Cole Palmer and Morgan Rogers combined to deadly effect for Chelsea against Leeds; The Radar column looks at how their on-pitch relationship is flourishing under Xabi Alonso; Alex Scott’s strong start to the season for Bournemouth also features
🔺 Palmer-Rogers double act analysed
🔺 Scott starring for Bournemouth
🔺 Crystal Palace’s tough-tackler
Palmer and Rogers thriving
Morgan Rogers was bemused when he found out Cole Palmer was man of the match in Chelsea’s win over Leeds. “I got four assists,” he pleaded. “I’ll say you should have had it,” replied a smiling Palmer. “Don’t mention me. I’m just a bystander,” added Rogers.The exchange, captured by the Sportsfocus cameras before their post-match interview, showed the chemistry between the pair. It can be seen on the pitch too.
Do they feel like they’ve been playing together forever? “We pretty much have,” answered Rogers.Close friends and former team-mates in England and Manchester City’s youth teams, Rogers and Palmer have picked up where they left off at Chelsea, wreaking havoc either side of Joao Pedro and providing a combined 11 goals and assists in five games so far. Only Arsenal have managed to keep them relatively quiet.
Their half-time introductions inspired Chelsea’s comeback on Wednesday. After Rogers had ingeniously flicked the ball off his backside to set up Palmer’s equaliser, the pair could be seen combining in the lead-up to Chelsea’s third and sixth goals too.Those combinations have become a theme. Across Chelsea’s five games so far, Rogers has played nearly twice as many passes to Palmer as any other player, with 19, while only defender Josh Acheampong has received more passes from Palmer, on 15.
They have only directly combined for one goal, surprisingly. But that total could easily be higher. In the 4-3 win over Brighton, they took it in turns to tee each other up, only to be denied by last-ditch blocks. In their opener against Fulham, Rogers created three shooting chances for Palmer but he couldn’t capitalise.
In total, they have created nine chances for each other, which is more than twice as many as any other two players in the Premier League, ahead of five pairings, among them Palmer and Joao Pedro and Antoine Semenyo and Erling Haaland, on four.
Although most expected Palmer to be the provider for Rogers, it has more commonly been the other way around so far. Palmer finished last season with a run of one goal in 13 games but has four in five this term, his threat increased thanks in part to his new team-mate.
Rogers explained how they intended to help each other after his arrival. “We have different qualities, different ways of playing and affecting games,” he said. “Ultimately, it’s about scoring and creating and linking the game. We can do that in our own ways.”
The differences can be seen in how they feed each other. Rogers typically aims to find Palmer in space between the opponent’s defensive and midfield lines, as in the examples below.
It helps that in Xabi Alonso’s system, the width is provided by the wing-backs. This gives Rogers and Palmer freedom to come inside, putting them in close proximity to each other and giving them more opportunities to combine in central areas.
With Rogers and Palmer playing off each other centrally, Chelsea have directed a higher percentage of attacks through the middle third of the pitch than any other Premier League side.
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