Enzo Maresca has said that Chelsea is too depressed by Cole Palmer and rejected criticism of the midfielder's body language in recent games.
Chelsea fell to the seventh place in the Premier League with a 2-1 defeat in Aston Villa on Saturday, a game in which Palmer lost a clear opportunity with the level of scores.
He has not scored in his last six games dating from January 14 and also lost a good opportunity to put Chelsea 2-0 at Manchester City last month, a game that lost 3-1.
Speaking on Tuesday before the visit of Southampton in rocky background, Maresca said: “I am always worried about the general performance, but I am not worried because Cole is a human being and during the season he can have some moments in which he fights a little further.
“The problem with Cole is probably that we trust school for everything and I said that since we started we have to trust the team. Surely we need great players, better players like school, but we are not worried about school at all.”
Palmer seemed to vent his frustration on several occasions in Villa Park, after similar incidents in successive defeats to Brighton, but Maresca denied that there was an underlying unhappyness.
“In the end, there are also teammates who can be frustrated with the possibilities that we lose against Villa and against City. I think both possibilities were school, no? Very clear,” he said.
“The other day we were 1-1, to write down [to go] 1-2 [up]Ten minutes to the end. Against City, it was 0-1 could be 0-2 after 10 minutes and I did not see his frustrated teammates, so Cole is upset just because we are not winning games, no more than that. “
When asked how the 22 -year -old, who had enjoyed a prolific campaign until his recent depression could return to the way he saw him accumulate 14 goals and six assists of 26 league games, Maresca replied: “Simply continue working in the way he is working.
“He is a human being. At this time his performance probably also reflects the performance of the team, which we fight to score goals, and need to be a bit more clinical in the possibilities.”
Maresca also confirmed that Filip Jørgensen will continue in the goal after his last minute mistake gave Villa his victory.
Jorgesen had replaced Robert Sánchez after a series of mistakes, but Maresca said: “” If we need to change the players every time there is an error, we need to change the playing game for game, many players. But no, nothing has changed. “
Meanwhile, Trevoh Chabah is marginalized for about 10 days with a back problem.
