Paul Merson makes Liverpool point about Liam Rosenior and Chelsea

• 

• Liverpool FC News
• Features
• Paul Merson

Liverpool is battling with Chelsea to finish inside the top five places and qualify for the Champions League, but Liam Rosenior is under pressure at Stamford Bridge

Paul Merson working as a pundit for Sky Sports at Old Trafford.(Image: Robbie Jay Barratt - AMA/Getty Images)

Paul Merson has dismissed Chelsea manager Liam Rosenior's credentials as a top coach, suggesting that he wouldn't even come under consideration at a club like Liverpool.

Rosenior came in from Strasbourg, a team owned by the same group as Chelsea, earlier this season, replacing Enzo Maresca, and has raised eyebrows with several strange comments in the last few weeks. His only previous experience managing in England was with Hull City.

As a result, Merson believes that if Liverpool or Newcastle end up needing a new head coach in the near future, there is no chance that they would consider someone of his level of experience.

"It’s been a bad month for Liam Rosenior at Chelsea," Merson told Sky Sports. "That’s four games on the trot where they’ve been smacked. They can’t win one game.

"There are ways of losing football matches and that was a horrible, horrible watch at Everton. It didn’t look to me that the players were really on the same page as the manager.

"If Arne Slot got the sack at Liverpool this week, or if Eddie Howe left Newcastle, would Strasbourg boss Liam Rosenior have got one of those two jobs?

Chelsea head coach Liam Rosenior at the final whistle after his side were beaten 3-0 by Everton at Hill Dickinson Stadium(Image: Andrew Yates/Sportimage/SmartFrame)

"I’ll go one further: would he even get an interview? It’s madness. This Chelsea team don’t sit pretty at all with the fans, who have put Rosenior under pressure from day one.

"But the board — whatever plan they’ve got — you’d think Rosenior would need to get into the top five for them to be happy."

Even though Chelsea has been struggling, it is only one point behind Liverpool in the Premier League standings. Both teams have seven matches to play, including a meeting at Anfield in May.

That clash could be pivotal in the race for the Champions League spots. Liverpool lost in the last minute against Chelsea last time they met, with Estevao's winner at Stamford Bridge coming deep in stoppage time.

"If there is still a chance, then I am always confident, but we have to do better, of course," Virgil van Dijk told reporters on Saturday when he was asked about the Reds' chances of finishing in the top five.

"If we don't [improve], then it is going to be very difficult. Seven more games and tough ones as well, so things have to change for us to deserve that as well."

Liverpool.com says: The Reds and Chelsea appear to be going head-to-head for the fifth spot at the moment. Aston Villa and Manchester United look well placed, and Everton and Brentford are outsiders. It could all come down to the game at Anfield.