Liam Rosenior reflects on ultimately unsuccessful tactical approach against Arsenal

In early December 2016, Chelsea went to the Etihad to play Manchester City. Antonio Conte, in his first year as Chelsea head coach, set out his team to survive the first hour, keep things close, and then try to get a result late on. City were not quite the dominant force at this time that they’d soon be — this was also Pep Guardiola’s first season at the helm — but they would take the lead thanks thanks to an unlucky own goal from Gary Cahill on the stroke of half time, before missing a couple sitters, including Kevin De Bruyne smashing the crossbar from like a yard out. Diego Costa would equalize soon after that, with Willian (a key sub early in the second half) and Eden Hazard also scoring in the final half hour to make Conte look like an absolute tactical genius. Boosted by that result, we’d go on to waltz to the title (still our most recent league title, sadly).

The following season, in the spring of 2018, Conte and Chelsea went to the Etihad to play a now much more settled, and league-leading (by a massive margin) City side. Conte, in his second year as head coach and with the seams already well frayed and not just on the edges, set out his team without a recognized striker, looking to survive at least the first hour, keep things close, and then try to get a result late on. But Bernardo Silva would score the game’s only goal early in the second half, with Chelsea unable to muster a response in the latter stages of the match. Conte was universally derided for his cowardly approach, and a few months and an FA Cup trophy later, would be sacked.

The next season, in May of 2019, it was Maurizio Sarri taking Chelsea to the Etihad to play the champions-elect. Sarri, in some ways the exact antithesis of Conte, stuck to his usual approach. He set his team out to play on the front foot, to dominate possession, to try to meet prime City at their game. City would be up 4-0 by the 30th minute, and go on to embarrass us, 6-0. This game remains the lowest rated game in WAGNH Community Player Ratings history, and for good reason. Sarri was universally derided for his naïve approach, and a few months and a Europa League trophy later, would take his talents back to Italy.

I guess my point is, you’re damned if you do, damned if you don’t. Brave or cowardly, deserved or undeserved, lucky or earned. It doesn’t really matter. Win and you’re a genius; lose and you’re an idiot.

To some extent, that’s the nature of the job. Head coaches, in any sport, are always judged on wins and losses, and, if they’re lucky, trophies. It’s never that simple, never that binary of course, but in this short attention span era especially, ain’t nobody got time for nuance.

Liam Rosenior certainly knows; he’s been on both sides of the fence.

“I’ve been a pundit. It’s easy. It’s easy in hindsight. So, if I go and attack the game, press really high and we concede two goals early, everyone says, ‘what’s he doing?’ That’s the reality of my job. The reality of my job is if you lose games, you’ll be criticised. If you win, you’re a genius. It’s normally somewhere in between, I think.”

That doesn’t necessarily mean that Rosenior’s approach was the right call, or the best choice. But there was a very clear plan, a very obvious gambit. Survive the first hour, keep things close, and then bring on cavalry to try to get the result late on.

Was it the right call? Personally, I would’ve done the same. Get the one goal, get to extra-time, who knows what can happen from there. Our defense can be suspect, which could’ve been a problem, but Arsenal didn’t push the issue either — not unsurprisingly given Mikel Arteta’s tendencies — so the setup was there. We just couldn’t execute with enough quality when it mattered. That will frustrate everyone involved, as it should.

“I’m extremely disappointed every time I lose a game of football. Every time we win, I’m happy. Every time we lose, I’m not happy. I’m not happy that we lost the game. There are aspects of our game today that I’m very happy with, but I’m here with the team. You could see how devastated the lads were after the game for what they put in.

“We believed we could come here and turn it around. In terms of the control and domination we had in the second half, there were moments in the second half I thought it was there for us. We just didn’t take it.”

“[…] You can come away from home, press all over the pitch, man-to-man and you could go 2-0 up or you could go 2-0 down. I felt that the psychological aspect of the tie was very important as well and I felt in the stadium as well. 60 minutes, I bring on Cole and Estêvão and the game opens up and we have moments in and around the box. I think there was a feeling in the stadium that this tie could turn.

“We didn’t achieve what we wanted to, but it’s not about game plans, it’s about results. I have to give our players so much credit for what they put into the game and ultimately their goal comes when we’re just throwing the kitchen sink at the game. That’s going to happen, but we have to make sure that we take the positives from that, but we’re here to get results.”

“[…] The spirit, the togetherness, the fight in the team was there. There’s a lot of encouraging signs. Now I need to see what we look like after a setback. We need to react positively. We have a difficult game away in Wolves on Saturday and I need to see what our reaction is to that.”

-Liam Rosenior; source: Football.London

And the games just keep on coming.