“We don’t lose whenever we play together” – Cucurella hails Chelsea star ahead of new season
Chelsea left-back Marc Cucurella has praised Chelsea player Cole Palmer before the Euro 2024 final.
Cucurella has compared Cole Palmer’s impact on games to that of his Spain teammate Lamine Yamal.
When playing together in training, Marc Cucurella and Cole Palmer never lose games, demonstrating their strong synergy.
When The Athletic asked Cucurella who his worst opponent in England is, he mentioned clubmate Cole Palmer and mentioned some similarities between Palmer and Lamine Yamal.
He said: “He has not played a lot at Euro 2024, but it has to be Cole Palmer. His football brain works so quickly, he is always a step ahead of the rest. His decision-making is almost always excellent, and that sort of intelligence is the most difficult thing to defend against, you just can’t predict what he’ll do next. I’ve suffered a lot in training.
“He reminds me a lot of Lamine Yamal. Same style of player. He is a guy who does not care too much about anything. They don’t take life or themselves too seriously. If you ran into Palmer in the streets, you would never tell he is a footballer. But then he plays and…oof.
“He arrived at a tough time for Chelsea, when the team was struggling, and he made an impact from the start. That helped him a lot to keep growing and getting more confident. If you manage to get those kinds of players in a situation of confidence, they make the difference. I’m so happy and hope he carries on like this…but after this weekend!
“He is a special character. He is so serious. When people see him, it’s not like he is instantly likeable. It’s difficult to explain, but when any teammate sees me they instantly know I am up for a joke and that we can engage in that way. But he is always so serious.
“Still, we got along well, really quickly, since the first training sessions. We were doing mini-matches in training, five-a-side, and the coaches put us together in some. From there, we clicked. Whenever we were on the same team, we would never lose. We had this joke of being the winning team and that’s how our good bond started.”