Enzo Maresca’s 3 top tactical options to replace Cole Palmer

The news that Cole Palmer is going to be rested and miss the next few weeks, including the game tomorrow against Brighton, the midweek Champions League match against Benfica and next weekend’s massive game against Liverpool is pretty painful for Chelsea fans.

He’s their best player, and the only one who really is able to create anything at the moment in a team which lacks any attacking chemistry. So what are the team going to do without him?

Option one: Advance Enzo, add Santos

Andrey Santos comes on for Cole Palmer. (Photo by Jan Kruger/Getty Images)

Our preferred option would be to replace Palmer with Andrey Santos. The Brazilian would play in Enzo Fernandez’s place alongside Moises Caicedo, with Enzo pushed forward to Palmer’s usual floating number ten role.

This could have the double benefit of helping out Enzo (who is in poor form) by getting him closer to the goal, as well as getting Santos into the team to add another solid body to midfield.

Option two: Estevao central

Estevao Willian is gasping for more minutes and has said before he’d like to eventually play as a number ten. He could be straight swapped in for Palmer.

But the question is whether playing that role when you’re a teenager who is so new to the Premier League is just too tough – at this stage in his career it feels like he might be more effective out wide where he can square people up and his his exceptional dribbling ability?

Option three: JP drops deep with a false 9

Joao Pedro’s best position appears to be playing off another striker. He could do a great job as Palmer’s replacement – but the issue is that he’s our only striker option right now, with Liam Delap injured and Marc Guiu not trusted.

So using JP deeper would likely mean Tyrique George or Pedro Neto as a false 9. Is that really the best use of our resources?