“Quite clever” – Gary Lineker praises Liam Rosenior for something he’s done since arriving at Chelsea | OneFootball

Gary Lineker believes Liam Rosenior has done something “quite clever” since taking over as Chelsea’s new head coach.

Rosenior replaced Maresca at the start of the year, and has signed a six and a half year contract at Stamford Bridge.

The 41-year-old has won six of his first eight games, with his only losses coming against Arsenal in the semi final of the Carabao Cup.

Gary Lineker praises Chelsea head coach Liam Rosenior

Rosenior has guided Chelsea to three wins out of three in the Premier League, and the Blues sit fifth, just a point behind fourth placed Manchester United.

This form has seen Rosenior nominated for the January Manager of the Month award, in what’s his first month in the job.

Chelsea fell short against Arsenal in the Carabao Cup. (Photo by Clive Mason/Getty Images)

The former Strasbourg boss has come in for criticism for his approach to the second leg against the Gunners, but Lineker believes Rosenior has done something “quite clever” since taking over at Chelsea.

“Arsenal, as we know, are brilliant from set pieces and he (Rosenior) did an interesting tactic from corners.

“I mean, I’ve seen it done before, but whenever they conceded a corner, Chelsea would put three players on the halfway line and that meant obviously that Arsenal had to go back,” he told The Rest Is Football.

“I mean it’s nothing new, but it’s an interesting tactic I think particularly against Arsenal because they crowd your goalkeeper and it means you can’t really do that because you can’t immediately Arsenal put three well they have to put four back because you always need one more behind.

“So I thought it was you know he’s obviously trying to think things through on that and I think that’s quite a clever way of defending against Arsenal.”

Chelsea face run of winnable games

Rosenior has an opportunity to put a run of wins together, given Chelsea’s favourable fixtures in February, starting with Saturday’s trip to Wolves.

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The Blues then host Leeds and Burnley in back to back home games, but March is where things start to get tough.

Chelsea face Arsenal and Aston Villa in back to back games away from home, before hosting Newcastle and travelling to Everton.