Liam Rosenior running out of time to fix fragile Chelsea | OneFootball

Blues’ season in danger of fizzling out after another capitulation

Chelsea’s fragile mentality has been a common theme throughout their mediocre season, and their worst habits were teased out by Manchester City.

Among the biggest concerns from Sunday’s Stamford Bridge mauling was how Chelsea caved after shipping the opening goal. All square at half-time after an even opening 45 minutes, Chelsea were two goals down before the hour mark. Chelsea heads dropped as City purred, and the result was put beyond doubt by Jeremy Doku eight minutes later.

If Chelsea are to qualify for the Champions League by making up what is already a four-point deficit on fifth place, they must learn how to deal far better with setbacks and develop a more robust mentality.

If he is the man to fix Chelsea’s problems, Rosenior needs to hurry up. Only six league games remain with which to mastermind Champions League qualification, while a possible rematch with City in the FA Cup final is firmly on the cards.

The way Nico O’Reilly’s opening goal was so swiftly added to, with Marc Guehi doubling City’s lead six minutes later, was a point of real frustration for Rosenior.

“It is something that we have to address, because it has happened too many times where we've been in games against top teams,” he said. “First half, I felt we actually were very, very good. The same against PSG [in the 5-2 first-leg defeat] for 75 minutes. But then we concede and then the cards start to fold.”

Rosenior went on to cite that opposing number, Pep Guardiola, and former Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp “had a year to sort things out” in their first jobs in the Premier League. Will the 41-year-old Englishman get the same grace under this regime if he does not fix Chelsea’s shoddy defending and weak mindset in the big games?

Improvements are needed immediately, for the good of all parties, and patience is rare.

One ex-Chelsea player has described the current side as a “60-minute team”, capable of staying in the very biggest games and competing with the best — just not for a full match. The “perfect 90 minutes” that Rosenior spoke rather obsessively about when he walked through the door in January are yet to materialise.

For the most part, the raw football quality is there. It is the cowering away from responsibility at pivotal moments in matches that continues to dog them. Even during a fairly impressive first-half showing, Rosenior was seen slapping his hands against his thighs and scratching his head vigorously in frustration.

“It comes down to resilience in difficult moments and seeing those moments through and making sure you're still in the game,” Rosenior said. His analysis was spot on. His success in rectifying the problem is not.

Asked if his players had been risk-averse or played within themselves, Rosenior accepted: “I think at the end you do. The second-half performance was nowhere near what we wanted or what we expected at half-time.”

The thing that stuck with him, though, as he plots a way out of this dismal form, was those two quickfire goals in the space of six minutes and what they represent about his team. It was the point he kept coming back to. “That's something that just can't happen moving forward.”