The former Tigers manager, and player, is under increasing pressure on the King's Road
Barry Cooper Hull City correspondent
09:00, 24 Mar 2026
Liam Rosenior reacts after Chelsea's 3-0 defeat at Everton
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Liam Rosenior reacts after Chelsea's 3-0 defeat at Everton(Image: Chris Brunskill/Fantasista/Getty Images)
Former Hull City midfielder Kevin Kilbane admits he doesn't recognise Liam Rosenior from the player and person he played with under Steve Bruce at the MKM Stadium.
Rosenior is under growing pressure at Chelsea after a poor run of form, and that was made worse at the weekend with a 3-0 thumping at Everton, with that result coming on the back of a humiliating 8-2 exit from the Champions League at the hands of Paris St Germain.
The Blues haven't scored in their last three games against Everton, PSG and a 1-0 home loss to Newcastle United before that, with pressure building on the ex-City boss.
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That pressure rose again after that Stamford Bridge defeat to Newcastle, after his side bizarrely took part in a pre-match huddle around referee Paul Tierney, with Rosenior then somewhat strangely suggesting his players had wanted to 'respect the ball'.
Reports in France in recent days have suggested Chelsea's under-fire hierarchy could look to make a change before the end of the season, in a bid to ensure the club doesn't miss out on the lucrative qualification for the Champions League next term.
Kilbane, though, admits the Rosenior he's seeing now, under the worldwide focus that comes with being Chelsea manager, is a very different person from what he remembers at City.
“I played with Liam at Hull, and I got on well with Liam; he used to tell some great stories of Roy Keane when he was his manager at Ipswich," Kilbane told Off the Ball.
“And you see the way he is now, to me, he’s unrecognisable to the player and the person I knew. It’s like he’s swallowed a psychologist’s manual or a sporting mentor’s memoir. To me, everything he says is waffle, drivel, nothing.
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“It’s like he tries to write as many quotes down as possible and tries to get them into a pre-match talk or post-match whenever addressing the media. If I’m a player being asked to do that huddle, I wouldn’t feel comfortable if I was a Chelsea player.”
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