Liam Rosenior is confident his playing style will eventually come good at Chelsea despite frustrations from supporters inside Stamford Bridge in their defeat to Arsenal on Wednesday night.
Some of the fans in SW6 were audibly frustrated with a few instances of the Blues attempting to play out from the back and becoming unstuck against the Gunners' high pressing. Robert Sanchez, Trevoh Chalobah and Wesley Fofana - and others - gave possession back to the visitors on numerous occasions after being pressured by Arsenal’s hungry attackers.
Rosenior was shown a clip on a reporter's laptop during Thursday afternoon's pre-Brentford press conference. In said video was an instance, at around the four-minute mark during the defeat to Arsenal, where the hosts were looking to build out from the back.
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Sanchez started with the ball, the goalkeeper then passed it to Fofana and a few of Chelsea’s midfielders and attackers dropped deep to try and give the Frenchman an option. Enzo Fernandez found himself in between Declan Rice and Martin Odegaard as an option but then spun and sprinted higher up the pitch to give his teammates an alternative. A pass to Fernandez was the riskier option, but one that would see Chelsea break Arsenal's pressing trap if executed perfectly. Instead, the ball ended back at Sanchez's feet and the goalkeeper went long to Marc Guiu, who gave away a free-kick.
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Rosenior is adamant this is how he wants his side to play and is confident that over time, it will become an effective weapon.
"I want the team to be comfortable," said Rosenior. "Whether it's to play direct, whether it's to play through the pitch, to create an overload - either in the middle of the pitch or on the side - and to make the opposition run and press and tire them out."
During Rosenior's days as Derby County boss, the Rams were one of the first teams to popularise one of the centre-backs passing the ball to the goalkeeper from a goal kick - something that was on show during Chelsea's loss to Arsenal. Rosenior has now explained the logic behind the tactic.
"Everyone does it now," the Chelsea head coach said. "When you play to the goalkeeper first, the ball is in the middle of the pitch, so the opposition don’t know where the ball can go. Then you can get timing off of that pass in terms of your movements and your patterns. Every coach has an idea about the way he wants to play."
Chelsea take on high-flying Brentford at Stamford Bridge this afternoon in Rosenior’s first taste of Premier League football as a head coach. Rosenior is hopeful Cole Palmer (thigh) and Reece James (hip) will return to the matchday squad for the visit of the Bees after the Blues duo trained over the last two days after missing recent matches against Charlton Athletic and Arsenal.
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