From Learning Under Rooney to Stamford Bridge - Who is Chelsea Bound Liam Rosenior?

From Learning Under Rooney to Stamford Bridge - Who is Chelsea Bound Liam Rosenior?

As we move into 2026 many Chelsea fans saw news they were hoping wouldn’t actually happen and that was Enzo Maresca was debating if he wanted to stay at the club. Then early Thursday the news broke that he would be leaving Chelsea, and this was confirmed by a club announcement. This left Chelsea fans wondering who they would get as their new manager, and who would come in to replace the Italian.

Club statement: Enzo Maresca.

— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) January 1, 2026

Immediately one name emerged as the favourite, 41-year-old Liam Rosenior. He is currently the manager of Chelsea’s sister club and BlueCo owner Strasbourg and would be open and willing to move from France to the capital of England in a managerial move that will have a massive impact on his career.

🚨🔵 Chelsea advance in process to get new head coach as soon as possible with discussions taking place.

Liam Rosenior remains the leading candidate with talks underway.

🎥➕ More: https://t.co/5nRNQbipb4 pic.twitter.com/71Kr8wJdkz

— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) January 2, 2026

So, Who is Liam Rosenior?

Born July 9th, 1984, in Wandsworth London, the English manager would immediately have football in his life as his father was Leroy Rosenior former professional player best known for his time at Fulham and West Ham. This had him immersed in football from a young age wanting to follow his dad into the career and that is what he did.

He would begin his career at Bristol City where he would start to show his intelligence for the game, something his father had taught and passed down to him from a young age. Unfortunately for Liam, his playing career would never reach the heights that he would’ve loved to hit and that some other managers hit ending his 14-year career at Brighton. Once his playing career ended, he would move onto something else in the world of football and that was coaching.

Liam always showed high skills and understanding of the game even from a young age where he would read books about football and get involved in the tactical side of coaching. This was always something he loved and excelled at and in 2022 he would finally get his chance to show what he could do.

In 2022 he started his coaching career at Derby where he was the assistant manager before stepping in as the caretaker manager after Wayne Rooney was sacked. He would have that position for 3 months and after those 3 months would have a new opportunity given to him by Hull City in November 2022. He would manage 29 matches that season and see 8 wins 14 draws and 7 losses with a points per match of 1.31 the highest of the managers that control of games for Hull that season. He took Hull from a relegation battle to a comfortable mid table finish something that they were hoping that he would be able to do, however, that wasn’t the end. After some investing during the summer, Rosenior went into the 22/23 season with one thing is his eyes and that was a spot in the promotion playoffs. Unfortunately, he wouldn’t manage this finishing 3 points off 6th place and ending the season in 7th something that while not what he wanted was massively impressive for a new manager to do with a team that just a season before was in a relegation battle.

After this very strong season Rosenior would get some very bad news from Hull as they had decided that they would be sacking him as a result of their difference in opinion on the team and how they would and should be playing. Many saw this as a very harsh reason to sack a manager that almost got you into the playoffs and some people that saw this and thought it was hard was BlueCo.

Most well-known for owning Chelsea, BlueCo had already visited the Championship for a manager signing league winners Leicester City’s manager Enzo Maresca, they saw Liam Rosenior as an opportunity and signed him to sister club Strasbourg where he has now spent 1 and a half season. In those 18 months he has managed 62 matches seeing 32 wins 13 draws and 17 losses with a 1.8 points per game. His time in France has been up and down as expected for the manager leading the youngest team in the top 5 leagues having finished 7th last season and currently sitting 7th in Ligue 1. The biggest issue he has found this season is getting his young team to match their performances that they put in when playing at home away having only won 2 away matches this season, something he has to improve if going to Chelsea.

How does Liam Rosenior Lineup?

Well, he has shown a favour for a formation that Chelsea hasn’t played in a while in a 3-4-2-1, a formation many Chelsea fans are very warm to having seen Thomas Tuchel win a Champions League using that formation. However, like almost every manager currently that formation isn’t everything as he will often have Strasbourg change when attacking and defending. When moving forward on the offensive you will often see a 3-2-5 style come out to put as much pressure on the back line as possible and flood the box with as many bodies as possible to maximise possible opportunities. Going into defence, you can see 2 formations be deployed with a 4-3-3 and 4-2-3-1 to help defend and while this is different to many teams who often use a 4-4-2 to have a bank of almost 8 defending, he uses these formations to apply his high press.

