Liam Rosenior declined to single out an individual after Chelsea were held 1\u20131 by Burnley, saying the matter will be handled internally.<\/p>\n
“An assignment was missed,” Rosenior reflected on Zian Flemming\u2019s late header. “An assignment, a marking assignment, wasn\u2019t done.<\/p>\n
“Flemming, we know, is their best header of the ball. And there was a player who I won\u2019t … I\u2019m not here to throw players under the bus. I will always protect my players. I will deal with it during the week.<\/p>\n
“There was a player we assigned that duty who marked the wrong player.”<\/p>\n
Rosenior also raised wider concerns about focus and accountability. “I\u2019m learning about the players. I\u2019m learning about the people you can lean on when things aren\u2019t going your way and you need to see a game out. That\u2019s something we need to address very quickly.”<\/p>\n
The equaliser arrived from a front-post header with Zian Flemming meeting the ball while Andrey Santos was nearby and did not track the towering Dutchman\u2019s run towards the front post. Rosenior\u2019s comments indicate another team-mate had been specifically tasked with following Flemming; whether that player moved, assumed a different duty or covered a gap will be resolved behind closed doors. Rosenior will know Santos well after their mutual time at Strasbourg and has demonstrated a clear trust in Santos in the past.<\/p>\n
Substitution details have sharpened scrutiny. Josh Acheampong was Chelsea\u2019s final substitute, coming on in the 89th minute in place of Reece James. Chelsea list Acheampong at 6’3″, two inches taller than Flemming and taller than Santos (5’11”) and Mois\u00e9s Caicedo (5’10”). Rosenior brought Tosin Adarabioyo on after Fofana\u2019s dismissal; at 6’6″ Tosin did not pick up an opponent at the front post, was blocked off and failed to challenge for the header. Tosin\u2019s Premier League aerial duel success rate this season is 69.2% and he is 28 years old. He has attracted fan frustration for a series of mistakes and become a primary suspect on social media, though Rosenior\u2019s tactical instructions are not public.<\/p>\n
Rosenior defended Wesley Fofana despite the red card. “That wasn\u2019t on Wesley,” Rosenior said of the result. “That was on our performance.” With Fofana suspended, Rosenior must choose a partner for Trevoh Chalobah for the trip to the Emirates Stadium to face Arsenal next weekend, and that decision may yet reveal who he had in mind when he spoke about responsibility after the Burnley game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rosenior will probe missed marking that allowed Flemming\u2019s header; squad selection may expose who is responsible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7063,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[190,969],"tags":[944,1305,1393],"class_list":["post-7064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea","category-premier-league","tag-andrey-santos","tag-bench-selection","tag-centre-back"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7064","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=7064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7064\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}