Chelsea icon compares Palmer to Messi for the magic of their slow moments | OneFootball

Pat Nevin no longer writes for the Chelsea website, but you can still get his insights on the game through the BBC’s Football Extra Newsletter, and this week he was covering – of course – Cole Palmer.

It was yet another high point for the star boy whose staggeringly impressive career is going from strength to strength. After suffering a slow patch in the Premier League season he was back to his best at the Club World Cup, capping off a great tournament with a two goal, one assist showing in the final against PSG.

He was so good that it wrapped up the player of the tournament award for him, and earned him comparisons with the game’s greatest ever player from Nevin.

Nevin compares Palmer to Messi

Frank Lampard with Lionel Messi after Chelsea vs Barcelona game.

“Just look at the game now and you will realise that although you generally have to be fast, slow players rarely survive now, excessive speed still doesn’t outdo skill, intelligence and game awareness. Cole Palmer is quite fast, but that absolutely is not why he is a world-class player. Lionel Messi is very fast with the ball at his feet, but pace never defined him, it was ability.”

If anything, it’s Palmer’s slowness which is really his defining feature. The way he rolled the ball into the bottom left corner? So slow, it was almost teasing the defenders and the goalkeeper. The magic of the pass through to Joao Pedro? The way Palmer slowed up and paused at the crucial moment to let the run develop.

Palmer’s magic comes from slow moments

In a world of frantic football, it’s often the attacker’s moment of pause that sets him apart, both visually and in terms of quality. Messi has a similar aspect – quite literally walking around the pitch for minutes at a time while everyone else is jogging or sprinting, then bursting into life at the crucial moment.