Chelsea youngster explains how loan spell is improving him as a player
Chelsea youngster Kasey Palmer says his Championship experience has toughened him up.
Palmer is midway through a season-long loan spell at Huddersfield Town, scoring four goals and making three assists in 22 league games.
And the 20-year-old midfielder believes dropping into the second tier was the best move he could have made as he transitioned from academy football.
“Playing men’s football is so different,” Palmer told Chelsea’s website.
“You’re getting hard challenges all the time. The fitness in the Championship is incredible.
“People play Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday, Tuesday, 90 minutes, and the intensity is so high. It’s non-stop running until the final whistle.
“Dealing with the physicality of it has been a massive thing. I struggled at the start of the season but I’ve done a lot with the physios and the sport scientists off the pitch, working on my fitness, and as the season has gone on I’ve started to get more games and feel fitter and stronger.”
Palmer attributes his increased fitness to the so-called ‘Gegenpressing’ style of closing down opponents, which Terriers boss David Wagner helped pioneer at Borussia Dortmund as number two to Jurgen Klopp.
He said: “The manager is keen on the high press, so as soon as we lose the ball we react and try to win the ball back as soon as possible. For him it’s more important what I do off the ball than what I do on the ball.
“When I have the ball I want to be positive and try and create opportunities and score goals, but he knows if we don’t concede a goal we are not going to lose the game.
“The work ethic he demands off the team is why we are doing so well this season. There are not many teams fitter than us, we run until the 90th minute and we can do it week in, week out.”
Palmer’s first goal for Huddersfield came against Chelsea’s west London rivals Brentford on the opening day of the season, when he had only been on the pitch for a matter of minutes.
“It was the dream debut, everything I had dreamed of as a kid growing up,” he said.
“My family were all in the crowd, it was the first time I had my name on the back of my shirt going on the pitch in front of 20,000 fans. It was a surreal moment I will never forget.
“One of the other players took a shot, I followed it up, the keeper parried it and I took a touch round him, and then with my second touch put it in the net for what proved to be the winning goal. It couldn’t have gone any better.”
