What Chelsea worked on in Liam Rosenior’s first training session – and the player we’re surprised to see

Chelsea are in the busiest part of their season, so for many players there’s almost no training at all. There’s a game, a rest day, a recovery day, then a preparation day.

Not an ideal situation for a new manager to walk into. But nevertheless, Liam Rosenior took his first session at Cobham today. On the club’s website, they explained what the new manager had worked on.

Rosenior gets to work with new group at Cobham

Liam Rosenior takes his first Chelsea training session, with Dario Essugo present.

“[Rosenior was] working with the players who didn’t play significant minutes at Craven Cottage,” their article explained.

“Those who did [play last night] undertook a recovery session inside – Rosenior began to instil his tactical principles and set the tone for what is expected from the group on the training pitches at our Surrey training base.”

It’s pretty much what you’d expect from the team. They always seemed to enjoy Maresca’s sessions, and we liked the way the Italian coach kept players like Noni Madueke and Marc Guiu in line by speaking publically when they weren’t meeting his standards. Hopefully Rosenior keeps that up.

We also notice Dario Essugo out there, taking part in full team training as he works his way up to full fitness following the preseason injury which has wiped out his whole season so far. He should be a valuable asset in this second part of the campaign, especially with Romeo Lavia having another complete wash-out year.

In other news…

Jorrel Hato is a player who didn’t really get a look in under Enzo Maresca, and will clearly be hoping he can benefit from the change of manager right away. He had some thoughts about Rosenior’s arrival in an interview on the club’s website.

Leo Castledine is about to join Middlesbrough on a permanent deal after impressing so much on loan with Huddersfield in League One.