Chelsea manager Liam Rosenior is in danger of being sacked (Image: Sky Sports)
Manager Liam Rosenior tore his Chelsea players to shreds after the 3-0 defeat at Brighton, declaring their performance “indefensible” and “unprofessional” and accusing his players of a lack of effort. The 41-year-old, who only took over in January, appeared sour in the post-match interview following the gutsy defeat at the Amex Stadium, which marked the Blues’ fifth consecutive Premier League defeat. They have failed to score a single goal in that match and have lost seven of their last eight games across all competitions.
Chelsea were 1-0 down within the first three minutes of their match against Brighton in a game they needed to win to qualify for next season’s Champions League. However, the Londoners were toothless and failed to get a single shot on target as the Seagulls ran out of easy winners. A furious Rosenior told Sky Sports: “By far (the worst performance ever). That was unacceptable in every aspect of the game. The attitude was also unacceptable. I came out and continued to protect the players… That was inexcusable, tonight’s performance. The way we conceded goals, the number of duels we lost, the lack of intensity from the team. Something has to change dramatically here and now.”
When asked how this happened, Rosenia added: “Why? We have to look in the mirror. We have to look in the mirror. But we can’t keep coming out here to protect what we see. Manchester United, we didn’t really get the result, but we felt we had turned a corner.”
“But there was a general lack of attitude, a lack of spirit. The determination of three or four of the starting 11 (was there). You can’t come close to this club. You can’t go out there and lie. I’ll tell you the truth. That was an unacceptable performance on all fronts.”
Chelsea have lost five consecutive league games without scoring for the first time since November 1912. The five-game losing streak is the longest in the Premier League since November 1993.
The former Strasbourg head coach added: “The (first) goal was terrible. We had an easy header and we missed the header. We were even more upset with the pass in front of the first goal. I think there were four or five moments where we showed moral courage and quality and could have put the ball down and played. We just kicked the ball back to Brighton.”
“You can talk about lack of confidence and results that don’t go your way. That’s not what I want to see and I never want to see again. The professional performance wasn’t there. It was a really, really difficult night. It was the most difficult night of my career, if not so far, at this great football club. Some of the things I witnessed today I never want to see again.”
Rosenior was then asked whether the players had thrown in the towel at Brighton. He continued: “You have to ask the players, if you’re playing for this club, this elite football club or any other football club, you can’t even accept being accused of throwing in the towel. Yes, that’s all I’m saying. It hurts, it’s numbing. It doesn’t represent me. It doesn’t represent the football club anyway. That has to change from Sunday’s FA Cup semi-final (against Leeds United).”
Liam Rosenior talks about remaining in Chelsea’s away end after full-time (Image: Getty)
Even before Rosenior took over, Chelsea have been on the losing side in all 34 of their Premier League games this season. The director continued. “I don’t want to touch on that right now. I have my own thoughts, I have my own feelings. Regardless of who is the manager, we have thoroughly discussed what this football club should be and what needs to happen for this football club to be where it needs to be.”
“This is not about me, it’s about this football club. Chelsea stands for fight, spirit and determination. Tonight that was lacking in all departments. We had injuries. That’s not an excuse, it’s reality. But the team we played today was much better than the effort in the game.”
“We’re going to choose a team on Sunday to represent the club in the right way. This was a big game and we didn’t hit anywhere near our goal. Every game from now until the end of the season is a big game and we have to play like that. That’s your opinion (that the team is not working hard enough). I have to sit with the staff and make sure we do the right thing for Sunday.”
However, Chelsea centre-back Trevo Chalobah had a slightly different reaction, refusing to believe work ethic was the reason the Londoner extraordinaire lost on the south coast.
Chelsea have lost their last five Premier League games without scoring a goal. (Image: Getty)
He told the same station: “We gave it our all. Just not on the positive side. I don’t know. We obviously had a game plan. We tried to execute it and… yeah, we tried our best. We’ve been working on it all week, but obviously we lost today. We have to go again and we can’t dwell on this moment.”
“We have to look forward to the next game. As players, we have to take responsibility for our performance. We know how much the fans support us and we know they are disappointed. We are not winning at the moment. We have to come together and get through it. Personally, I think the players knocked their socks off.”
“If you look in the dressing room you can see everyone is tired. It has nothing to do with effort. We gave it our all. We just lost today. We ran today. If you look at the stats, you can see the players in that room are tired. We have to pick ourselves up and the semi-final is coming. It’s a big game at Wembley.”
“We are in the semi-finals again, so we have to take it positively, go into the game with a strong mentality and try to bounce back from this loss. We have to stay positive. Negative emotions will not help us. No matter what happens in life, we have to look forward and bounce back.”
