Malo Gusto has publicly defended Liam Rosenior amid growing criticism of the Chelsea head coach as the club endures a difficult run of form. The France international insisted the squad remain united behind Rosenior and the playing plan he has implemented since arriving in January.<\/p>\n
Gusto said: “For us as a team, we have to believe in him, believe in the way we play, to stick to our plan and see how it goes. He is a good person, he is really honest, really simple, you can see that he is really passionate.<\/p>\n
“He wants to share it with us his passion for football and I feel like I want to play for him, I want to show my best when he puts me on the pitch.”<\/p>\n
The timing of Rosenior’s appointment followed the shock sacking of Enzo Maresca on New Year\u2019s Day. Gusto reflected on that period: “It was a bit complicated for us in the middle of the season when Enzo Maresca was sacked,” the fullback recalled. “So a new coach coming in now, it was a big change I think for the team, everyone was surprised to be honest. But in football that can happen, so we had to adapt.”<\/p>\n
Chelsea\u2019s recent results have been mixed. The club drew criticism after conceding late goals to newly promoted sides Leeds United and Burnley, an outcome described in the coverage as the side having “set fire to four points” in Rosenior\u2019s own words. Wins against Aston Villa and Wrexham were followed by a painful sequence of four straight defeats that saw Chelsea ship 12 goals and limp into the March international break.<\/p>\n
On the broader picture, Chelsea sit out of European competition this season and are trailing in the race for Champions League qualification amid frequent reports of star players seeking moves away. Gusto dismissed suggestions of unrest. “I think he is a top coach, I saw that a lot of people criticized him,” he said. “Not really. I have worked with him a lot since he joined Chelsea. I think he is a top person first of all, a top manager as well and as you say, he is young. He is a lot of things for the future, but if he is the Chelsea manager it is because he has the talent for this.”<\/p>\n
Some criticism has focused on Rosenior\u2019s off-field persona, from social media commentary to his appearance and public remarks. Support from players has also been recorded: Enzo Fern\u00e1ndez called Rosenior “a great coach,” while Cole Palmer said: “Life under Liam is amazing, he gives us all confidence. Lets us be ourselves, play free.”<\/p>\n
Statistically, in 10 games under Rosenior Chelsea have 5 wins, 2 draws and 3 losses, with 19 goals scored, 14 conceded, a +5 goal difference and 17 points. Rosenior has altered the team\u2019s pressing approach, a tweak that malfunctioned in the recent 1\u20130 defeat to Newcastle United earlier this month. As Gusto put it: “We just have to trust the process.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Malo Gusto defends Liam Rosenior as Chelsea endure four straight defeats and mounting scrutiny amid.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10108,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[190,172],"tags":[1081,1305,1530],"class_list":["post-10109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea","category-epl","tag-adaptation","tag-bench-selection","tag-caretaker-manager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10109\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}