needs to know that he is now a marked man.
“You will play against teams and they will know if you take out Cole Palmer, you can nullify the way they play.
“So he needs to find a different way. Maybe the manager needs to help him in terms of navigating games and opponents.
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“Maybe try to free him, give him more space. If he plays well, we play well, so I hope the combination between him and [Liam] Delap will get better.
“So [I am] a little bit worried but Cole is a fantastic player and will hopefully continue to develop.”
The defeat means Chelsea head into their final game against ES Tunis with the pressure on and knowing they can now probably only finish second with Flamengo likely to beat LAFC.
It’s likely providing results go as might be expected the Blues will face German giants Bayern Munich in the last 16.
Maresca won’t have the luxury of resting a lot of players and will have to go strong if Chelsea are to stand the best chance of getting out the group.
