Why Liam Rosenior benched Sanchez vs PSG amid 'painful' Jorgensen admission
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Chelsea head coach Liam Rosenior explained his goalkeeper decision after a disappointing 5-2 Champions League first-leg defeat to Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday.
After rotating between Filip Jorgensen and Robert Sanchez in the last two games, Rosenior decided to start the former in the first leg of the Champions League round of 16 tie against PSG.
It was a bold decision, given that Robert Sanchez has been Chelsea's go-to option in goal in big matches.
Jorgensen also did quite well in the win over Aston Villa last week, so it is easy to see why Rosenior was confident in Jorgensen's ability to perform.
Rosenior also argued that it was a tactical decision.
While he insinuated that Sanchez is the better shot-stopper, Rosenior deemed Jorgensen's ball-playing ability would prove more useful against PSG.
"They have different qualities," Rosenior said in his post-match conference when speaking about his two goalkeeper options.
"Rob is outstanding from crosses, an outstanding shot-stopper.
"Filip has different qualities, and one of his qualities, which he showed against Aston Villa, one of the reasons we won 4-1 at Aston Villa, we were so calm in our possession moments, which we weren't before, not just on Rob but on the whole team.
"Coming here against a really high-pressing team, if you stay calm and play through the initial pressure, you can cause a lot of problems, which we did.
"It's just painful that we've made that mistake in that moment to make the game 3-2, and now we are in a very, very difficult position in this tie now with the end result."
It did not pay off, obviously.
While Chelsea's build-up plays from the back caused some problems for the hosts in the match, this backfired when Jorgensen's poor pass led to PSG's third goal.
PSG also scored five goals despite creating just two big chances, with an expected goals (xG) of 0.87, which paints an even worse picture of Jorgensen's performance.
Gerry Crisandy is a freelance writer who has covered Chelsea for many years. His work has been published on The Chelsea Chronicle and Pride of London. He grew up idolising Michael Ballack and is a firm believer in expected goals.