Tottenham manager Ange Postecoglou commended Cole Palmer’s offensive approach following England’s scoreless draw with Slovenia, and he has urged Gareth Southgate not to be overly cautious with the Chelsea forward at Euro 2024.
Despite another unconvincing performance in their tie against Slovenia on Tuesday evening.
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England topped Group C with five points and will face either the Netherlands, Romania, Slovakia, Ukraine, or Belgium in their last-16 match in Gelsenkirchen at 5 pm on Sunday.
Palmer made his tournament debut by coming off the bench to replace Bukayo Saka in the 71st minute, quickly becoming England’s best chance to score against a well-organized Slovenian team.
Postecoglou praised Palmer for his performance after the match, describing the Chelsea and England player as a rare talent.
When asked what he loves about Palmer after England’s draw, Postecoglou told ITV: ‘Every time he’s got the ball he’s looking to eliminate opposition, whether that’s individual players or lines of the opposition.
‘Every one of his incursions takes somebody out of the game.
‘When you have a player like that, irrespective of how the opposition set up in defensive stance, he will always find that gap, he will always find those spaces.
‘His first thought is, ‘how can I eliminate one of the opposition or a line of the opposition’. Those kind of players are rare.
‘I said before the game, I know they spoke about protecting young players, I don’t think they need protection, I just think they need to be thrown out there to play.’
Asked if Southgate had swallowed his pride by replacing Conor Gallagher with Mainoo at half time, Postecoglou replied: ‘I don’t know if it’s swallowing your pride because Gareth said he actually felt it did sort of work in the function he wanted – he wanted a more aggressive press and it was a logical decision to put Conor in there.
‘But then he said he wanted more impetus with the ball so then Kobbie becomes a much more viable option.
‘I don’t think it’s about that, I think it’s about having a real clarity of thought as to what you’re trying to build towards.
‘I think the interesting thing he [Southgate] said there, and it’s always a tough one with young players because your nature as a coach is to try and ease them into things.
‘But every now and then there’s a young player that comes along and they’re just bashing the door down and you’ve just go to let them through and let them go, because not all young players are going to be able to take that step.
‘I’m sure 12 months ago that Mainoo, Wharton and Cole Palmer were not in Gareth Southgate’s top 40 players for this Euros – they could end up being the key players.’
