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Cole Palmer sums up how I want England to play at Euro 2024 – he reminds me of myself, says Jack Wilshere
Wilshere also name-checked another ace who must 'take responsibility' against low-block teams
COLE PALMER symbolises the fearlessness and the handbrake-off attitude that I want England to have at the Euros.
When you are a young player and you’ve not really been exposed to the pressures of representing your country, it lets you just play.
And, in any case, it looks like Chelsea star Palmer has that approach regardless of whether he starts or comes off the bench. He radiates almost-cockiness — I love that about him.
What gives you that confidence is your quality and self-belief.
He shows he has that all the time. That ‘ice cold’ celebration of his seems to sum up his game and his mindset.
At various times, including when I was playing, the England team has been screaming out for an identity, and for a player that had that football arrogance.
It’s a thin line with certain people. Sometimes you read it wrong. But I think he gets the balance just right.
It’s not easy to do what Palmer has done . . . leaving Manchester City and going to another big club in Chelsea, who were struggling a little bit, and be the shining light. I’m aware of how highly thought of he was at City.
It’s so difficult coming through at a place like that, just to get a chance in the first team. It speaks volumes that someone like Pep Guardiola backed him.
But then he was sold and had to do it all again at Chelsea, a club that had spent more money trying to find ways of competing at the highest level.
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To step into that scenario and produce what he has produced is exceptional.
It says a lot about Palmer’s character that, even at his age and in his first season at the club, he was prepared to be the main man. He takes responsibility.
We’ve seen loads of technically gifted young players down the years but to have the guts to go and get on the ball is something else.
I do see a bit of myself in Palmer. I was 22, like him, when I went to my first major tournament, the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.
Like him, I also used to try to take responsibility. I wanted to get on the ball.
One of my biggest strengths — which took people time to get used to — was that I wanted to receive the ball with people around me.
I wasn’t quick, I liked to beat people and dribble past people. Something Palmer is good at, which I tried to do, is eliminating players with his first touch.
You wouldn’t say he is blessed with top, top speed. It’s the way he manipulates the ball.
By Jack Wilshere
ENGLAND may well find, especially in the group stage, that teams sit back and say: Break us down if you can.
For most of my time at Arsenal, especially at home, we would have 70 per cent of the ball and have to take the game to opponents.
There are two things I found you needed in that situation and they are a player who is going to drive at them and commit someone and, number two, ball speed.
In the Iceland game, England did not move the ball anywhere near quick enough.
If you have a team in a low block with two banks of four, or even five at the back, it can be too easy for them.
Declan Rice needs to take responsibility in those situations because he has a really good understanding of when to speed the game up and when to slow it down.
Against Iceland, we were sort of pressing but not really pressing.
Dec is very intelligent. Sometimes he just goes and he presses and creates something, forces a decision, a moment like when the Iceland goalkeeper mucked up his clearance and Cole Palmer had a shot on goal that was blocked.
Players like Phil Foden and Palmer, can they find those pockets of space and get on the half-turn?
Can they make one of the centre-backs jump out and then link up? Or are they going to beat them?
We mustn’t lose confidence in that way of playing.
As games go on in major tournaments and it’s 0-0, you can start to panic a bit. We don’t need to do that.
We must keep calm and wait for that one moment.
He puts it in positions where they can’t win the ball and if they try, they are going to foul him.
His game is attracting players to him, beating them one-v-one or combining to beat them. And he does it anywhere on the pitch.
So I see some similarities between Palmer and me but I also like the fact that there aren’t many players like him, with that tall, slim build and silky on the ball.
Phil Foden has achieved and won so much at City but, in terms of the way he plays, I probably see myself as having been more similar to him than to Palmer.
Yet Palmer can also go on his right foot better than I did and he can definitely take a penalty. He is much calmer in those situations than I was.
He has so much quality. He can play left, he can play right, he can play inside. I love the way he sees the game and understands it.
It will be interesting to see what Gareth Southgate does with him because he has loads of options in that area of the pitch.
But Palmer can be a really, really important player for England at this tournament.
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SunSport columnist Jack Wilshere wants Engand to start with just one holding midfielder - Declan Rice.
That means playing Phil Foden and Jude Bellingham in attacking midfield roles, with Cole Palmer and Bukayo Saka on the wings, either side of Harry Kane up top.
Wilshere said: “In the group stage against teams we should beat, we can afford to be more expansive, let’s attack.
“It wasn’t that long ago we were saying we didn’t have the Spanish-type of players who can dominate the ball, now we have.
“So let’s try to utilise that, dominate the ball and go for goals.”
And the ex-England midfielder wants Trent Alexander-Arnold to get the nod at right-back, with Kyle Walker centre-back.
He added: “If you play Trent at right-back and he drifts in midfield, he can switch the play at speed. Walker’s pace will get you out of trouble.”
Read more from Jack Wilshere during Euro 2024.
