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The full transcript from Chelsea head coach Liam Rosenior's pre-match press conference ahead of the Blues' trip to Everton in the Premier League on Saturday evening
Liam Rosenior has just completed his pre-match press conference ahead of Chelsea's Premier League clash against Everton at the weekend.
The Blues make their first-ever trip to the Hill Dickinson Stadium on Saturday evening as Rosenior's side look to put a miserable week behind them. Chelsea have lost their last three matches, all in the space of six days, and are looking to get their season back on track in the last game before the final international break of the campaign.
Rosenior has just finished his presser. Here is every word the Chelsea head coach had to say:
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How is Trevoh Chalobah?
Yeah, it wasn't until later after the game that I saw the image. I think everyone's seen it and then you're really, really worried for the next day. Obviously, it's never good that Trevoh is out for any period of time, but fortunately, it's nowhere near as serious as we first feared. It's still a serious injury, but we're looking at a period of maybe six weeks, which is disappointing. But from where we were a couple of days ago, straight after the game, yeah, we are in a better place than what we were before.
How far away is Levi Colwill?
With an ACL, he's hitting all of the benchmarks that he needs to, but we need to keep making sure that he keeps going past certain levels. It's just brilliant to have his presence back on the training pitch and we want to see him back out there on the pitch as soon as possible, but within the right time frame. He's still looking at a good while, yeah.
So, but hopefully this season still?
Hopefully, that is the hope, yeah, which would be a massive boost.
What about Reece James and Filip Jorgensen?
Yeah, Filip, unfortunately, he had his scan and he needed a minor operation. Nothing too serious. Again, that's a matter of weeks, but he'll go through the wars at the moment. And Reece, we're going to look more at after the international break. It's not serious, but there is something in his hamstring and that's something that we'll monitor after the international break.
Has this last week been the toughest period in your managerial career so far?
When you lose games, there's always damage attached to it. But there's also me learning about the team and learning about myself and my staff and the club. And I learned a lot this week. What I do know is that there's a resilience and determination to put things right for myself and the team. And we'll see in the coming weeks what happens, which I'm very, very confident about.
Has it been your most challenging?
Different challenges. I think every manager goes through moments like this, goes through difficult weeks. I've had challenging periods before. Strasbourg, we've lost games. I've lost games in many jobs, like all managers have done. But I've always found a way to come through that. And now we're at that point again where I think as a group, we need to find a way to fight at Everton and come through a difficult period.
Have you spoken to Enzo Fernandez since his comments?
Yeah, I think I had a great conversation with Enzo at length this morning before training, not just about his comments, just how he was feeling, how as a team we can improve. He's one of the captains of the club. What I would say is that he made it really, really clear to me how happy he is here at this club, how much he wants to win, how passionate he is for us to be successful. And he also said that in translation and in emotion, things get misconstrued in what he said. So for me, he's fully committed to this group, he's fully committed to winning here at this football club.
How much of that and how much of what you're trying to do at this club depends on qualifying for Champions League though?
You want to be in the Champions League. It makes your recruitment, it makes your planning, it makes everything clearer. Not just from a financial point of view, but this club deserves to be in the Champions League. It's as simple as that. That's the aim and that's the target. That's what we need to really focus on now after coming out of that competition. The rest of it is just about making sure that we win the next game and that we still stay on track for what we want to achieve.
How damaging has the last week been for the morale, the confidence and the belief of your players?
Yeah, I think most clubs, most teams go through these moments in the season. I would say it's what I've seen, not just today, yesterday, after the game, during the game, in the last minutes when we're down to 10 men, I didn't see a lack of effort. In a difficult moment, I've got a very resilient group, I've got very resilient staff and we know we need to put things right. You can't quantify damage until you're at the end of the season. What we have, we have eight huge games left in the Premier League plus a cup competition that we want to win. So we're still in a place where we can affect things in a positive way.
Your team news has been leaked for the last couple of games. Is that a concern for you and will you have an investigation?
We know [who it is]. And it's not come from any place of malicious intent to me or to the team. We know where it's come from and we've dealt with the situation.
There's been some criticism of you handing notes out to your players towards the end of the game vs PSG. What have you made of that?
I will always do my best in whatever circumstance for the team to perform at its best level regardless of the result, whether we're five goals down or five goals up. In that moment, we've just gone down to 10 men. I needed to change the system. I needed Moises Caicedo to go to right-back. And rather than me scream and shout above a lot of people in the stadium, the best thing to do is to show him and get the note across to him. I'm aware, like, if I don't win at this football club as the manager and if we don't win as a team, I'm very aware now that anything goes.
Does it surprise you that that is being scrutinised by experts? How do you deal with criticism?
It doesn't affect me. I'm aware of it. Of course, it's my job to be aware of what's being said about the football club, about my team. Am I surprised? No. The level, maybe. But the reality now is that I need to help this club and I need to help my players perform to win games of football. And if I don't, then maybe if I breathe wrong or sneeze wrong, it's going to be spoken about.
With the image of you giving the note, people have construed it as you trying to get your ideas across. Do you feel that your tactics are getting through to the players at the moment? People said Alejandro Garnacho's facial expression was a bit confused...
We've five goals down. The lads were disappointed. It's normal. There will always be a narrative when a team don't perform or get the result that they want. But that's not the case. The players have shown... We've had 18 games together in 10 weeks. They've shown at times that they have a clear understanding of what we want to do in a different way and at times, which is normal in this period, it's not going to go completely to plan. In terms of the game on Tuesday night, it completely didn't go the way we wanted it to. But me handing out a note is not a reflection of my message not getting through to the players.
In terms of the execution, the pressing on Tuesday, for example. Is that something that needs to be worked on still?
No, I think if you look at the game and if you look at the reality of the situation, I would love to have a pre-season with the group. It's not possible. It doesn't mean we can't be successful. I'm so happy that I've joined this club in the moment that I did. If you look at our games where we've not achieved what we wanted to, it's not come off tactics, it's come off moments. It's come off moments. We're 2-2 in the first game, come off a mistake, an individual error. That happens in football. The first goal, which took all of the energy out of the stadium, had nothing to do with pressing. But then on PSG, who are the European champions, are four goals up. There are other emotional factors to it. Again, me handing out a note, it doesn't tell a story. It tells a story. I want the team to always play at its best, no matter what the situation is for the group.
How is Mamadou Sarr? He must have had a lot to deal with after his mistake...
It's a lot. It's a lot, and it's a lot for all of us at this club, because we are expected to achieve in the now. I've worked with him for nearly two years. I'm so excited for his career. That's why he's here. You have to go through negative experiences at times to improve. He'll come back. He trained very well today. He's completely a massive part of our plans moving forward. And this, in the long run, for the pain that he's gone through, will make him an even better player.
Is it always more of a risk when bringing in such young players?
The closer you are to your goal... If you're a goalkeeper and you make a mistake, the chances are it ends in a goal. The same for defenders. It's higher. But Mamadou, Jorrel [Hato] was magnificent. Jorrel's been top since I've been at the club. You want to give these players the opportunities to show what they can do and learn from mistakes, me included. We all make mistakes. You have to make sure you learn from them. And that's where Mamadou is in his career. And if he learns from his mistakes, he's going to be... Honestly, it's so exciting what he can become as a player.
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