'Le Professeur', faith in youth and trusting the process: What should Chelsea expect from new manager Liam Rosenior?

When Rosenior was added to Sky Sports' rotating cast of pundits in 2018, he combined it with the assistant manager's job for Brighton's Under-23s (because what good is a Chelsea hire in 2026 without having some experience with the Seagulls on your CV, right?...). A year later, he was appointed as a 'specialist first-team coach' on Phillip Cocu's staff at Derby.

The Rams described Rosenior's strengths in detail during their statement announcing his arrival: "Rosenior's position on the first-team staff will, as well as working with players on the training ground with a particular emphasis on individual development of emerging young talent, see him play a prominent role in pre-match opposition analysis with the scouting and analysis departments. He will also be well-placed to provide advice and guidance from his own playing career, the vast majority of which was played in the Premier League and Championship, to help manage the extensive number and scheduling challenges presented across the campaign."

Cocu left Derby in 2020, and Rosenior then served as assistant to new boss Wayne Rooney, who hung up his boots to take his first steps into management. The two worked in tandem excellently, with Rooney laid back in his approach and Rosenior often prowling the edge of the technical area with tactical instructions.

"He's taken chances, and hopefully that pays off because I think Liam is as good a coach as I've ever worked with," Rooney said on the BBC's 'Wayne Rooney Show' on Monday. "His detail, how he approaches the day-to-day, he's as good as I've worked with.

"Liam was so important for me. He was incredible in his coaching ability. I was more of the manager and dealing with players and everything. So I learned a lot from him from that point of view and then I think he's done a great job as a whole."

Rosenior's first full-time role as a head coach came at Championship side Hull City, whom he led to a seventh-placed finish in 2023-24 and who were widely seen to have punched above their weight. In that time, he leant heavily on the use of young players, including current Chelsea striker Liam Delap, former Liverpool midfielders Tyler Morton and Fabio Carvalho, and defender Jacob Greaves, who was sold to Ipswich Town at the end of that season for an initial £15 million.

Since the summer of 2024, Rosenior has been head coach of Strasbourg in Ligue 1. Their squad this season is the youngest in France's top-flight, with its average age of 22.6 almost a whole year younger than the next team on that particular leaderboard (Auxerre at 23.5). Though this is part of BlueCo's wider sporting project, and seen in France as supporting Chelsea more than anything else, developing youngsters is clearly part of Rosenior's own philosophy too. The hope is he will bring a level of maturity to a dressing room which has a severe on-pitch disciplinary problem.

"Am I a manager or a coach? I'm both," Rosenior told ITV. "Coaching is educating, coaching is wanting to improve players on a technical and tactical level. Management is making sure that you have a strong culture, that your players have rules and regulations, and you manage them in the right way. In English, 'manage', if you split the two words, is 'man' and 'age'. You're aging men."

One of Chelsea fans' main criticisms of Maresca was his tactical inflexibility. They would usually set up in a 4-2-3-1, with at least one full-back inverted to create overloads in midfield. Bar the odd wrinkle here and there, his Blues were predictable and susceptible to dry performances against low blocks. They needed yards of space in front of them in order to make chances and score goals at will.

Rosenior, like Maresca, wants his teams to play from the back, irrespective of opponent and situation, with options almost always available across the pitch. He often speaks of 'bravery' on the ball and wants his players to be 'all in'. That could prove irksome to a Stamford Bridge crowd which prefers faster-pace football, even if that means less possession and having to sit in on occasion. There won't be much patience in these home games, particularly if Chelsea's defenders continue to make glaring errors on the ball.

For most of 2025-26, Rosenior, nicknamed 'Le Professeur', has lined Strasbourg up in a fluid 3-4-3 system, with pacy 6'5 striker Emmanuel Emegha, who will join Chelsea this summer, leading the line as captain when fit. They average the seventh-highest average possession in Ligue 1 with 52.9 percent, and are capable of breaking down teams both when dominant and playing in transition. Strasbourg are also known to play more orthodox four-at-the-back formations too, and it's no guarantee Rosenior will stick with only one system as the ill-fated Ruben Amorim did at Manchester United.

Despite Strasbourg's youth, Rosenior has matured many of their best players. Last season, Chelsea loanee Andrey Santos announced himself as one of Ligue 1's finest talents before returning to Maresca's first-team squad for this campaign. Even with the club acting as a feeder to Chelsea and fans protesting against this, Strasbourg's players and head coach have risen above the noise, securing a return to Europe for this season, where they beat Crystal Palace and finished first in the league phase of the Conference League.

