Sky Sports' Paul Merson pens his latest column on Chelsea's "obsession" with playing out of the back, Cole Palmer's form and Man Utd's issues; Merson says the Man Utd players don't know what they're doing and none of them have improved under Erik ten Hag
Tuesday 1 October 2024 17:21, UK
I can't knock Chelsea's start but they've got to change this obsession with playing out of the back.
You go and watch them and you're squeezing your programme every time they try it. They pass out, and you're anxious the whole time. It's not like watching Man City or Arsenal, the way they flow through the press. It's like grabbing onto your seat stuff.
Chelsea can hurt anyone on their day, but on other days they will hurt themselves because it's not completely fluid. You can't keep scoring four goals every week. But I can't knock the start. I'm penny-pinching a bit.
Chelsea can't get carried away. They can't lose focus - what really is the aim? You would take fourth and a cup run. The Europa Conference League gives them a chance to make history, no club has ever won every European trophy.
Enzo Maresca has got to have a bit of luck along the way, and he has. Chelsea shouldn't have beaten Bournemouth, and the Crystal Palace game was in the balance. They could easily be in the bottom half; you're playing with fine lines here.
With the squad he's got and how big it is, you at least know the team now. I was worried it would be five or six changes every week but that hasn't been the case. It's been quite consistent and solid. Certain players play every week and that's important.
I've said that Rodri is the only player in the world who walks into any team and now everyone is jumping on the bandwagon about Cole Palmer. He probably won't play for England - does he play ahead of Jude Bellingham?
But he has been outstanding for Chelsea, exceptional. I'm a big fan. He's a special player. It just shows you the standard at Man City, because he didn't get anywhere near that team. Everything goes through Palmer at Chelsea and that would never be the case at Man City.
You give the ball to Kevin de Bruyne or Phil Foden or Bernardo Silva. Palmer would touch the ball much less, probably half the amount. He's still a big fish in a big pond at Chelsea, and he's producing. He likes that the play comes through him, that's where he thrives.
You keep on doing the same thing, you get the same results, it doesn't matter what you do in life. It's happening again and again. I don't see an upcoming fixture that is Erik ten Hag's get-out-of-jail-free card. They've got Porto and then Aston Villa, they are bang in trouble.
It's alright saying 'Oh, we'll stick with him' - they got battered at the weekend. They got rinsed by Tottenham.
If I look from a distance, I see a team that doesn't know what they are doing. They don't know when to press, when to drop off, it's so disjointed. I find Man Utd a hard watch. This looks like a team that's never played together before.
It looks like a lorry load of top-quality players turning up for a trial. They've all been released from their clubs and invited to play a game together and for us to watch - there's nothing there. It's weird. I don't want to pick on Marcus Rashford, but he loses the ball and just jogs on like it was unlucky.
Sometimes you've got to ask: are the players good enough? We go on about the manager, but what about the players? They were made to look silly, there was no shape, nothing.
Even Kobbie Mainoo plays like a 30-year-old now. I don't want to be harsh, but he's not sprinting around the pitch. It's like he has seen others do it, and picked up bad habits. When he first got into the team he was bursting with energy, pass, run, bang. I'm watching Mason Mount, and it's not the same player - it's mind-blowing.
When I look at top coaches or managers - like Pep Guardiola, Mikel Arteta and Jurgen Klopp - they improve players, they make players better. I look at the Man Utd team and since Ten Hag has been there, no player has improved, no player has gone to another level. What has happened? This is the biggest club in the world.
We all lose confidence, it's hard, but the only thing that gets you out of that is hard work. It was cringeworthy on Sunday. Tottenham could have beaten them five or six, so could Liverpool a few weeks ago. They both missed chances to score more but it was like it didn't really matter because the result was never going to change.
Man Utd might have a couple of good results here and there because they still have good players, but this is the same old story. They are falling further and further behind - they are behind Tottenham now, well behind.
