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Liam Rosenior appears to have the backing of his Chelsea squad ahead of the end-of-season run-in.
Malo Gusto has leapt to the defence of Liam Rosenior. The 22-year-old defender has insisted that the Chelsea boss, who replaced Enzo Maresca in the dugout at the start of the year, is a 'top manager', despite criticism in recent weeks.
The Blues have only won one of their last five games in the Premier League, while losing each of their last four matches across all competitions. Despite having crashed out of the UEFA Champions League and fallen behind in the race for a place in the Premier League top four, Gusto has backed Rosenior.
In an interview with ESPN while away with France on international duty, the right-back said: "I think he [Rosenior] is a top coach, I saw that a lot of people criticised him.
"Not really [understanding why he is being criticised so much], I have worked with him a lot since he joined Chelsea. I think he is a top person first of all, a top manager as well and as you say, he is young."
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Gusto added: "He is a lot of things for the future, but if he is the Chelsea manager, it is because he has the talent for this. As I said before, for us as a team, we have to believe in him, believe in the way we play, to stick to our plan and see how it goes.
"He is a good person, he is really honest, really simple, you can see that he is really passionate. He wants to share it with us his passion for football and I feel like I want to play for him, I want to show my best when he puts me on the pitch."
Gusto, who has remained a key player under Rosenior, first established himself as a regular in the starting lineup during Maresca's spell in charge. Only four players made more appearances for the Italian at Chelsea than the Frenchman.
On the decision by BlueCo to change the head coach, he continued: "It was a bit complicated for us in the middle of the season when Enzo Maresca was sacked.
"So, a new coach coming in now, it was a big change, I think, for the team; everyone was surprised, to be honest. But in football, that can happen, so we had to adapt.
"That is what we tried to do, before the international break, it was a tough few weeks for us in terms of results because that is not what we expected."
Recalling what has been a difficult couple of weeks, Gusto added: "Against PSG, there were a few games in the Premier League against Newcastle and Everton as well that we lost.
"It is a bit hard [changing system], when you start to understand one and then right away you have to change to another one, it is maybe a little bit more [difficult] for us because we have a little less experience.
"A lot of us are young, but we have quality to deal with this, but we just have to trust the process and do our best to put Chelsea where it is supposed to be."
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