Liam Rosenior's Chelsea tenure has hit a rocky patch in recent weeks, having begun his time at the helm with a flurry of wins.
Defeats to Paris Saint-Germain, Newcastle United and Everton have ramped up the pressure on the recently-appointed Blues head coach, particularly due to the several-goal nature of the losses.
Rosenior's press conference soundbites have also been scrutinised by fans and pundits, with one former teammate of the Chelsea manager suggesting he's 'unrecognisable'.
Liam Rosenior 'unrecognisable' to former teammate in Chelsea role
According to ex-Republic of Ireland international and Hull City player Kevin Kilbane, Rosenior has changed since he played alongside him in East Yorkshire.
"I played with Liam at Hull and I got on well with Liam, he used to tell some great stories of Roy Keane when he was his manager at Ipswich," Kilbane said.
"He’s unrecognisable to the player and the person I knew. It’s like he’s swallowed a psychologist’s manual or a sporting mentor’s memoir. To me, everything he says is waffle, drivel, nothing."
“It’s like he tries to write as many quotes down as possible and tries to get them into a pre-match talk or post-match whenever addressing the media. If I’m a player being asked to do that huddle, I wouldn’t feel comfortable if I was a Chelsea player."
Kilbane was discussing the decision to huddle around the ball ahead of Chelsea's game versus Newcastle, which saw the team beaten 1-0.
Images of the huddle, which some supporters have deemed performative, went viral due to the presence of match referee Paul Tierney being caught up in the middle.
Rosenior faced questions from the media regarding his methods as well as scrutiny online. The coach was seen passing a note with instructions to substitute Alejandro Garnacho during the closing stages of Chelsea's 8-3 aggregate defeat by PSG last week. This, too, was criticised considering the tie was all but over.
