Chelsea head coach Liam Rosenior has said that he is taking a practical approach to his tactics at Stamford Bridge. He also said that his full coaching philosophy won’t be put into action until next season. The 41-year-old was talking before the Blues’ Premier League game against Arsenal on Sunday at the Emirates Stadium.
The Blues are in sixth place in the table with 45 points from 27 games. Since Rosenior took over in January, the team have moved up from eighth place. But the coach made it clear that fans should expect to see his true self as a coach over a longer period, not just in the last few months of the 2025–26 season. Rosenior said:
“Arsenal are a very physical, high pressing, high energy team. I want us to be high pressing and high energy as well but you can’t solve that in a short space of time. Hopefully that comes over months, years.”
He also stressed the importance of respecting the players’ current routines and conditioning rather than making big changes in the middle of the season.
“It’s OK in your mind to say, ‘I want to play this way’. But you have to tailor that to the players, and their experiences, and where they are at this stage of the season.
“You can’t come in and completely change their training schedule and what they are used to, because they will get injured. This is a longer term thing for me to address,”
The former coach of Strasbourg is only interested in getting results on a game-by-game basis for now.
“At the moment, my focus, and the way we work, is game by game, what’s best for these players to win. That’s how it’s going to be for the rest of the season.”
Chelsea haven’t beaten Arsenal since 2021, and Rosenior has only lost twice since taking over, both times to the Gunners in the Carabao Cup semi-final. The game on Sunday will be a big test of whether his cautious, results-first approach can work against the team at the top of the league.
Why Chelsea Hired Rosenior
Chelsea hired Rosenior despite his lack of top-level experience because he had worked at the club’s sister club, Strasbourg, for 18 months and knew how their whole system worked. The multi-club ownership model, led by Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital, promoted from within, with Enzo Maresca leaving on New Year’s Day after a falling out with the higher-ups.
Rosenior led Strasbourg to a seventh-place finish and a spot in the UEFA Conference League. It was thought that his tactical style at Strasbourg, which combined possession football with attacks that focused on making quick transitions, would work well with what Maresca had built at Chelsea. The players were expected to have an easier time adjusting because of the similarities, but Rosenior’s focus on pressing intensity and verticality will add a new level.