Liam Rosenior has improved a lot about this Chelsea team since taking over form Enzo Maresca, but he still struggles in this one way.
In large part, the Rosenior era has been an enjoyable departure from what we were getting under Enzo Maresca. In terms of style of football, in terms of the mood around the club, in terms of the communication from the coach, we’re light-years away from where we were a couple of months ago.
Sadly some things are persisting from Maresca’s time at the club, and one of them was in full view last week.
The Italian coach’s time at the club was packed with fixtures, from the Conference League last year to the Club World Cup and Champions League this season. The feeling was always the same – if only we could get a midweek off, the players would be fresher and the coach would have some valuable time on the training ground.
However, curiously, the team would often disappoint when they got these rare midweeks off. Certainly we didn’t blast back into action as we were always hoping we would.
Rosenior’s team struggle from same malaise as Maresca
Liam Rosenior on the touchline.
Liam Rosenior on the touchline. (Photo by Ben Stansall/AFP)
The same thing happened last week. This was Rosenior’s first midweek off since taking the job. The players all had a holiday then some time at Cobham with him. Expectations were high for a big improvement. Yet it was eerily similar to Maresca’s spell – just when we thought they’d be high energy and well-drilled, they looked sluggish.
We’re not sure what to make of it, but it’s one carry over we really didn’t need.
In other news…
Chelsea’s recent form has been a little masked by an FA Cup win and a late winner over West Ham, as pundits have pointed out.
The Rest is Football podcast paid tribute to Joao Pedro today, pointing out that he was in great form and looking like one of the better striker buys from last summer.
Check out the latest edition of Simon Phillips’ SPTC podcast here:
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