We need them both back firing them in.

Hamstring injury apparently and going for a scan tomorrow. Pulled out of the England squad.

Hopefully nothing too serious.

2 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

Hamstring injury apparently and going for a scan tomorrow. Pulled out of the England squad.

Hopefully nothing too serious.

Ugh ... we don't exactly have a great track record of recovering players with hamstring injuries ... :-(

1 hour ago, Scott Harris said:

Hamstring injury apparently and going for a scan tomorrow. Pulled out of the England squad.

Hopefully nothing too serious.

Hopefully just a manoeuvre out of the scousers' playbook.

Just now, Valerie said:

Hopefully just a manoeuvre out of the scousers' playbook.

This is what I am hoping for. If the FA ask for proof, then go grab one of James hamstring scans and say it's Palmer's 😁

Edited March 16, 20251 yr by Scott Harris

4 hours ago, Sexyfootball said:

Ugh ... we don't exactly have a great track record of recovering players with hamstring injuries ... :-(

I wonder how long he has been playing through this injury? He hasn't looked right for a while.

6 minutes ago, forbzy said:

I wonder how long he has been playing through this injury? He hasn't looked right for a while.

If it's his left leg, it would explain why his shooting looks really off recently ...

11 hours ago, Scott Harris said:

Hamstring injury apparently and going for a scan tomorrow. Pulled out of the England squad.

Hopefully nothing too serious.

The closest thing to a cause of hamstring injury is a history of hamstring injury. In the past players (especially young players) are encouraged or coerced to play through less serious injuries, causing recurrence. Hopefully this is an abundance of caution for Palmer.

Bukayo Saka and Reece James are examples of how it can go horribly wrong

He needs to step it up. We know the ability is there but something is off. Top players can have a poor month but they cannot go multiple months of being so poor by the levels we know they can reach and escape with no criticism.

Whether the poor form, or other factors, have affected him I don't know, is clearly mental and he needs to snap out of it

13 minutes ago, axman2526 said:

He needs to step it up. We know the ability is there but something is off. Top players can have a poor month but they cannot go multiple months of being so poor by the levels we know they can reach and escape with no criticism.

Whether the poor form, or other factors, have affected him I don't know, is clearly mental and he needs to snap out of it

Simple for me, he's being chucked into a position where he isn't getting the ball enough and when he is he's being crowded out, all of this has a knock on and affects his confidence. We saw complete sh*te under Poch but he knew exactly how to use Palmer and instead of following the blueprint, Maresca decides Palmer should play as an inverted trequartista with high expected track backs, or whatever w**ky position he's invented.

14 minutes ago, timetowaste said:

Simple for me, he's being chucked into a position where he isn't getting the ball enough and when he is he's being crowded out, all of this has a knock on and affects his confidence. We saw complete sh*te under Poch but he knew exactly how to use Palmer and instead of following the blueprint, Maresca decides Palmer should play as an inverted trequartista with high expected track backs, or whatever w**ky position he's invented.

Agreed Maresca, and to a degree Nkunku, have made his job more difficult. You've covered what Big Enz should be doing to help him, Nkunku should not be sulking and force his way in to the team. He has the ability too.

We still need Cole to step up though. Don't get pulled down by everyone else, show your class in spite of everyone else, drag us back in to the CL.

I hope Noni and George might help him with that. as Sancho and Neto just stifling his game.

50 minutes ago, timetowaste said:

Simple for me, he's being chucked into a position where he isn't getting the ball enough and when he is he's being crowded out, all of this has a knock on and affects his confidence. We saw complete sh*te under Poch but he knew exactly how to use Palmer and instead of following the blueprint, Maresca decides Palmer should play as an inverted trequartista with high expected track backs, or whatever w**ky position he's invented.

I think his position is fine, I think we get nothing out of some attacking players. As bad as Sterling was here, and Mudryk had his struggles, both paired much better with Palmer than Sancho or Nkunku.

Played together with:	Matches	PPG	Joint goal participation	Minutes
Nicolas Jackson Centre-Forward	55	1.71	12	3.914
Noni Madueke Right Winger	43	1.88	8	2.373
Enzo Fernández Central Midfield	51	1.65	6	3.651
Raheem Sterling Right Winger	26	1.50	5	1.410
Mykhaylo Mudryk Left Winger	31	1.74	3	1.308
Jadon Sancho Left Winger	24	1.83	3	1.422
Moisés Caicedo Defensive Midfield	61	1.77	2	4.805
Marc Cucurella Left-Back	48	1.88	2	3.844
Levi Colwill Centre-Back	45	1.64	1	3.532
Christopher Nkunku Centre-Forward	33	1.79	1	1.062

Palmer's problems are more simple than others for me. The quality is still there, you still see it throughout a match, the problem is in his head. He's second guessing things now, no longer going about things on natural instinct alone. You see it with his movement, his passing and his shooting. I see a player thinking about if it's the right thing to do rather than just trusting his instincts.

It's not helping that he is being coached to play like this though. Having somebody like Maresca coaching Palmer was a terrible idea. It will be the same with Estevao when he arrives too.

Cole was managed by Maresca at City U21's successfully, so I doubt that's a problem.

What is a problem is Cole is our best attacking player, so he is being doubled up on, or marked tighter compared to last season. Once we improve our standards across the squad, that will change.

Hopefully with the squad additions next season (Santos, Estevao, Paez etc plus Delap potentially coming in), it will bolster our offensive side of the team.

His form going down the drain has damaged us massively

We've essentially been a one man team ever since we signed him, if he's not scoring we have no one else, despite spending over a billion.

9 minutes ago, Drogba1 said:

His form going down the drain has damaged us massively

We've essentially been a one man team ever since we signed him, if he's not scoring we have no one else, despite spending over a billion.

I'd say a two man team.

We rely on Palmer to score and on Caicedo to keep things from getting embarassing in the back.

When both were delivering we looked great and were sitting pretty in 2nd.

When Palmer's form fell off a cliff we became a mid table team. Take Caicedo out of the equation and we're relegation fodder.

Different player since that City game when he was having a long chat with Pep.

Better 2nd half, but needs a goal.

Crazy how he has gone from ice cold nothing phases him, to now looking low on confidence.

I’d like to see Cole played wide right again if only for a few games to help him regain confidence. Seems unsure on whether to take the shot on these days. Desperately needs a goal, even if it just bounces in off his arse!

Seeing him in that pointless 10 position is really pissing me off. We had so much space on the right hand side where he could have made a real difference but instead Maresca sticks him in the position where he's going to get the ball the least. Palmer needs saving from Maresca's anti football sh*t otherwise he will never reach his full potential, or at least demand to leave.

Oh no I really much enjoyed watching Palmer play as a DM, Gusto dictating play in midfield, Cucurella as a box threat and Enzo being an overlapping fullback. It was tactical genius mate.

Feels like he's checked out mentally. Probably on the move in the summer.

27 minutes ago, Zeta said:

Feels like he's checked out mentally. Probably on the move in the summer.

Don't blame him, many of us have checked out too.

1 hour ago, Zeta said:

Feels like he's checked out mentally. Probably on the move in the summer.

Yes. He is probably fed up with seeing zero progress with the project. If he doesn't leave this summer it is only a matter of time. He will want to be playing in the Champs League.

If he does leave then we need to get as much as possible,hopefully abroad

We could've had this lad staying for another few seasons, but thanks to the bald fraud we'll likely be forced to sell him soon. Why would he want to stay in this pile of sh*t? It's not going to help his development as a player.