A big summer for... Chelsea
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What did Xabi Alonso’s appointment mean for Chelsea’s hierarchy and authority?
The big breaking news is that Chelsea have appointed Xavier Alonso as manager of the men's team. Well, I think it's significant that he's gonna be the manager, not the head coach, because that to me means that he will have more authority, more influence, more of a say in all aspects of the club. This is his first big job in the Premier League and I've got to make sure that after what happened at Real Madrid that I don't get top two dud jobs on the trot. So the first thing that I think he'll do, he'll want a goalkeeper, he'll want a centre back and he'll probably want a striker of experience. Chelsea could become a decent side very quickly, they just like experience and physicality down the spine.
It's been a big summer of change at Chelsea. Another one, I guess you could say, because Jabby Alonso is now in, and we're going to take a closer look at how his blues are shaping up for the new season on this podcast. This special Sky Sports Podcast, a big summer for Chelsea. And to help me do that, I'm joined by two people who are covering the club closely for us at Sky Sports. James Savundra from Sky Sports News and our digital journalist David Richardson. How are you doing, guys? Good to see you. Really good. Can't wait to get going now.
Uh plenty going on at Chelsea, plenty to get stuck into.
Yeah, lots of talking points for us today. And David, you got to see them on Saturday thanks Real Sociedad, their final friendly before the big Premier League kickoff. How were they looking under Jabi Alonso? What clues could we see about his new ideas and structures there? Well the big question around
Jabbi Alonso at Chelsea is whether he would replicate this 3-4-3 formation that he had such great success with at Bayer Leverkusen, obviously winning the Bundesliga title. And Chelsea have played six preseason games. Their first three played a back four, which was similar to what he did at Real Madrid, and as we know, it didn't go too well there. Um but since then, in the final three matches, he's played a back three, and that has been when more of Of his senior players have been available to him. The likes of Moises Kaiseo, he's brought in Morgan Rogers, Maxen's LaCroix are come in as well, and they obviously featured at the World Cup, so didn't join up with the Chelsea squad until later in preseason.
So that's interesting seeing that he's now started to test out that system, particularly a week out from their first game. Usually managers in their final preseason. Pretty m pretty much the the team that's going to be starting in that first game. So against Sociedad, it was good and bad. It was probably typical pre-season um and Chelsea were bad in the first half. It wasn't it wasn't encouraging. Um they sat too deep in in the back three. It became almost a back five with Marco Palestra and Pedro Neta as their wing backs. They couldn't get out, they couldn't press, they became sloppy on the ball, and that That was despite Morgan Rogers scoring after ten minutes. You thought in that moment it was going to be a bit of a procession, but it wasn't.
And Sociedad deserved their equalizer when it came before half time. But interestingly, Jabi Alonso kept the same team at halftime. How many times have we seen it in preseason? Gets the half time, loads of changes. But he kept he kept the back three, kept the same eleven, and almost said, prove to me you can do it in this formation. And they did, and they were much improved. They played higher up the pitch, dominated possession, and because they were higher up the pitch, they were able to press. So It was a mixed performance on the day, but the the biggest factor is that they've been playing that back three. Um, that's the most significant thing from from this preseason under Jabi Alonso.
And that's obviously yeah a big shift to what we've seen previously and the last couple of seasons under Chelsea. Um we can get into lots of aspects of of that team, lots of talking points. You mentioned Lacroix who obviously has so much experience playing that middle of a back three at Palace and having good success there and it looks like he's going to take that roll over into into Chelsea now.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What did Xabi Alonso’s appointment mean for Chelsea’s hierarchy and authority?
0:02–5:48
2
How is Alonso shaping Chelsea’s tactical identity – back‑four, back‑three or a 3‑4‑3?
5:48–15:22
3
What clues did the Real Sociedad friendly give about Alonso’s new system and player roles?
15:22–22:18
4
Why is the back‑three considered the most significant development of the pre‑season?
22:18–28:09
5
What is the current status of Enzo Fernández – will he stay or move on?
28:09–33:42
Speakers
1 identifiedMore from Sky Sports Premier League Podcast
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