Chelsea players are baffled by manager Rafa Benitez's coaching methods and tactics, it has been revealed. Benitez has been told by an increasingly unhappy Chelsea hierarchy that his main job is to ensure qualification for the Champions League next season.

A Chelsea source told the Daily Express: "Rafa's training sessions are very, very technical and very detailed. And as things have started to go wrong lately, they have become even more so.

"The players think Rafa is starting to disappear up himself with his tactics and details. The players like Rafa, and they have not been totally lost by his methods yet, but it is getting that way. He does not rant and rave at them, he is just incredibly detailed, and he loses people. The same thing happened towards the end when he was at Liverpool.

"The players know he is likely to be gone in the summer, so it is hard for him to have any authority."