Fabio Capello has slammed Chelsea head coach Liam Rosenior after the Blues lost 3-0 to Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League Round of 16 second leg on Tuesday night. Chelsea’s loss at Stamford Bridge meant they were out of the tournament with an 8-2 aggregate score, the club’s worst European defeat over two legs.
In the 84th minute, Rosenior gave a note with tactical instructions to substitute Alejandro Garnacho. The Argentine winger’s clear confusion when he got the instructions quickly spread across social media. The note went around the Chelsea players until it finally got to defender Tosin Adarabioyo, even though it was already too late to save the tie.
Capello didn’t hold back when he talked about the Chelsea manager’s actions at the end of the game on Sky Sports:
“He’s out of his mind. He did something that will make the players laugh. That’s what they think. You saw his [Garnacho’s] face when he entered the pitch with that note; he was like: ‘What are you saying to me?'”
The ex-England head coach went even further and asked if Rosenior could get his players to respect him when he made such decisions in a hopeless situation that night.
“When you do smart things, you are involved, but when you do something like that, how are you involving somebody?”
Costacurta Backs Capello’s Criticism of Rosenior’s Bizarre Note-Passing Antics
Not only Capello, but also other famous Italian football players were confused by what happened at Stamford Bridge on Tuesday night. Alessandro Costacurta, a five-time Champions League winner and AC Milan legend, also had something to say about Rosenior’s choices.
The former defender drew on his long career as a player to explain why such a move could hurt a manager’s relationship with his team during a tough time.
“I was a player, and if something like that had happened to me, I wouldn’t have seen it as a way to get the players on my side. It’s possible that there’s a new trend, but you can see the attitude from Garnacho’s face.”
Rosenior became the manager at Stamford Bridge in January after Enzo Maresca left. Before the losses to PSG and Newcastle, he had only lost to Arsenal. Chelsea are now in sixth place in the Premier League, outside the spots for the Champions League, with eight games left to play. On Saturday, the Blues play Everton in what looks like a very important stretch of games for Rosenior to keep his job.