London: Chelsea coach Liam Rossior said on Monday that the owners of the London club were “wonderful” in their support, despite the worrying decline that left the team’s hopes of qualifying for the Champions League hanging by a thread.
Chelsea is seven points behind Liverpool, which is in fifth place and last qualifies for the Champions League next season after four consecutive defeats in the English Premier League, making its chances of finishing the season among the top five slim.
The team’s fans booed the players after losing to Manchester United 1-0 on Saturday at Stamford Bridge, while some fans organized a protest in the street against the company that owns the club, Blue Co, before the start of the match.
A week ago, Chelsea’s co-owner, Iranian-American Behdad Eghbali, confirmed that the club still supports Rossinior and remains optimistic about long-term success under his leadership.
When asked on Monday whether he felt this support, the former French coach of Strasbourg, who succeeded the Italian Enzo Maresca in January, said: “One hundred percent.”
He continued, “They were supportive of me in our daily conversations, as were the sporting directors involved, and they were great in their support of me and the team. We get along, and we know that we now need to win games. This does not conflict with what we are trying to do, which is to achieve sustainable success for the club in the long term.”
Chelsea, which has only achieved one win in its last eight league matches, will play a very important match on Tuesday against Brighton, ninth.
With a difference of no more than three points between the Blues and their 12th-placed neighbor, Fulham, the Rossinior team faces the risk of missing out on European competitions entirely.
Rossior admitted, “We made it very difficult for ourselves. We have to be honest and realistic about it, but what we cannot do is give up. We have to keep fighting. We have to go to Brighton with the same characteristics that I saw against Manchester United in terms of energy, intensity and involvement in the match, which were good things.”
He added, “But what we did not do was keep a clean sheet at the right moment, and we did not take advantage of the opportunities. Therefore, we need to be more decisive and more aggressive in the penalty areas (defense and attack).”
He said that he made mistakes in the first months of his term after he replaced Maresca, who led Chelsea last season to the Conference League and Club World Cup titles, considering that “if you are not honest and do not admit your mistakes, you will never improve.”
