With Enzo Maresca out the door, Chelsea are looking for a new man to lead their young squad. Liam Rosenior has done an impressive job at Strasbourg, but is he ready for the Stamford Bridge hot seat?
While Chelsea parting ways with managers has felt like a fairly regular occurrence over the years, you would have been forgiven for thinking this time it might be different.
Enzo Maresca signed a long-term contract in 2024 and ended his first season in charge with two trophies to show for his efforts, including making Chelsea champions of the world in the summer.
However, for reasons that are still yet to become entirely clear, Maresca left Stamford Bridge on New Year’s Day, and the hunt is on for his successor.
Things have not gone according to plan just yet for the Blues in 2025-26. They’ve reached the semi-finals of the League Cup and still have a decent chance of automatic qualification from the league phase of the UEFA Champions League, but that they sit fifth in the Premier League, 15 points behind leaders Arsenal, is not ideal.
Maresca left with a 60% win rate, winning 55 of his 92 games in charge in all competitions (D16 L21), but his 49% win rate in the Premier League was only slightly better than his predecessor Mauricio Pochettino (47%) and the same as Frank Lampard’s first spell in charge.
So, who can replace Maresca mid-season and achieve what the club expects for their significant investment since owners Clearlake Capital and Todd Boehly arrived? Reports suggest they are looking at Strasbourg’s Liam Rosenior.
If you were to say Chelsea Football Club were considering hiring a manager who was sacked by Hull City as recently as the summer of 2024, you would think something’s amiss.
There’s a lot more to it than that, though, not least the fact Strasbourg are part of the ownership group’s portfolio, making them especially familiar with Rosenior’s work.
Son of former Brentford and Torquay United manager Leroy Rosenior, Liam played 141 games in the Premier League for Fulham, Hull, Reading and Brighton.
After he retired from playing and while coaching at Brighton, he took on a punditry role at Sky Sports and immediately stood out as someone who clearly did his research but also got his point across in an understandable and interesting way.
His passion was clearly always coaching, though. In an interview with the Premier League’s website in May 2025, Rosenior said: “When I was 10 years old, I remember sitting around the dinner table with my dad on a Friday night going through his set-pieces for the next day. That’s where it all started.
“He’d take me into the dressing room, where the tactical side of football, the planning, the preparation of the team, were all things that interested me right from the beginning, so much so I was taking sessions as player-manager of my school team at the age of 11. I know that makes me sound like a weirdo, but it was normal to me because I loved coaching.
“It all began back then I guess, and that passion for seeing players improve has never left me.”
Liam Rosenior’s Rise
Ligue 1Pressing, Purpose and Youth: How Liam Rosenior Has Strasbourg Chasing the Champions League
3 months ago Luke BissettRosenior started his coaching career as assistant for Brighton U23s, before working under Phillip Cocu and Wayne Rooney at Derby County. He briefly took over as interim boss at Pride Park after Rooney resigned in June 2022, but the Rams ultimately appointed Paul Warne, leading to Rosenior’s departure. He didn’t have to wait long for his first management gig, though, being given the head coach role at former club Hull in November 2022.
The Tigers were fourth from bottom in the Championship when he arrived, but they ended up finishing 15th. Only eight teams won more than their 38 points after Rosenior took over.
They did draw a lot of games, half of them in fact (14 of 28). No other team drew more than 11 in that time, but being hard to beat was the foundation Rosenior wanted to set before making a promotion push in 2023-24. Only Burnley (2) and Luton (4), both of whom got promoted, lost fewer games than Hull (6) in 2022-23 after Rosenior’s appointment.
Hull finished seventh in 2023-24, just missing out on the play-offs, and the club surprisingly decided to sack Rosenior. It wasn’t exactly a masterstroke as Hull only avoided relegation on goal difference the following season.
Again, though, Rosenior was not out of work long. He was headhunted by BlueCo – Chelsea’s ownership group – to lead Strasbourg in Ligue 1. The club had become a de facto feeder club for Chelsea, and with a young team looking to make waves in France, Rosenior was given the chance to prove himself outside of England.
They had finished 13th the season before Rosenior arrived, but he guided Strasbourg to seventh in his first campaign, losing just nine of their 34 games (W16 D9) and qualifying for the UEFA Conference League. Only three teams lost fewer matches.
At the winter break this season, Strasbourg are again seventh, while they also finished top of the Conference League table with just two points dropped from their six games.
While his overall record at Strasbourg is demonstrably impressive considering their modest modern history, Chelsea fans may be more concerned with the type of football he’s associated with and whether that will be a good fit at Stamford Bridge.
Of course, there’s no guarantee Rosenior would look to implement exactly the same system or principles if he was to end up at Chelsea, but no one knows what will transpire. So, for now, all we can do is consider the way his teams – most specifically Strasbourg – have played.
