Frank Sinclair claims Chelsea ‘problem’ could cost Liam Rosenior in Champions League race | Football

Frank Sinclair believes that Liam Rosenior must root out Chelsea’s ill-discipline or face missing out on Champions League football come the end of the season.

Cheslea dropped dropped two costly points last weekend as an injury-time strike from Zian Flemming saw them held to a 1-1 draw with relegation-threatened Burnley.

The Blues had been in control before Wesley Fofana’s second-half sending off allowed Scott Parker’s side to work their way back into the encounter and find an equaliser.

And while Fofana’s dismissal was the first under Rosenior, sending offs have proved a constant Achilles heel for the club over the past few seasons.

Chelsea are on course to record the league’s worst disciplinary record for the second time in three seasons, while their six red cards so far this campaign are the most of any side (Everton are in second with four).

And Sinclair fears that his former side’s ‘lack of self-control’ may come back to haunt them as the race for a top-five finish hots up.

‘I’ve seen this sort of things happen in football at various different clubs where you just go through a phase where players are getting booked a lot, players are getting sent off a lot,’ Sinclair told Metro via top-rated bingo sites.

‘Obviously, there’ll be team meetings where this will be brought up and individual meetings, I guess, with the manager and certain individual players if it’s a recurring offence by a certain player. 

‘Generally, I’d expect that he would go through team meetings and touch on the fact that we’re getting booked too much, we’re getting players sent off too much. If we want to win games, you make it an uphill battle in an instant of a game when a player gets sent off. 

‘And long-term as well, if players are getting yellows regularly as well, they’re going to miss games later on in the season, which will be a problem when it comes to that race for the top four. So, I’m sure he would have touched on the discipline that they’ve got to improve on.’

Sinclair continued: ‘Sometimes it’s unlucky, but, you know, when you look at the recent red cards of Chelsea, it has been a little bit of a lack of self-control.

‘So I’m sure he’s touching on that with the players. I’ve been in dressing rooms where it’s happened before and players speak to players and say, come on, but you can even break it down now with the analysis systems that the football clubs have got now. 

‘You can break it down and try and work out why these things are happening. Is it because of the defensive shape and players relying on last-ditch tackles and stuff like that? You can break it down in analysis to help the players as well.’