Liam Rosenior has been at Chelsea for less than a month, and the manager is still figuring out his ideal starting XI. However, he has now claimed he does not believe in having a Best XI, and that this has been the case at his previous clubs.
Chelsea Manager’s Bold Claim About His Best XI
The Blues take on Arsenal in the Carabao Cup semifinal second leg on Tuesday, Feb. 3. They are 3-2 down in the tie and need to win the match at any cost to have a chance of making it to the final next month.
Rosenior has a tough task at hand as the Gunners are the team to beat this season. They sit atop the Premier League and the UEFA Champions League group phase. However, the Blues have also been in form, winning their last five matches across all competitions.
The manager was asked whether he had found his Best XI at the club, but the Englishman surprisingly claimed he does not believe in having one. He claimed that the schedule has put more demands on the players, and they need to keep rotating, thus ruling out the chances of maintaining a starting XI. He said:
“I don’t have a best XI. I never have done in all of the clubs that I’ve worked with. Why? Because of the demands, the physical demands of the Premier League or Ligue 1 or the Championship now with 46 games. You need a squad, and you need to use the players in the correct way to challenge over the course of the season. I can’t speak for other managers if they have a best XI.”
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Talking about his time at Chelsea and if he has an idea about the best possible starting XI at the club, he added that the whole squad is important. He pointed at the performances in recent weeks from the substitutes and said:
“Here at the moment, I’ve been in for three and a half weeks. I’m just getting to know the players; I don’t have a best XI in my mind. I try and pick the right starting team, but I also try to pick a bench that will give us the right finishing team as well.
“So far, I have to say the substitutes in every game that we’ve played have made a huge impact. It’s not down to my tactical stuff, there’s some part of that, but it’s down to their mentality to come on and help the team.”
Chelsea needed their substitutes to come back from 2-0 down at halftime to seal a dramatic 3-2 win over West Ham United on Saturday at Stamford Bridge.
