Alan Shearer has said that Cole Palmer will not be able to be a suitable short-term replacement for Kevin De Bruyne at Manchester City.
After picking up a hamstring injury during the Manchester club’s opening Premier League match of the season against Burnley, the Belgian is now set for four months out on the sidelines after having surgery.
With Palmer scoring two goals in the three games he’s appeared in this season, the Englishman has now been mentioned as being a potential replacement for De Bruyne while he’s out injured.
Shearer says ‘exceptional’ Palmer can’t replace De Bruyne
Speaking on a recent edition of The Rest Is Football podcast alongside Gary Lineker and Micah Richards, Shearer had this to say about Palmer when asked if he can continue to keep his place in the team.
He said: “He can get a place in it but there’s no way he’s going to replicate what Kevin De Bruyne can do.
“And it would be unfair of us to even suggest that because we’ve been going on and on, and rightly so, about Kevin De Bruyne and how brilliant he is and one of the best players in the world and how much we as forwards would like to be on the end of his passes.
“So it wouldn’t be fair of us to say he’s going to come in and do what he can do, but there’s no doubt he brings a different talent to that team and he’s had a great start to the season with his goal a couple of weeks ago, his goal on Wednesday evening.
“He’s an exceptional player but there’s no way he’s filling De Bruyne’s boots.”
Given the extremely high bar the Belgian has set in terms of goal contributions by scoring 10 goals and providing 31 assists last season, it’s easy to see why Shearer thinks it could be unfair to expect the 21-year-old to immediately reach the level De Bruyne is at, especially with Pep Guardiola recently describing the 32-year-old as irreplaceable.
However, given his goalsoring efforts already in this campaign, the winger has shown how useful he can be for the team in big moments and why he deserves to play regularly.
Moving forward, we feel that rather than worry about having to replicate what De Bruyne does on the pitch, the best thing Palmer can do when given the chance to play is focus on his own game and do the best he can.
