Alonso starts Chelsea spell with focus on balance, flexibility

LONDON: Xabi Alonso begins his first match in charge of Chelsea on Tuesday in Sydney, saying the squad has returned with "good energy" as he starts the job of rebuilding a side that finished 10th last season and missed out on Europe.

The Spaniard officially took over on July 1 and will lead Chelsea against Western Sydney Wanderers in his opening competitive fixture. He has arrived under pressure to revive a club that has not won the Premier League since Antonio Conte guided them to the title a decade ago.

Alonso said his early priority was to shape a team capable of competing at the highest level rather than rush to define the season in terms of targets. He said, "We want to build a competitive team. We are in that process. We have great quality, great talent." He added that Chelsea needed "the right balance between quality and mentality" to challenge in the Premier League.

The 44-year-old has already overseen a run of pre-season recruitment, with Morgan Rogers arriving from Aston Villa among the headline additions. Alonso said the players had responded well in the opening phase of his tenure, adding, "The players are working hard, and that's what we want."

Known for the short-passing style and 3-4-2-1 shape that brought Bayer Leverkusen an unbeaten league-and-cup double in 2023/24, Alonso indicated he will not try to overhaul Chelsea overnight. Instead, he said he wants adaptability in how the team plays.

"We will be flexible in our tactics, in our approaches, game plans," Alonso said. "It's not that I'm changing everything. It's about updating. It's about developing something that they have done with new concepts that each manager has." He added that several elements already in place at Chelsea suited his ideas, with the task now to adjust and refine them.

Alonso's reputation as one of Europe's leading young coaches was built in Germany, though his time at Real Madrid was brief. Appointed last year, he left in January after seven months in charge.

For now, Alonso has avoided setting a public benchmark for his first campaign. "I don't want to talk too early about what's our goal," he said. "We want to deserve to be as high as possible, and for that we need to work hard."