One of Strasbourg's major scalps under Rosenior came back in October when they held European champions Paris Saint-Germain to a 3-3 draw at Parc des Princes. Remarkably, the visitors were great value for their 3-1 lead at one point.

For over an hour in the French capital, Strasbourg were the better team. They stuck to their principles and tried to outplay the hosts, looking to beat an aggressive press wherever possible and dictate the game in their own way. It nearly got them all three points, but they had to settle for one.

"I was impressed with Liam's work," PSG boss Luis Enrique said post-match of Rosenior. "I knew the match would be difficult. We started well showing superiority with and without the ball, but the end of first half was poor. We improved after the break and the final stages were very positive. My first impression is that Strasbourg is one of the best teams in Ligue 1, in the way they play."

As with any and every manager, Rosenior has his flaws and isn't perfect. Strasbourg's main criticisms this season have been losing steam late in games, while the squad was pretty drained by the time they reached France's winter break.

When Strasbourg's suffocating intensity is successful, it's fantastic to watch. But when opponents get to grips with it, they're vulnerable. There have been many times where their youthful enthusiasm has got the better of them, and immature heads have been allowed to drop. The go-to strategy doesn't usually change, with the French press questioning whether Rosenior has a 'plan B' during games as the tide turns against him.

Rosenior's Strasbourg tend to struggle on the roadwithout the backing of their passionate Stade de la Meinau home crowd. The flip-side to that is obviously his teams can make their own stadium a fortress, but at a club like Chelsea, that is expected as a given.

There will almost inevitably be a match featuring some humiliation in passing out from the back. There should equally be team goals which are a joy to watch. It's a risk-reward system that Rosenior lives and dies by. How he will fare in the pressure cooker of one of the world's biggest clubs remains to be seen.

Rosenior, born down the road in Wandsworth, becomes Chelsea's second-ever Black head coach, following in the footsteps of the great Ruud Gullit. At a time when so many Black coaches, let alone Black British coaches, are struggling to be considered for the game's elite jobs, it's a triumph that Rosenior has made it here.

Chelsea as a club have a long and complicated history with racism dating back decades. In more recent times, they have actively sought to make amends and clean up an image that once tarnished them. In 2023, they commissioned a documentary called 'Blue Is The Colour', diving into how fans from different backgrounds see the issue.

The modern history of Chelsea has been written by plenty of Black players. Xaymaca Awoyungbo, the brains behind the documentary, told The Athletic: "I've definitely felt welcome (at Chelsea). The experiences of the people in the documentary are real but, like one of the fans at the end of it says, we had players like (Didier) Drogba, (Michael) Essien, Mikel (John Obi) who showed a different image of Chelsea. I never felt like, 'Do I belong here?'. It was more the history that made me feel unsure. Personally, going to games was never a problem (in that sense)."

Paul Canoville was Chelsea's first-ever Black player during the 1980s, and though he received racist abuse at the time, he has dedicated a large chunk of his life to his namesake foundation and is seen as a key voice in the club's battle against discrimination. Canoville told the Daily Telegraph: "What really strikes me about Liam is he grew up and played not far from here (Chelsea), he knows this community. His dad Leroy has an MBE for his work tackling discrimination in sport. That's exactly what we do at The Paul Canoville Foundation, working with young people every day. There's a real alignment there, no?

"When kids see someone like Liam managing their club, someone who looks like them, who's from their ends, who comes from a family that fights for what's right... that's powerful, man. That's hope. That's showing them the path is there."

The Chelsea gig in the BlueCo era is looking an increasingly unstable one. Thomas Tuchel was sacked in September 2022 little over 12 months on from winning the Champions League. His sought-after successor, Graham Potter, didn't even last until the end of that season. Mauricio Pochettino at least got a whole year before the two parties mutually agreed to part ways. Maresca was admired and hired because of his mix of mentality and tactical nous, but it seems from the outside looking in that he got too big for his boots.

This is why the club are taking a chance on Rosenior. They are obviously aware of his work at Strasbourg, but this is a massive leap from one job to another. A more sensible operation would be looking at the same pool as Manchester United are right now.

If Rosenior succeeds, he will run the same risk as Maresca, expected to remain one part of a whole rather than allowing himself to grow and take more authority. If he fails, then the club and its sporting directors will have failed. This appointment is more of a risk than any that have come before under this ownership. They should be careful what they wish.