Cole Palmer was ‘scary good’ on his return for Chelsea against Napoli, but there was ‘no way’ he could have started the game on Wednesday night, says Liam Rosenior.
The Blues confirmed a top-eight finish in the Champions League group stage in some style, with a 3-2 win at Napoli.
Enzo Fernandez put them ahead with a 19th minute penalty, but the home side were ahead by half-time thanks to goals from Antonio Vergara and Rasmus Hojlund.
Palmer started the game on the bench and his introduction at the break proved pivotal as he provided two assists for Joao Pedro, who fired Chelsea to victory with a pair of excellent strikes.
It was very encouraging for Chelsea fans to see Palmer back to his creative best in a big Champions League game after missing recent fixtures through injury.
Rosenior gave slightly confusing messages after the game, saying the England star had no chance of starting the match, but that he is now fully fit.
‘There was no way that Cole could have started this game and played through to 60, 70, 80 minutes,’ said the Blues boss. ‘So I knew Napoli had had a difficult time with injuries. I felt that later in the game we would be stronger and I felt Cole’s performance was magnificent.
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‘Not just his quality, his pressing, his running for the team. We need to look after him. He’s had so many games over a long period of time.
‘We need to look after him and I think the way that he’s managed himself in the last two weeks has been magnificent and hopefully we can now see the best of him now that he’s fully fit. We need to see him absolutely relish nights like this on a big occasion.’
Asked if it was a scary prospect for Palmer to produce such quality after such little game time of late, Rosenior said: ‘Yes, scary good.
‘I don’t like to talk about individuals. I felt [it wasn’t] just Cole [who played well] when he came on. I thought Jamie Gittens came on and I asked him to play a left wing-back role which he was magnificent.
‘Ale Garnacho came on to help the team. Obviously, Joao Pedro is top. Actually, the tactical change, I thought Andrey Santos actually had a very good game but we needed to go for the win.
‘When Enzo [Fernandez] moved back into the No.6 role, he started to really dominate and control the game with Moi [Caicedo]. Again, so many pleasing individual performances but I think the most pleasing aspect was the collective mentality of the group to have a positive reaction to a difficult first half.’
Rosenior has now won five of his first six games in charge of Chelsea and is thrilled with how his players have responded to what he is asking of them.
‘I think to get through in this competition is the most important thing, so I’m delighted to do it,’ he said. ‘In this way, in terms of our season, in terms of my time on the pitch with the players, that’s going to help us so much.
‘I had no time. It’s not an excuse, it’s a fact. And I’m asking the players, and I’m so proud of them, even in the first half, I’m asking them to press in a completely different way that they’ve never done before and hardly had any practice at.
‘So that time over the next few weeks will help us get better and improve, but we still need to win games in this moment.’
