Chelsea manager Liam Rosenior rounded on some of his players on Saturday, blaming one for failing to complete a basic man-marking ‘assignment’ as Burnley equalised at Stamford Bridge.
The visitors’ Dutch striker Zian Flemming was left unmarked to meet James Ward-Prowse‘s corner, despite both Jos Acheampong and Mamadou Sarr being sent on to add height in a reshuffle after Wesley Fofana was sent off.
Chelsea’s hapless defence then almost conceded a Burnley winner when a replica corner by Ward-Prowse was headed over by Jacob Bruun Larsen.
An angry Rosenior said: ‘An assignment was missed. An assignment – a marking assignment – wasn’t done. Flemming, we know, is their best header of the ball.
‘And there was a player who I won’t… I’m not here to throw players under the bus, I will always protect my players, I will deal with it in the week. There was a player we assigned that duty who marked the wrong player.’
The Chelsea manager offered more barbed criticism of his players by claiming he had noticed how some were not being ‘accountable’ when dealing with high-pressure situations.
Chelsea boss Liam Rosenior has blamed one of his Chelsea stars for Burnley’s equaliser
He said: ‘There are too many instances where we’ve conceded goals from moments of lack of concentration and accountability.
‘You need to have players you can rely on in the moment to do a job. There are certain values you need to have in your team. It’s down to assessing players and the ones you assess in the right moment. We need player who in key moments can see things through.’
The 41-year-old manager insisted he had done his own job in protecting his side – despite a reshuffle after Wesley Fofana’s dismissal which left six defenders on the field, including four centre halves. He said his planning was based on knowing that ‘the only way Burnley were going to score in that moment was from a Ward-Prowse set play.’ The equaliser, which followed Leeds United’s come-back here, brought boos on the final whistle.
Rosenior said: ‘I’ve tried to go as big as possible. Reece [James] was stretching and I wanted to make sure I protected him. Pedro Neto was stretching. I needed to protect him. We had enough on the pitch to deal with that moment and we didn’t.
‘This cost us two more points. It’s not good enough for a club of this level. I’m learning about the players – the people you can lean on when things are not going your way.’
Burnley manager Scott Parker praised the way his players had fought back, after the shock of FA Cup defeat to Mansfield last weekend.
‘We’ve come into this big league and fallen a bit short but what we have not fallen short on is resilience, though the pressure has increased ten-fold at times,’ Parker said.
He acknowledged Ward-Prowse’s excellence from the set-piece. ‘You can come up with all the setpiece coaches but fundamentally you need the ball delivered on the money. Then you’ve got a chance.’