2026-07-29 08:53:03
Xabi Alonso says his Chelsea team has a lot of work to do before the start of the new Premier League campaign.
The Blues beat Western Sydney Wanderers 6-4 in a thrilling pre-season friendly in Australia on Tuesday (28.07.26) and the coach felt that there was plenty of room for improvement from his players.
Alonso said post-match: “There were moments that we were struggling to find solutions, and we need to have this. The positives are that we corrected them, but there were moments that the game management is something that we can learn from today.
“When they were pressing so high, it was tough to find the solution from inside to have a different understanding of what’s happening and to make those changes in the game. It’s something that will happen often in all the games, and the more situations we have that we’re struggling and find solutions, the better we will be.
“So for that, I think this friendly will be useful for the future and as well as minutes for everyone. The young ones, [it’s a] good experience to come on the tour and get some minutes, and the senior ones, they came on with good impact with good minutes. And an exciting game for the fans as well.”
Alonso emphasised that every player – regardless of their experience level – still has a lot to learn with the start of the Premier League campaign less than a month away.
The Spanish manager said: “Everyone has to learn.
“Everyone. It doesn’t matter if you are young, if you are more experienced. This is what happens in the game. This is the quality that you need.
“You can be quick, you can be good [at] dribbling, but you need to have this game intelligence to do the things. And we will need to do it quick, because the competition is in just a month, and we want to get ready for that. But we need to manage that. That’s so important in football nowadays.”
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