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Liam Rosenior has acknowledged his job will be under threat if he cannot turn around Chelsea’s poor form before the end of the season.
Although the head coach recently received public backing from the co-owner Behdad Eghbali, he is aware that retaining long-term support is dependent on results. Chelsea are under growing pressure as four consecutive league defeats have left them seven points off fifth-placed Liverpool with five games to play, and Rosenior was realistic when asked whether his bosses had assured him his future did not hinge on securing Champions League qualification.
“I’ve had many conversations with them,” he said. “It’s a very direct question, I like it. They’re supporting me. They believe in me. There’s one thing I haven’t believed – the reality of the situation. At Chelsea football club, we’ve lost our four last league games. That’s not good enough. So, regardless of what they believe I can achieve with the club in the long term, I need to get results now with this group and with the sporting directors as well.”
Chelsea are sixth before visiting Brighton on Tuesday night but defeat would leave the world champions at risk of dropping into 11th before they next play in the league, at home to Nottingham Forest on 4 May.
“We can’t be looking to other teams or results, we have to look to ourselves,” Rosenior said. “It’s easy, these words: ‘Keep the faith’ and ‘belief’. This is about character now. It’s about standing up. It’s about people who are willing in difficult moments to stand up for the shirt and fight.”
Rosenior revealed that Wesley Fofana had apologised for his angry reaction to being substituted during the 1-0 defeat by Manchester United on Saturday. Rosenior suggested it was up to his players to alter perceptions that they are badly behaved.
“I’ve spoken to the players about this,” he said. “You tell a story about yourself in moments sometimes, especially on a football pitch. It’s emotional and you tell a story about your character and sometimes when you don’t show yourself in the best light, the perception of you is probably different to what the reality is.
“A lot of the work we’re doing with the group, with the players, is not football. It’s not just football. We have a young group of players and that’s a really positive thing at times and with that comes a responsibility for me and my staff to help them through difficult moments. I want to change the perception of them because I’ve got to know them very well. That takes time and they need to learn quicker than maybe they have done.”
Rosenior said he would continue to protect his side against external criticism. “My job is to be accountable,” he said. “The buck stops with me. I want to protect them. I believe we will come through this period so much stronger, but we have to get this part right now.”
Chelsea are dealing with a growing number of muscle injuries – Estêvão Willian, Jamie Gittens and Reece James have hamstring injuries and João Pedro is a doubt with a thigh problem – but Rosenior said his training methods were not to blame, pointing out that he had not had time to change the schedule since replacing Enzo Maresca in January.
“When I first joined the club I had a great conversation with the head of performance and the head of medical,” Rosenior said. “They’re doing a lot of research into why even before my time [it’s happening].
“But the logical and honest answer is: look at the amount of games our players have played. The more games you play in a short space of time, your risk of injury, especially muscular, goes through the roof. That’s something that we need to look at and how we can best protect the players.”
