Enzo Maresca wants Cole Palmer to take more responsibility and initiative on the ball after he appeared to criticise Chelsea’s approach during the Conference League final.
Palmer expressed his frustration after the Blues beat Real Betis in Wroclaw last month, saying he was “sick of getting the ball and going backwards and sideways”.
Chelsea won 4-1 but only after Palmer turned the game on its head midway through the second half with two assists in the space of five minutes.
After Chelsea kicked off their Club World Cup campaign with a 2-0 win against LAFC, Maresca revealed he has spoken to Palmer about his comments.
“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 Maresca.
“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 beat LAFC thanks to goals from Pedro Neto and Enzo Fernandez.
Both goals were courtesy of assists from strikers Nicolas Jackson and Liam Delap, who both caught the eye in Atlanta.
Delap, who was making his debut for Chelsea following his £30million move from Ipswich, looked sharp off the bench after coming on for the final 30 minutes.
Maresca was pleased to see Delap and Jackson impress, and hopes it will give Chelsea’s attack more weapons next season.
“Both are very good No9s and hopefully both can score goals and get assists like today,” he said.
“Because I prefer to have four or five players who score ten or twelve goals each rather one striker who scores 40 goals. Enzo scored again today too, which is good.
“Last year we tried to use different threats, different weapons; we also we had two or three months where we were without Nico and Marc.
“We tried to find different solutions but for sure, when you have two strikers like Nico and Liam, it’s a nice feeling as a head coach. You know you can choose one of them and it's going to be a good choice.”
