Last season, a Danish 21-year-old scored in 5 Premier League games in a row, a historic event. Last season, an English 21-year-old put in the turbo and totally dominated at Chelsea with 22 goals in the Premier League. What the two guys have in common is that the expectations when you’re still fresh to the game can be devastatingly high. When Erling Haaland entered the Premier League scene, many predicted that now the Norwegian youngster would face opposition. Haaland responded with the all-time Premier League season and the Treble, but not everyone can be expected to be like Haaland.
We remember when Max Allegri was in charge at Juventus and brought in young Matthijs de Ligt. When the Dutchman was given playing time crumbs in the first season, Allegri dryly stated: “It takes ten years to develop as a world-class centre-back”. This attitude no longer exists in the football circus. When teenagers, or twenty-somethings, pull in a few hundred thousand pounds in weekly wages and get superstardom, then the youngsters have absolutely no patience.
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We see two examples in the Premier League. Rasmus Højlund and Cole Palmer. The Dane has gone into a can’t-to-score “depression”. The Englishman has gone into a I have to do even better than last season’s condition.
Palmer has not scored since January 14, the Chelsea manager describes the phenomenon.
“It’s definitely a mental thing. It is neither tactical nor technical. Cole is still the same player who scored 14 goals in 20 games. The style is the same, the manager is the same and the club is the same. Nothing has changed with Cole. It’s just a mental thing at the moment. You can see from him that he’s a little worried, because he wants to help the team so much. He’s struggling a bit here…,” Maresca said, according to Reuters.
Cole Palmer is still 22 years young.
Ruben Amorim gives a diagnosis of Rasmus Højlund’s problem.
-A striker has to score goals. So we try to help him as much as we can. He tries a lot, and he wants it so much that he ends up making it worse. He got a chance against Wolverhampton and right now he’s improving… says Amorim before this weekend’s game against Bournemouth.
Rasmus Højlund is still 22 years young.
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There is something that has gone in the wrong direction on the road, we now believe.
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