The shape of Cole Palmer has lost a cliff in recent weeks.
So far he has 20 goals this season and helps in all competitions for Chelsea.
But Palmer has not been working up since January 14 and has not set up a teammate since 1 December.
Palmer, 22, even missed a penalty for the first time in his senior career when his place was saved in the 1-0 victory of the Blues op Leicester last weekend.
His previously perfect record of 15 Spot-Kicks for Club and Country was Ko'd by Mads Hermansen.
And to make his shame even worse, manager Enzo revealed that the English star was suffering from stomach cramps.
It is far removed from a year ago, when Palmer could not stop in his breakthrough season in Chelsea after a transfer of £ 42.5 million from Manchester City.
He flourished under Mauricio Pochettino, with 25 goals and 15 assists in 46 performances, won the Club's Player of the Season Award and was also named PFA Fans' Player of the Year.
So how can tactical guru maresca change things to make Palmer the player he was a few months ago?
Tactics expert Chris Beaumont van We Scout Strikers has three solutions that can unlock the Palmer puzzle.
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Speed up it
Last season, when Palmer really broke out and became a dominant attacking force, the English star largely played as a right -sided winger.
However, he was much more a threat when he entered and played in the channels or even the central areas.
So far, this season, Maresca has used Palmer more as an Orthodox No. 10.
Maresca is in favor of a slow build -up style with a very structured system in which players the passing patterns he wants to understand.
There is very little freedom in the system because the coach prefers control over individuality.
This means that Chelsea struggles when they have found it difficult to develop the ball through the middle and to the areas where Palmer would ideally have been placed.
As such, Palmer has started to fall deeper and deeper to get on the ball.
By getting deep on the ball, you immediately get Palmer out of the positions and the areas in which he can cause the most threat.
The System Maresca -Gunsten see Chelsea form a midfield while attacking with the right back – or left back – usually inside to midfield.
This is designed to give Chelsea control over the center of the pitch.
The problem for Chelsea is that the opposition can close the ball progression by tightly pressing the two players at the foot of midfield.
They then close gaps that the advanced midfielders can record.
The solution to prevent Palmer from feeling that he must continue to fall into deeper areas is to improve ball progression from deeper areas.
Maresca must release the limitations of his team and allow them to play faster if he wants to get Palmer at his best.
At the moment everything from Chelsea is too slow and predictable.
The players need more freedom to go up the ball and play ahead quickly to influence the opposition.
Spread the game out
This season Palmer plays as a more central attacking midfielder for Chelsea, but usually still comes to the right in the canals when his side is in possession.
Although Palmer is very, very good when it comes to finding bags with space that he can occupy to receive the ball, he has been less effective in recent weeks.
One of the biggest problems he has to deal with, his teams that become more aware of his danger.
Consequently, they remove the spaces in their own defending third parties that Palmer would have reached the ball earlier and created most of his threat.
Because Chelsea wants to overload midfield with a box shape, the opposition reacts by defending tightly in the middle and leaving more room in the wide areas.
With the opposition that defends more effectively in the central areas of the field, there is a real need for Chelsea to take advantage of the spaces elsewhere.
With Palmer, who is now playing more centrally, are the spaces that Chelsea has to operate in the broad areas.
If Chelsea becomes more effective to get the ball in the wide areas and to have players who can attack their opponent 1V1, then they create more penetration and space central.
If Palmer cannot find centrally, and since he is one of the best attackers in the team, Chelsea has to create him the space.
The issue they currently have is because possession-hungry Maresca wants his wing players to receive the ball wide.
But where they seem to be aggressive and attack the opposition fullback, they turn back instead and want to play back or play in the middle of the field.
If Maresca wants to create more space centrally in the last third part of Palmer, he has to unlock the wing players.
If the broad attackers attack 1V1 more often, the opposition will have to release the defenders broadly to double and offer coverage.
This will immediately create more space for Palmer.
Give Palmer more freedom
It is of course when a young player starts to see his shape slipping for them to look for ways to force the game more.
When Palmer played well at the start of the season, the game seemed easy to him and he always seemed to have time and space on the ball to create and make things happen.
Now we see many more examples of Palmer who takes possession and almost tries to force the game around him by playing too quickly instead of playing with calmness.
To a certain extent, Palmer also finds it more difficult to create space for himself and find shooting corners, because Chelsea misses a real striker with Nicolas Jackson injured.
Palmer and Jackson have an excellent understanding and partnership.
The runs and power of the attacker create space in the line of defense for Palmer to exploit, often for destroying the effect in the first half of the season.
But with Christopher Noekunku who is played centrally, from position, in the absence of Jackson, the spaces have just not been the same.
Because Palmer is willing to get up and take responsibility for the attacking structure and play in the last third part, we often see him isolated on the ball and try to beat players.
Instead, he should have been looking for more options around him to combine.
This is more a coaching point than a tactical point and it touches on the fact that Maresca is a more tactical focus than someone who has a close personal relationship with his players.
Palmer has to play again with more freedom on the ball instead of trying to make things happen.
Conclusion
Chelsea is about to fall out of the Champions League places in the Premier League.
For them to achieve their sporting ambitions this season, they must again become more effective in the last third part.
This means that they have to go back to creating the structure around Palmer to make him thrive.
If he can go back to finding and creating goals when the season ends, then there is every chance that Chelsea will end in the top five and possibly end up a trophy to go with it.
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