Rosenior has big challenge to get “magnificent” favourite into Chelsea team | OneFootball

The embargoed sections of press conference are often pretty uninteresting, but when you’ve got someone as garrulous as Liam Rosenior behind the mic, you get some interesting stuff too.

On Thursday, he used the annex section to glowingly praise Andrey Santos:

“Andrey, for me, is a magnificent player. He’s a young player who plays way beyond his years,” Rosenior said the Brazilian, whom he had managed at Strasbourg.

“He is what I would call an ‘intangibles player’, where he does things in games that sometimes people don’t see. He will, for example, fill a position when the ball is nowhere near him, or he’ll make the right pass and two or three passes later we end up with a chance.

“Andrey helps players around him become better players because he’s so selfless in the way he plays. He’s been top in the games that he’s played, and I’m really enjoying working with him again.”

Rosenior has a challenge to get “magnificent” Santos back into his team

Andrey Santos in preseason training. (Photo by Darren Walsh/Chelsea FC)

It will be really interesting to see what comes next for Santos. Cole Palmer is fit to play today – does that push Enzo back into a double pivot, and Santos out of the team? Or will Rosenior find a new system that fits them all in?

Whatever happens, Santos is making great progress towards being an undroppable presence in this team.

In other news…

An Athletic story about Enzo Fernandez showed how he’s on track to match a record set by Frank Lampard and Mason Mount in recent years, showing how much he’s improved and become a key figure for the team on and off the pitch.

The same story had some Lampard quotes about Enzo which have been proved totally correct after watching him for a few years.