Burley says there is ‘no point in keeping’ Liam Rosenior after Chelsea’s defeat at Brighton | OneFootball

Former Chelsea midfielder Craig Burley has called for the sack of manager Liam Rosenior following the Blues’ 3-0 defeat at Brighton on Tuesday.

They have now lost five consecutive league games without scoring for the first time since November 1912.

The Blues have also gathered just five points from their last nine league fixtures. Only Tottenham Hotspur have picked up fewer points during that period.

They trail fifth-placed Liverpool by seven points — though the Reds have a game in hand — leaving them with a slim hope of securing Champions League qualification.

Burley is unconvinced that Chelsea can secure a top-five finish. He wants Rosenior to be sacked before Sunday’s FA Cup semi-final clash with Leeds United.

He told ESPN FC: “I do not see any point in keeping Liam Rosenior in this role when things are spiralling downhill as fast as they are. What are their chances of getting into the top five?

“They play Leeds at the weekend. They have almost secured their Premier League status, they have just beaten United, and they won again at the weekend.

“They can sense an FA Cup final, and Chelsea look like a deflated side. They are a better-organised team than Chelsea.

“Are you going to allow the Champions League to slip away and then let a manager who is out of his depth take you into a huge FA Cup game where they are supposed to be favourites? How can you do that?”

Burley also criticised Rosenior’s management of the dressing room, citing Enzo Fernandez’s two-game suspension for ‘crossing a line‘.

“When you are in a team, you need to have players on board. But when you come out with the rhetoric he has been using since day one—suspending World Cup winners for innocuous statements and basically throwing them under the bus—it was ridiculous,” he added.

“And then we wonder why the other players are half-cocked, half-hearted, and performing the way they are.”

Chelsea’s hierarchy are still backing Rosenior, but that may change at the end of the season, particularly if there is no upturn in form.

The English tactician was handed a six-and-a-half-year deal as Enzo Maresca’s replacement in January.

Chelsea would have to pay a significant compensation package if they decide to sack him.