• Premier League

Cech: It's the Roman way or the high way

ESPN staff
November 26, 2012

Petr Cech has come to the defence of Roman Abramovich's managerial policies, and said it is simply up to the Chelsea players to adapt.

The Czech goalkeeper has more experience than most of the owner's impatience with managers, having now played under eight of the nine bosses the Russian has employed.

Cech also insisted, however, that it was up to the players to change the fans' negative stance towards new man Rafa Benitez.

"You adapt or you're out," Cech said. "It's as simple as that. You're here to play, you're here to do what the club and manager wants you to do. If you don't like it you can leave.

"I'm here to play, I want to play so I do everything I can straight away so that the manager has no option but to put me in goal.

"That's the way I work and is the way it works for everybody because if you stay sad and don't do the right things, you can end up on the bench and you're not playing and it will be even more disappointing. As a player you need to do the right thing all the time."

That is particularly the case at Chelsea now, given how much pressure is already on Benitez. The Spaniard was greeted to a cacophony of boos even before the team's 0-0 draw with Manchester City as many fans also waved 'Rafa out' placards.

"It is up to us to have a good run of results for them to change their mind," Cech said. "The manager surely deserves to have a chance and it's up to us to make things happen and make the fans happy.

"This is the ideal situation and scenario. When you have a change of manager you need that impulse from everybody to get out of the situation we're not comfortable in. The ideal scenario is to get a run of results and then suddenly the season will look different."

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