As Chelsea build up to face Arsenal in the Carabao Cup tomorrow, we’re all interested to see what Liam Rosenior is going to do with his full first team out there on the pitch.
Former Blue Pat Nevin was at Charlton at the weekend to watch Rosenior’s first game in charge, and was claims he didn’t see much different to under Maresca.
Firstly the selection was VERY Maresca: in fact this was the exact same team that had faced Cardiff in the round before, with the change of Tyrique George for Alejandro Garnacho.
So far, so Enzo Maresca from Liam Rosenior
Liam Rosenior speaks to the media ahead of Arsenal.
Liam Rosenior speaks to the media ahead of Arsenal.
“It was a Chelsea cup side resting or rotating as many as possible for the upcoming games, classic Maresca/Chelsea tactics,” Nevin wrote for the BBC.
“The 4-2-3-1 system with an inverted left-back was the same, except it was Hato not the suspended Cucurella doing that and scoring the opener.”
Nevin backed the decision: “the fact that Rosenior changed nothing obvious was almost certainly a smart move. If you are going to change at all mid-season, evolution not revolution makes more sense.”
And repeatedly the new boss has pointed out that his limited time with the players so far has been focused on mentality and attitude rather than anything too tactical.
When we see his actual first team in action tomorrow night, we will hopefully move a little closer towards finding out what Rosenior’s new ideas are.
In other news…
Liam Rosenior took his pre-match press conference on Monday, and the focus looking ahead to tomorrow’s Arsenal game was the Gunners’ set pieces.
Rosenior also spoke about having re-watched Arsenal’s recent games, including the 1-1 draw with Chelsea from not long ago, and having spotted some positive match-ups for his team to take advantage of tomorrow.
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Pat Nevin being interviewed.
Pat Nevin being interviewed.
Pat Nevin being interviewed.