The most disappointing evening … ‘so far’
· Yahoo Sports
Chelsea made it four defeats on the bounce with yet another staggeringly poor performance last night at Goodison Hill Dickinson, with all our familiar failings on glorious display. Cheap giveaways, lazy defending, uninspired possession, poor finishing, critical mistakes: the 3-0 win for Everton was their largest ever margin of victory over Chelsea in the Premier League era. Meanwhile, we’ve now gone over 300 minutes without scoring a goal — not exactly ideal for a team relying on scoring goals to overcome defensive frailties.
Head coach (at least in name) Liam Rosenior talked a lot before the game about needing a response from the PSG and Newcastle debacles, about not letting that run of games destroy the rest of the season as well. The only response we got were the proverbial crickets. Doesn’t exactly speak highly of the levels of motivation that are currently being inspired. Just going through the motions ain’t gonna cut it in the Premier League.
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Once a force of toxic positivity, Rosenior these days is basically admitting that we’ve got nothing. And who knows where the bottom might be.
“The most disappointing evening so far in terms of the things we’ve spoken about, not gifting goals away and making sure we’re in the game, getting control of the game. It wasn’t there and it turned into a really, really difficult evening where the result and performance was nowhere near what we expected or wanted.”
“[We] had an edgy start in terms of cheap giveaways that we gave away. Then we managed to gain control of the game and we’re arriving and creating moments which we don’t take, we’re not clinical enough. And then out of nowhere, it feels like out of nowhere they score. And it’s not the first time that that’s happened. And what happens in football, if you are in a run, a difficult run of games against big teams, your energy levels and your confidence levels can drop if the other team score first. And that’s what happened. Pickford makes a world-class save at 1-0. Then we come out in the second half, have control of the game. And then we make a mistake and they’re 2-0 up and it gives them even more energy. It’s about flow and momentum. And we didn’t have that in the game today.
“[…] I don’t think there’s a lack of effort. I don’t think there’s a lack of belief or determination in the team [but] it’s a moment of switching off. I want to protect my players always. I always will. And I take responsibility for that lapse in concentration, but that’s what it is. And that’s happened too many times in my time recently for me not to tell the truth as it is.”
-Liam Rosenior; source: Football.London
I’ve never been a big fan of the “lost the dressing room” narrative in football, as it’s often a reductive bit of cheap and convenient pseudo-analysis, but these last four games under Rosenior might be setting a world record for how quickly one can in fact lose the dressing room. There are many things wrong at Chelsea, many systemic issues far beyond Rosenior’s control or purview. But the things that he can control are all going wrong at the moment, and that’s not a recipe for success in any situation.
Can things turn around when we reconvene after the international break? Hard to see how or from where any such turnaround might come. (Even as other teams around us keep dropping points as well.)