Rosenior refuses to criticise “top” striker despite open goal gaffe | OneFootball

Liam Rosenior praised Liam Delap for his assist and his work rate in a game where the striker had some frustrating misfires.

Chelsea have just beaten Hull 4-0, and while he did grab an assist, it wasn’t a great night for Liam Delap. He somehow didn’t score despite a great chance in the first half, and had some loose touches.

Despite that, his manager Liam Rosenior chose to praise the under-fire striker:

“[He was] top. To be a No.9, especially in a system that we play, it’s not always about yourself. It’s about bringing other people into play. It’s about sometimes making sacrifice runs so other players get the space and I thought in terms of, again, he started our press so well,” Rosenior said of Delap.

“But it’s nice in a way that you’re singling so many different players out, which means it’s a really strong team performance. And from 1-15, I felt it was a really, really strong performance tonight.

Rosenior keeps up his light tone in praise of under-fire striker

Liam Rosenior speaks after the FA Cup win.

Rosenior is always keen to praise all his players, and keep things very light and positive. He’s not the type to be critical, so we weren’t expecting that from him here.

Still, we all know the truth – despite the nice run to assist Estevao and some dedicated pressing, Delap won’t have done much to worry Joao Pedro about his place as the first team striker tonight.

In other news…

Chelsea are getting a rare midweek off, and after the game Rosenior also spoke a little about the rotation decisions he had made in the team.

Mamadou Sarr made a confident debut tonight, and Rosenior was also full of praise for the defender, who he knows well from their shared time in France.