After Chelsea suffered a disappointing home defeat to Newcastle United, Thierry Henry criticised Liam Rosenior for his reaction to a moment involving Alejandro Garnacho
Thierry Henry analysing Chelsea on Monday Night Football
Thierry Henry has criticised Liam Rosenior(Image: Sky Sports)
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Thierry Henry has hit out at Liam Rosenior for tuning away after Alejandro Garnacho's mistake cost Chelsea against Newcastle United. The Blues suffered a damaging 1-0 home loss to Newcastle on the weekend.
Anthony Gordon tapped in the only goal of the game, which resulted in the Blues dropping out of the top five, as a result of Liverpool's 1-1 home draw to Tottenham Hotspur. It was a poor goal for the West Londoners to concede, as Tino Livramento was able to play Jacob Murphy through on goal before the latter tapped the ball around the on-rushing Robert Sanchez for Gordon to pass the ball in.
Henry, who was on Monday Night Football before Brentford's home clash with Wolverhampton Wanderers, highlighted Garnacho's attempt at pressing the Newcastle defender. He claimed the ex-Manchester United forward should have curved his press to block the passing lane to Livramento, who was free in the middle of the pitch.
While the Arsenal legend admitted Garnacho made a mistake, he did not like the sight of Rosenior turning away in frustration after Newcastle scored. Henry said: "The way he went to put pressure there Garnacho, it's very important that we're going to talk about it.
"At that particular moment you have the info yourself that Chalobah was maybe going there [stepping forward], but you know he's stopped and Livramento is alone. So at that particular moment you know you're going to make a little turn or arc your run to make sure that the ball doesn't go in, and then they play on Malick Thiaw here.
"That can happen what you just explain if you bend your run and that's going to have a massive impact on what can happen straight after because it allows that ball to go inside and that's exactly what you don't want and he allowed that to happen."
When addressing Rosenior's reaction, Henry added: "So the first mistake is don't allow the ball inside (like Garnacho did), correct it after, but the leader on the field (points to Reece James) didn't make it happen, right? But I want to show you here (points at Liam Rosenior turning away from the pitch), Liam Rosenior, I've been there, you are disappointed that they allowed that ball to go inside but we are not at a training ground here where you can go: 'Ahh, let's start again'.
Thierry Henry pointing to Alejandro Garnacho on Monday Night Football
Henry pointed to the player Garnacho should have focussed on(Image: Sky Sports)
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"So since you talked about players do not react or they liked to be coached or the coach likes to maybe not give them that freedom, then coach it because there is a mistake.
"He's not coaching it on the field, and unfortunately, I said to you that I've been there, but he's not even looking at what is happening. Goal. Do you understand what I'm saying, it's not easy. That's what they need to deal with and they didn't."
When asked about the Magpies' goal, Rosenior admitted a "tactical issue" was behind the collective mistake, which may prove costly in the context of Chelsea's hopes of qualifying for the Champions League. The ex-Strasbourg manager said: "Yeah, there’s a tactical issue. We press in a different way to most teams. It’s a new way of pressing. We don’t step on the press and we don’t cover in a position that we should have done. Mistakes happen.
"They had nothing. They had nothing in the game and we gave them a goal. We talk about the press. I think the press was the reason Newcastle had to kick long balls back to us and we controlled the game.
"But in that moment, we make a mistake and it feels like at the moment every mistake we’re making is ending up in the back of our net and we need to make sure we stop those mistakes.”
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