As Liam Rosenior digests his second Premier League defeat as Chelsea manager, the Blues boss was called out on live TV by an Arsenal icon
Thierry Henry has criticised Liam Rosenior for turning away following Alejandro Garnacho’s error that proved costly for Chelsea against Newcastle United. The ex-Manchester United forward was given the nod to face Eddie Howe’s side, who beat the Blues 1-0 at Stamford Bridge.
Anthony Gordon slotted home the match’s only goal, which saw the west Londoners slip out of the top five following Liverpool’s 1-1 draw at Anfield to Tottenham Hotspur. It was a sloppy goal as Tino Livramento managed to easily thread Jacob Murphy through before the winger knocked the ball past the advancing Robert Sanchez for Gordon to stroke it home.
Henry, speaking on Monday Night Football ahead of Brentford’s home fixture against Wolverhampton Wanderers, pointed out Garnacho’s pressing attempt on the Newcastle defender. He argued the United academy graduate, who left Old Trafford last summer in a £40million deal, ought to have angled his press to cut off the passing route to Livramento, who was unmarked centrally.
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While the Arsenal icon conceded Garnacho had erred, he disapproved of Rosenior’s reaction of turning away in exasperation after Newcastle found the net, reports the Mirror. Henry said: “The way he went to put pressure there Garnacho, it’s very important that we’re going to talk about it.
“At that particular moment you have the info yourself that Chalobah was maybe going there [stepping forward], but you know he’s stopped and Livramento is alone. So at that particular moment you know you’re going to make a little turn or arc your run to make sure that the ball doesn’t go in, and then they play on Malick Thiaw here.
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“That can happen what you just explain if you bend your run and that’s going to have a massive impact on what can happen straight after because it allows that ball to go inside and that’s exactly what you don’t want and he allowed that to happen.”
In response to Rosenior’s reaction, Henry added: “So the first mistake is don’t allow the ball inside (like Garnacho did), correct it after, but the leader on the field (points to Reece James) didn’t make it happen, right?
“But I want to show you here (points at Liam Rosenior turning away from the pitch), Liam Rosenior, I’ve been there, you are disappointed that they allowed that ball to go inside but we are not at a training ground here where you can go: ‘Ahh, let’s start again’.
“So since you talked about players do not react or they liked to be coached or the coach likes to maybe not give them that freedom, then coach it because there is a mistake.
“He’s not coaching it on the field, and unfortunately, I said to you that I’ve been there, but he’s not even looking at what is happening. Goal. Do you understand what I’m saying, it’s not easy. That’s what they need to deal with and they didn’t.”
When questioned about Newcastle’s goal, Rosenior acknowledged a “tactical issue” lay behind the collective error, which could prove damaging to Chelsea’s Champions League qualification ambitions. The former Strasbourg boss explained: “Yeah, there’s a tactical issue. We press in a different way to most teams. It’s a new way of pressing. We don’t step on the press and we don’t cover in a position that we should have done. Mistakes happen.
“They had nothing. They had nothing in the game and we gave them a goal. We talk about the press. I think the press was the reason Newcastle had to kick long balls back to us and we controlled the game.
“But in that moment, we make a mistake and it feels like at the moment every mistake we’re making is ending up in the back of our net and we need to make sure we stop those mistakes.”
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