🧠 Liam Rosenior this season... what a tactical chameleon!

He’s used up to 8 different formations — constantly adapting, always evolving. Whether it's to outsmart the opposition or unlock his squad's full potential.

Rosenior is showing serious managerial IQ in #Ligue1.#BlueCo pic.twitter.com/JcEhRkzBJA

— 💥 BlueCo Xtra® (@Bluecoxtra) April 6, 2025

Rosenior has become most well-known for at Strasbourg for his aggressive pressing making everyone run consistently. The main view for this tactic is simple, for the opponents to make the mistake and punish them. This is very similar to Chelsea under Maresca where you would see the forwards press up high trying to force an error to capitalise on.

Rosenior commented that the purpose was “win the ball back as quickly as possible” and “is to negate the oppositions possession, is to dominate as high up the pitch as we possibly can.” This is something Chelsea has done in parts under Maresca but never was the main focus of how he manager, he preferred a patient build up waiting for an opportunity to strike rather than a brute force style making an opportunity.

Not everything is different though, like Maresca, Rosenior enjoys playing out from the back, simple short, fast passes from back to front, however, he could find like Maresca some of the players aren’t best fit for this type of play.

How Well Does he Fit Chelsea?

This is a difficult one as while Chelsea does have the core of what Rosenior enjoys using such as 10s like Palmer and possibly the young Estevao along with the double pivot of Caicedo and Enzo Fernandez, Chelsea does have a lot of things he doesn’t need and lacks areas he will want. Both of these areas actually collide.

While Rosenior enjoys playing with wide players, they aren’t traditional wingers, something Chelsea has invested in with players like Neto, Gittens, and Garnacho. Instead, he opts to use wingbacks something Chelsea lacks especially on the left side. While Cucurella is one of the best left backs in the world, he isn’t what you would traditionally see as a wing back, lacking the creative side of going forward and the recovery speed of some wingbacks. This would mean that Chelsea would more than likely need to spend some money on getting some for that role unless Rosenior decides to do what some Chelsea fans are already seeing. What they are seeing is Pedro Neto being deployed as a left wing back, with his pace and work rate, it could work, however, he is still very defensively weak and with how poor Chelsea’s defence has already been it might cause more issues than solutions.

One of the other big issues for Chelsea is in that double pivot as Chelsea has one of Rosenior’s favourite players and someone he knowns very well in Andrey Santos. While for some that wouldn’t be an issue as you could have him next to Caicedo, for Chelsea that would involve dropping £100 million signing Enzo Fernandez someone who under Maresca had been playing his best football for years. But he could be used as a 10 next to Palmer if needed.

What Could Rosenior Chelsea Look Like?

Lining up in a 3-4-2-1 Chelsea could see this type of team: Sanchez, Fofana, Chalobah, Achampong, Neto, Santos, Caicedo, James, Palmer, Fernandez, Pedro

When moving into the 3-2-5 we could see players like Neto and James move into those kind of wing roles, positions they more naturally fit into with both of their ability to cross and deliver chances into the box, there would be a lot of value from attacking positions and with Santos and Caicedo sat in-front of the defence it will be defensively secure. Then the defending formation will be very similar to what Maresca used in the 4-2-3-1.

On paper this system looks to fit Chelsea like a glove especially with Neto being used at that possible left wing back, however, the defence could still cause many issues especially with the playing out from the back.

Should he be The Next Chelsea Manager?

Well overall, he fits what Chelsea plays well, he can use a lot of the players and with some of them get the best out of them using them in positions and tactics that use their abilites best. He also fits what the owners want, someone who can develop the young players in the squad and get them to grow and develop something he has shown at Strasbourg. In conclusion, while not the best manager in the world, and someone who wouldn’t even be given the time of day under Abramovich, he will work and can keep Chelsea pushing and growing. So yes, he should be the next Chelsea manager.