For the most part, Rosenior has utilised a three-at-the-back setup in Alsace, but it’s also worth noting he did deploy a back four at Hull, so he has experience using both.
Strasbourg usually enjoy more possession than their opponents, but their 53.1% average is only the seventh-highest in Ligue 1. As you can see from their zones of control below, they don’t dominate to the same extent that Chelsea do, but then they also don’t have quite the same resources.
Rosenior has them pressing quite effectively as well. For starters, only five teams have more high turnovers in Ligue 1 than their 137, while Strasbourg are efficient at making the most of their situations; only Paris Saint-Germain (6) have recorded more goal-ending high turnovers this season than Rosenior’s men (5).
This reflects effective decision making in the final third, which can also be seen in their more general shooting habits. With 178 attempts in Ligue 1 this term, Strasbourg are actually one of the least active sides in the division in this respect; just three teams have had fewer shots. And yet, only six teams have a higher expected goals total (xG) than their 25.2. Monaco are the one team with a higher xG-per-shot average than Strasbourg’s 0.14.
At the other end, Strasbourg keep things pretty tight considering their relative inexperience, with 161 shots faced being the fifth fewest in Ligue 1 this term. Similarly, only PSG (14.0) and Marseille (16.9) have a lower xG against (18.7), suggesting they manage to generally restrict their opposition’s flow of high-value opportunities.
As you can see from the team styles graphic below, Rosenior has implemented a style of play that looks to leverage the team’s collective comfort in possession rather than focus on rapid transitions and direct passing. Averaging a slightly slower direct speed upfield (1.6 metres per second) than the Ligue 1 median and slightly more passes per sequence (4.4), their output isn’t hugely dissimilar to Chelsea’s (1.7 m/s and 4.2 passes per sequence) here.
However, while the two teams may have similarities in their statistical profile, Chelsea are well known for their ability to be effective in transition and have placed quite a bit of emphasis in the transfer market on players who can thrive in such situations. As a result, their 29 fast breaks in the Premier League this season is the joint most; Strasbourg, on the other hand, have recorded the second fewest in Ligue 1 (9).
That may well be down to player profiles, though. And there’s nothing to suggest Rosenior wouldn’t adapt if he was to join Chelsea.
Another key area of adaptation could be set-pieces. Now, we’re not suggesting set-pieces aren’t a thing in French football, but their importance in the Premier League has seemingly grown exponentially over the past few years, especially this season. Having a coach with a good track record at dead-ball situations would certainly be a check in the pros column, especially considering Chelsea’s eight goals from such scenarios this season is the third most, thus highlighting an existing strength.
Rosenior’s Strasbourg scored 10 goals from corners last season, more than any other team in Ligue 1, and conceded just three, the joint fewest with Monaco. So, that’s encouraging.
However, this season they’ve scored from just two non-penalty set-pieces and only once from corners, giving them the lowest percentage of goals from corners in the whole league (4%). They have remained fairly tight in defence, though, having also only conceded twice from set-pieces (no team have conceded fewer), and just once from a corner.
But perhaps more pertinent for whomever becomes Chelsea’s next head coach is the matter of discipline. Under Maresca, the Blues seemed to struggle more than most to keep 11 men on the field, with their four red cards in the Premier League this season being at least twice as many as any other team.
Will Rosenior be able to improve that record, thus giving the Blues a better chance simply by having the maximum number of men on the pitch?
We should point out immediately that red cards are far more common in the French top flight, where there have been 46 already this season, compared to just 20 in the Premier League. So, that must be taken into account.
Strasbourg received three reds last season, a figure higher than just five teams. This term, however, they’ve already had four, putting them on a par with Chelsea. Only Auxerre (6) and Lyon (5) have had more.
But as alluded to before, Rosenior has been managing a very young group of players. This is relevant first of all when considering matters of potential indiscipline, but also with respect to the makeup of the Chelsea squad. While not quite as fresh faced, the Blues are still among the Premier League’s youngest.
Chelsea fielded a starting XI with an average age of 23 years and 157 days against Bournemouth last time out, the youngest by any side in a Premier League match this season. The average age of Strasbourg’s starting XI in their last game at home to Lorient was just 21 years and 206 days.
It’s certainly arguable that Rosenior would represent a risky appointment for a number of reasons. Is he experienced enough? Does he have a background that will command respect in the Chelsea dressing room? Is he ready to make such a massive leap from Strasbourg to Chelsea?
But while eyebrows will be raised in certain quarters if he does make the switch, the job he’s done in Ligue 1 is undeniable. Whether it would prove a good long-term fit remains to be seen, though there’s no doubt seeing a promising young English coach at one of the country’s biggest clubs will be refreshing.
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