Former England international Stuart Pearce hopes to see Cole Palmer feature heavily for the Three Lions in the Euro 2024 semi-finals
Former England defeat Stuart Pearce has called for Chelsea star Cole Palmer to feature for his nation against the Netherlands in the semi-finals of Euro 2024.
England reached the final four of the ongoing European Championships with a penalty-shootout win over Switzerland in Dusseldorf last weekend. Cole Palmer started the game from the bench and came on as a substitute in the 78th minute. Moments after his arrival and a slight tactical tweak from Gareth Southgate, Bukayo Saka restored parity in the 80th minute.
While the Chelsea attacker did not contribute a goal for the rest of the match, he put in a fine performance and calmly converted his spot-kick past Yann Sommer in the shootout.
When previewing the semi-final clash alongside Jim Proudfoot on talkSPORT, Ex-footballer-turned-pundit Stuart Pearce claimed that he wants Palmer to play a starring role for the Three Lions on Wednesday night.
“We’ve got an outstanding substitute that’s come on and influenced the games,” Pearce complimented Palmer on talkSPORT.
“He’s come on and been magnificent.
“Listen, he is on such good form at the moment. He’s got such arrogance on a football pitch that if he doesn’t play a real large part of this game [against the Netherlands] it will be quite disappointing for us.
“He looks a match-winner himself.”
Palmer is yet to start a game for England at the 2024 Euro in Germany, which is quite astonishing for someone who entered the tournament on a high after his exploits with Chelsea. The Englishman was the standout performer in his debut season for the Blues, bagging 25 goals and 15 assists in 45 appearances across all competitions. Without a shadow of a doubt, he was among the Premier League’s best players this past campaign and consistently performed in a dysfunctional Chelsea side.
Nonetheless, the Wythenshawe-born talent has emerged as an impactful option off the bench for Gareth Southgate in the showpiece event. He made his major tournament bow in the 0-0 draw with Slovenia, having been an unused substitute in England’s opening two group-stage games against Serbia and Denmark.
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Since featuring against Slovenia, Palmer has been called upon from the bench in both knockout fixtures—against Slovakia and Switzerland—so far and he has done his job. He may have yet to contribute a goal over three appearances but the kind of directness, energy and creativity the 22-year-old has brought off the bench has mightily aided the Three Lions in these games.
Given Southgate is unlikely to make any changes to his first XI from the quarter-final win over Switzerland, we can only hope to see Palmer come off the bench early and make his mark to help his nation advance past the Dutch and into the final.
