Liam Rosenior is unfazed by the wave of jokes directed at him, as the Chelsea head coach remains at ease with the humor while he works towards proving his critics wrong.
Rosenior, who carries an unblemished Premier League record into his upcoming match against Wolves, has faced a challenging initiation in his first month at the helm of the Blues. He frequently finds himself the subject of jokes and memes.
Social media users have humorously compared him to fictional characters like Will from “The Inbetweeners” and David Brent from “The Office,” poking fun at his press conference remarks. He has been the butt of jokes for his comments equating ‘manage’ with ‘ageing men’ during his time at Strasbourg, for organizing a Lego team-building exercise at Hull, and most recently, for an amusing moment when he failed to control the ball during Chelsea’s Carabao Cup semi-final defeat to Arsenal.
Despite the seemingly harsh scrutiny, Rosenior remains untroubled. He insists that he takes it all in good spirit.
“The team played the clip back to me, and we all had a good laugh,” Rosenior said about the Arsenal moment. “Estevao joked that he couldn’t believe I was once a professional footballer.”
Liam Rosenior went viral after failing to control the ball during Chelsea’s clash with Arsenal
Rosenior emphasizes the importance of maintaining a sense of humor. “You have to laugh at yourself. This is a fantastic job, and I love it. While I am serious and demanding in many areas, life is too short not to enjoy it. Right now, a lot of people are having a laugh at my expense.”
Nevertheless, Rosenior is clearly a coach confident in his own abilities and thick-skinned enough to ignore the external noise as he works towards improving Chelsea.
One new introduction since his arrival has been how his players now perform their pre-kick-off huddle directly in the middle of the centre circle. That idea seemingly originated from Willie Isa, the former rugby league player who now works with Chelsea as a de facto ‘cultural architect’, in conjunction with the squad’s leaders including Reece James, Enzo Fernandez and Marc Cucurella.
‘Willie Isa is a top guy,’ Rosenior explained. ‘He comes from New Zealand where the culture of togetherness and spirit is crucial. He’s spoken with the leadership group about different things we do. There are many, many things that aren’t seen, and that’s one of the many things that has been seen in terms of what we’re trying to create here.
‘For me, everything is psychological, everything starts with the mind. If your mind is in a good place, the rest takes care of itself. The psychological aspect, we have to attack this game in exactly the same way that we attack every game – with the right mindset.’
With Jamie Gittens now sidelined by a hamstring tear, Alejandro Garnacho may be needed much more on the left wing. He has faced criticism of late and, when asked whether the £40million summer signing is afraid of trying to beat his man at the moment, Rosenior leaped to his defence.
‘You’re making your own viewpoint on what you see,’ he said before addressing Garnacho’s previous performance versus West Ham where he faced Aaron Wan-Bissaka.
‘I saw Garna take the game forwards. I saw him reach really, really good positions where, by the way, he’s one-v-one against one of the best one-v-one defenders in world football. I’ve got full backing of him and I will always protect my players. He just needs to get some games and some rhythm. I back him to have a really good second half of the season.’
Asked for Garnacho’s ceiling, Rosenior added: ‘Ceiling is limitless in life.’
Mamadou Sarr, who returned to Chelsea from his loan with Strasbourg in the January window to be reunited with Rosenior, has trained with his new team-mates before Wolves. Sarr’s arrival is an early indication of the influence that Rosenior will enjoy within the club’s recruitment department.
‘Everybody knows what I think about Mamadou,’ Rosenior said. ‘I think he’s got the potential to be a world class centre-back. I’m delighted he’s here. I thank the sporting directors and ownership for supporting what I thought was the right thing for us and for him and his career.
‘I see a growth in Mamadou. I see a growth even in his performance in the AFCON final. I see a growth in his physicality. I see a growth in his tactical understanding. There was an area of the pitch I felt we could strengthen in our own way. He will get his opportunity but he knows he has to fight for it because we’ve got many outstanding centre-backs in our group.’
