Liam Rosenior ‘really disappointed’ as ‘set plays and discipline’ cost Chelsea yet again

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out where we are losing points at the moment. Two more goals conceded on set plays. Another red card. Arsenal 2, Chelsea 1. Our own attack stifled by the league’s best defense, who can afford to focus on that defense because they know they can get away with more than their fair share of grappling and blocking in the area on corners.

The latter is fast becoming a massive concern, threatening to reduce the beautiful game to a series of wrestling bouts. Perhaps one day, all that will go the way of the legal backpass to the goalkeeper. Until then, we need to figure out how to deal with them better — or at least not in the way we tried to deal with them last night.

“When I actually analysed those corners back [from last time against Arsenal], they were very, very close to scoring. It’s not always the outcome. [And] we’ve conceded from a corner against Burnley.

“[So] we worked on a certain scheme. It’s the first time the lads have done it. It didn’t pay off today, but we need to make sure we’re better in those moments because at the moment we’re losing points not based off our performances, but based off of set plays and discipline.”

Of course, conceding goals is one thing, even from set pieces. Even the best Premier League defense of all time conceded 15 goals.

But shooting ourselves in the foot over and over and over gain is just infuriating. Pedro Neto was the latest silly goose, picking up two yellow cards in just as many second-half minutes, first for dissent, then for a rather ill-advised and probably unnecessary tackle. My friends and I used to have a motorcycle riding club with the motto, “bad decisions were made, but good times were had”. Well, for Chelsea, it’s more like bad decisions were made … and good times were not had.

“I felt as a group, including me, we learned our lesson last week. To concede two goals from set plays, which ultimately has cost us the game, is really disappointing. And then to have another red card, again, really disappointed.”

“[But] it’s not just Pedro. I think as a group, me as the leader as well, we have to take more accountability for some of the decision-making we’re having in terms of our discipline and in terms of the moments of the goals, not just today, the goals we conceded. Some of them are just not acceptable at this level.”

Unforced errors will kill you in any sport, but especially in a sport like football and a league of such fine margins. It’s reductive, by definition, to judge a team just by results … but when results are all that matter at the end of the day, they also cannot be completely ignored. We need the points in order to have the time to try to fix the issues that are causing us to drop points in the first place. It’s a classic dilemma, and one for which we seem to have no answer these days.

“There’s something deep-lying that we need to get to the bottom of. The thing is, for me, if we get to the bottom of those two main things, we can be a very, very good team and we can achieve all the things we want to achieve. […] There’s a lot of good technically, tactically, the quality of our play. But if we don’t eradicate this, it’s going to be the thing that costs us.”

“[…] It’s clear where our strengths are and I think it’s clear to everyone what we need to improve on. I don’t want to be sat here saying how well we play every week without picking up the points. [We] need to start finding a way of playing well, which we have done in large parts of my time with the group. But we also need to pick up points very, very quickly.”

-Liam Rosenior; source: Football.London

It’s only another massive game coming up in just a few days, this time away to Villa, who are having a bit of a wobble. For our own top-five ambitions, these are a must-have three points.