When Liam Rosenior first arrived at Chelsea, I commented that he was setting up just like Enzo Maresca, and I saw very little differences. I did follow that up with saying that it was very early doors for him, and perhaps he needed a bit of time to implement his ideas and what he wanted from the players. Now, we are seeing that come to fruition.
Last night, in that first 45 minutes, it was not only the best football I’ve seen us play under Liam, but also the best football I’ve seen us play for quite some time.
He used a setup that was not overly complicated, didn’t have any full backs inverting into the centre or attacking midfield positions, it had stability and midfield overloads, and allowed freedom for our creative players to operate. You do not know how refreshing it was for me to see that and how long I’ve been asking to see that. It simply gets the best out of our players. We had full backs overlapping, and perfect balance with how he positioned his midfielders such as Enzo Fernandez operating in the left half space. Marc Cucurella makes the width on the left, and Malo Gusto was helping Estevao Willian attack down the right. Classic full backs are still alive, ahh!
Cole Palmer was gifted pure freedom, which is what he has been craving. I mean, you saw Palmer everywhere last night, even dropping right in to get it short off Robert Sanchez. If you want the best out of Palmer, this is what you need to afford him, the freedom to roam. Estevao was doing a lot of the same too. And we were ticking and purring in that first half.
He was everywhere… !
There was no slow and laboured play, only fast one touch football to get us up the pitch and into an attacking position as soon as possible. It was so nice to watch. I haven’t often said I’ve enjoyed watching Chelsea play in the last few years, but I absolutely enjoyed that first 45 minutes. It’s why I was so frustrated that we cocked it up in the second half and threw away a two goal lead.
But Liam is getting there, and that draw was not really on him last night. He seems to really be trying to deliver on what he promised – entertaining and attacking football. I am seeing dynamism but at the same time, he now has his trusted starting Xl I believe and trusted setup, with Andrey Santos being THE key cog for it. Without him, I don’t think this setup works quite as well. He is the instrumental part of this. But every player is important to it, and it’s so important that we can keep them all fit and in form.
Obviously there is still a lot to work on, but some good signs from last night for sure.