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It has been a really tough week for Liam Rosenior and Chelsea with three straight defeats and the Blues being humiliated by Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League
Chelsea's last two matches have felt hugely significant. Thirty-six shots, 11 of them on target, and disgruntled supporters turning on Liam Rosenior.
The discontent at Stamford Bridge is nothing new. Before Rosenior's first home game in charge of the Blues, there was a protest outside of the stadium pre-match, where around 200 fans voiced their frustration at the club's ownership. Another protest is also being planned.
While the majority of the fans' anger seems to be at Clearlake Capital and their model, some of the supporters turned on Rosenior during Chelsea's 3-0 (8-2 aggregate) defeat to Paris Saint-Germain. When he made a triple substitution 59 minutes into the second leg, with the Blues trailing by five on aggregate at the time, Rosenior was effectively waving the white flag. Enzo Fernandez, Cole Palmer and Joao Pedro were all sacrificed with Saturday evening's trip to Everton in mind.
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When asked if that moment was an admission of defeat, Rosenior replied: "I think it's not just an admission, it's a reality of where the group are. They've played over 100 games in 18 months. They've had no break in terms of the international games, the travelling that, say, Joao Pedro, Enzo Fernandez or Moises Caicedo do to South America. It's not an excuse.
"This is a by-product of the success at the Club World Cup and it's a great thing that the club achieved at the Club World Cup. You're seeing with Reece [James], you're seeing with players, that if I don't manage their minutes, the likelihood of [them] getting injured is increased very highly.
"So I want us to make sure we're in this competition next season as a minimum. We're still fighting for an FA Cup, but I have to make maybe really difficult decisions that, at the time, probably don't look great, to be honest. You never want to take off your best players when you're five goals down in a tie, but I want to make the right decisions for the football club in the long term as well."
When the trio's names were read out, there were boos ringing round Stamford Bridge. That particular scenario was a lose-lose for Rosenior. There was some debate that he should have done it at half time given the tie was already over, but it never looks good when a team like Chelsea effectively surrenders such an important match.
Rosenior is a young coach, an inexperienced one in the grand scheme of things. The 41-year-old has said since the moment he stepped through the door that he is still learning. PSG ended up teaching the Chelsea head coach a brutal lesson over the course of two legs.
Ultimately, PSG proved why they are European champions. Their deadly nature in front of goal - that saw them score eight goals from just 18 shots over the course of the two legs - is the sort of thing that separates them from most sides on the continent. Luis Enrique, while a terrific coach, has match-winners everywhere you look - and that more than helps.
PSG did not need any encouragement but Chelsea continued to give them some throughout the two legs. Individual mistakes let the Blues down in the tie, with two of Rosenior's risky selection decisions coming back to bite him.
In the first leg, it was the inclusion of goalkeeper Filip Jorgensen that raised eyebrows and when he gave the ball to Bradley Barcola - with Vitinha eventually the goal scorer - 74 minutes in, that decision proved costly. That was such a significant goal in the tie; Chelsea were mightily impressive up until that point and it was the source of a disastrous collapse in the final 15 (or so) minutes at Parc des Princes.
In the second leg, Rosenior used Mamadou Sarr, a conventional centre-back, on the right side of defence. An unorthodox role for the 20-year-old, though Rosenior pointed out post-match it was not his first time in that sort of position, in his first Champions League appearance.
It was a big ask of the Senegal international and so it proved when, just six minutes in at Stamford Bridge, he gifted PSG the opening goal of the night and the goal that put the tie beyond any reasonable doubt. Those that had any sort of cautious optimism from a Chelsea perspective no longer did.
The defeat on Tuesday night is Chelsea's fourth in their last six matches in all competitions. After a promising start for Rosenior, his side's form in March has been a disaster.
With the immediate fallout of the humiliation, the last thing Rosenior needed was his vice-captain, the skipper on the night, Enzo Fernandez to come out and put his future at the club in serious doubt. When asked what the future holds and where he could be playing his football next season by ESPN Argentina, Fernandez replied: "I don't know, there are eight games left and the FA Cup. There's the World Cup and then we'll see."
Fernandez has been linked in recent times to Real Madrid and PSG, so a statement like that was the last thing needed. Rosenior actually found out about the midfielder's comments during the head coach's post-match press conference and unsurprisingly did not want to say too much publicly on the matter.
If he didn't know already, Rosenior is now fully aware of the pressure and scrutiny that being Chelsea head coach brings. Truthfully, the last week has been nothing short of a disaster for Rosenior, but the club's board have not lost patience with him despite some reports circulating on social media.
Rosenior was always going to find it tough to win over the match-going supporters given the relationship between the club's owners and fans. For all of the discontent, it felt like it was all towards Clearlake's model but Tuesday night in particular saw some of it aimed towards the head coach.
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