A Deep Dive into Liam Rosenior and his Strasbourg side
Liam Rosenior made 141 Premier League appearances in his career spanning across 4 clubs; Fulham, Reading, Hull City and Brighton, along with appearances across the EFL with Bristol City, Ipswich Town and Torquay United. He retired from professional football in 2018 and in July of 2019 was appointed as a first team coach at Derby County who were at the time lead by dutchman Phillip Cocu.
18 months later in January of 2021, he was made assistant manager after the appointment of Wayne Rooney which subsequently lead to him becoming interim coach after Rooney’s resignation on June 24th 2022, Rosenior managed 12 games as Derby boss with a record of 7 wins, 2 draws and 3 losses, acquiring 1.92 points per game.
Derby then found their new boss in Paul Warne which led Rosenior onto his next challenge, on November 3rd 2022 he was appointed head coach of Hull City – the club in which he made 161 appearances for in his playing days. He took charge of 29 league matches for The Tigers in 2022/23, winning 8, drawing 14 and losing 7.
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Rosenior guided Hull to a 15th-placed finish with 1.31 points per game, outperforming previous boss Shota Arveladze by 0.31. He then lead Hull to a 7th placed finish in 2023/24, missing out on the playoffs by merely 3 points. He was relieved of his duties on May 7th 2024 with owner Acun Ilicali reportedly not happy with Rosenior’s footballing philosophy.
Fast forward to 2024 and on July 25th, Liam Rosenior was announced by RC Strasbourg as their new head coach. He was the second managerial appointment under new Strasbourg owners BlueCo, a consortium led by Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital who also own Chelsea. Much like Boehly’s vision at Chelsea, he wanted the Strasbourg head coach to be a young, progressive manager who had experience working with young players.
Rosenior’s squad at Hull City featured the likes of Jacob Greaves, Liam Delap, Fabio Carvalho and Jaden Philohgene-Bidace, all of which enjoyed great seasons under Rosenior’s guidance, particularly the latter who scored 12 goals and assisted a further 6 that season.
‘Les Bleu et Blanc’ finished the 2023-24 campaign in 13th, 10 points off of Ligue 1’s relegation playoff – scoring just 38 goals in 34 league games and conceding 50. At the time of writing they sit 7th, 2 points off being in European football qualification places and have already beaten their goals scored tally of last season with still 9 games left to play whilst also being on course to concede far less with 22 conceded thus far.
Honing in on Liam Rosenior’s values as a coach, his philosophy and his tactical approach
In his first ever interview as Strasbourg manager, Rosenior said he’s a coach who wants to ‘dominate possession, press the ball and be intense in the way we (Strasbourg) play’. Now there’s no doubt that these principles are very common in today’s game, this isn’t a tactical revolution – but for Strasbourg it is.
Rosenior has created a team that is over achieving their xP (expected points) by 7.23 after 25 league games which is currently the highest overachievement in Ligue 1.
This is by no means a coincidence, his side have taken to his possession dominant, high pressing system like a duck to water. This can only be attributed to Rosenior’s exceptional ability to work with young players as Strasbourg have by far the youngest squad in Ligue 1 at 21.8 years.
Rosenior is very versatile with the way in which he sets his team up on paper, varying from a; 3-4-2-1, 4-4-1-1 and 433. These formations allow for great defensive coverage against other attacking outfits whilst being able to seemlessly transition into their in- possession 3-2-5 shape.
The wingbacks stay high and wide, really stretching the opposition which in turn allows the number 10’s to create a box midfield with the pivot. This 3-2-5 shape was popularised in the modern day by Pep Guardiola‘s Manchester City teams, since then many teams have been seen to start to a very similar shape.
This is down to the formation’s incredible ability to consistently create numerical advantage in every phase of build up. In the image below, Strasbourg have established dominance early on, after not even 2 minutes they have settled possession in their shape as keeper Dorde Petrovic has the ball. Involving the keeper is absolutely key to the way in which Rosenior’s side build up – allowing for the game to always be an 11v10 whilst Strasbourg have the ball.
In this first phase, creating a 4-2 buildup with the keeper makes it near impossible for Nantes to press with their lone 9 Mostafa Mohamed as Petrovic has 3 short passing lanes. Nantes’ number 6 Douglas Augusto knows Andrey Santos is a threat on the half turn so is already pushed up onto the back of him, leaving space behind him that number 19 Habib Diarra (who is playing as a number 10 in this game) has drifted into.
The right side is Strasbourg’s strong side here given they’re 4v3 in picture. With this in mind, if Petrovic plays the ball to his right side into number 4 Saidou Sow, it leaves Nantes’ Matthis Albine (no. 39) in a huge predicament. If he pushes onto Guela Doue (no.22), then it’ll leave a huge space for Sow to be able to find Habbib Diarra 20 yards up the pitch, if he stays put to cover off Habbib Diarra then Sow will be able to play the ball to Doue who will have huge opportunity to carry the ball up field, bypassing Nantes efforts completely.
In the above example, Strasbourg are again set up ever so slightly differently, this time in a 2-3 with both centre halves (Mamadou Sarr and Abakan Sylla) split from keeper Dorde Petrovic, their pivot of Andrey Santos and Junior Meanga just ahead of them and Marvin Senaya as an out ball wide right.
However unlike the example vs. Nantes, PSG being a much stronger opponent have pressed up onto Strasbourg really high, both of Strasbourg’s pivot are man marked, Petrovic’s passing lane to Sylla to his right is cut off and he can’t go left to Mamadou Sarr either due to Desire Doue being pressed up to him. This forces Petrovic to go long and ultimately lose possession from a lost duel.
Despite being stopped in this possession, Rosenior and his side showed great bravery to go away to the champions and refuse to stray completely from their style which resulted in scoring 2 goals from 1.96xG. Even in defeat Strasbourg were on multiple occasions able to break out of PSG’s press and create chances which was definitely a key take away from the game, supporting Rosenior’s notions on the way in which they should be playing.
Another one of Rosenior’s key components to his philosophy is the way in which he sets his team up to press, as referenced previously in his premier interview – he wanted to create a team that ‘presses the ball and are intense in the way that we play’.
In the above example, at 1-0 down, Strasbourg are still pressing extremely high and doing so in a unique way. They always look to overload the ball whilst still cutting off passing lanes and go man to man on the long ball. Warren Zaire-Emery has possession for PSG and is manned up by Diego Moreira which on the face of it is normal.
However, Moreira has pressed Zaire-Emery front on, rather than side on which is what can usually be seen in other teams, which would show Zaire-Emery down the line and using the sideline as a key tool to dispossess. So in facing Zaire-Emery up, Moreira can force him backwards where his team mate Sebastien Nanasi is joining the press from an angle which means he’s cutting off the passing lane to Milan Skriniar – doubling up on Zaire-Emery in possession and cutting passing lanes off simultaneously opposed to simply being man to man.
To summarise, Liam Rosenior is a fantastic young coach who fits the identity perfectly of Strasbourg and the direction in which the BlueCo group want to take the club. A progressive coach too, taking inspiration and ideas from the very best managers at the top of the game – to help refine and shape his own ideas. He has helped many young players along his young coaching career, including ones he is currently coaching and I’m sure will continue to do so, finding himself much success.
By: Jack Roberts / @jackroberts_12
Featured Image: @GabFoligno / Gareth Copley / Getty Images