Liam Rosenior attacks Chelsea players after Brighton loss in brutal interview | Football | Sport

Liam Rosenior ripped shreds out of his Chelsea players after their 3-0 defeat at Brighton, declaring their performance “indefensible” and “unprofessional” and accusing members of his squad of a lack of effort. The 41-year-old, only appointed in January, was savage in his post-match interview following a gutless loss at the Amex Stadium that marked the Blues’ fifth successive Premier League defeat. They have failed to score a single goal in that run, and have lost seven of their last eight across all competitions.

Chelsea were 1-0 down inside three minutes at Brighton in a match they needed to win in their bid to qualify for next season’s Champions League. But the Londoners failed to manage a single shot on target in a toothless display as the Seagulls ran out comfortable winners. A furious Rosenior told Sky Sports: “By far, by far [that was the worst performance of the lot]. That was unacceptable in every aspect of the game. Unacceptable in attitude. I keep coming out and defending the players… that was indefensible, that performance tonight. The manner of the goals we conceded, the amount of duels that we lost, the lack of intensity in the team. Something has to change drastically right here, right now.”

Asked why it happened, Rosenior added: “Why? We need to look in the mirror. I need to look in the mirror. But I can’t keep coming out here defending some of the things that we’re seeing. Manchester United, genuinely the result wasn’t there but I felt we turned a corner.

“But the general attitude, spirit, was lacking. The determination [was there] from three or four of the starting eleven. That’s nowhere near enough for this club. I can’t come out and lie. I’ll tell the truth. That was an unacceptable performance in every area.”

Chelsea have lost five successive league games without scoring for the first time since November 1912. And their five-match losing streak is their longest in the Premier League since November 1993.

The former Strasbourg head coach added: “The [first] goal was terrible. We have an easy header, we miss the header. The passage before the first goal upset me even more. I think there were four or five occasions where we can show some moral courage and quality and take the ball down and play. We just kicked the ball back to Brighton.

“You can speak about a lack of confidence, or results not going our way. That doesn’t represent anything that I want to see, and I won’t ever see it again. The performance in terms of professionalism wasn’t there. It’s a really, really difficult night, the most difficult night – not even so far here at this magnificent football club – but in my career. Some of the things I witnessed today, I never, ever want to ever see again.”

Rosenior was then questioned on whether his players threw the towel in at Brighton. He continued: “You have to ask the players. If you’re playing for this club, at this elite football club, or any football club, to be even accused of throwing the towel in is unacceptable. Yeah, that’s all I’m going to say. I’m hurting, I feel numb. That doesn’t represent me. That doesn’t represent the football club in anyway. That has to change, starting with the FA Cup semi-final [vs Leeds United] on Sunday.”

Chelsea have been outrun in all of their 34 Premier League matches so far this season, even before Rosenior came in. The manager continued: “I don’t want to go into that right now. I have my own thoughts, I have my own feelings. I have discussed in depth about how this football club – regardless of who is the manager – about what needs to happen at this football club for it to be where it needs to be.

“It’s not about me. It’s about this football club, Chelsea represents fight and spirit and determination. That was lacking in every department this evening. We’ve had injuries. It’s not an excuse, it’s a reality. But that team we put out today was far better than its engagement in the game.

“I will pick a team on Sunday that will represent the club in the correct manner. This was a huge game and we didn’t hit anywhere near the mark. Every game between now and the end of the season is a huge game, and it needs to look like that in the way we play. That’s your opinion [that the squad are bereft of effort]. I have to sit with the staff and we have to make sure we get it right for Sunday.”

Chelsea centre-back Trevoh Chalobah gave a slightly different reaction, though, and did not feel work ethic was why the out-of-sorts Londoners lost on the south coast.

He told the same broadcaster: “We gave our all. Just not the better side. I don’t know. We obviously had a game plan. We tried to execute it and… yeah. We tried our best. We worked on it throughout the week and obviously we got beat today. We’ve just got to go again and we can’t dwell on these moments.

“We’ve got to look forward to the next game. As players we have to be accountable for the performance. We know how much the fans have been behind us and we know they’re disappointed, we haven’t been winning at the moment. We have to stick together and pull through. I think personally the boys were running their socks off.

“You can see in the changing room everyone’s tired. It’s nothing to do with effort. We gave our all. We just got beat today. We ran today. You can say the stats this, the stats, I can see the boys are tired in that room. We just have to pick ourselves up and we’ve got a semi-final to come. It’s a massive game at Wembley.

“Us being in another semi-final, we have to use that as a positive and approach the game with a strong mentality and try and pick ourselves up from this defeat. We have to stay positive. Negativity is not going to help us. No matter what happens in life, we have to keep going forward and picking ourselves up.”