Chelsea's Disappointing Performance: Xabi Alonso's Struggles
Chelsea’s bruising afternoon ended with Xabi Alonso standing in front of the cameras, offering no excuses and very little comfort.
“Everything was disappointing,” he admitted to MOTD. “Especially the result.”
For 45 minutes, he felt his side “were competing well”. Then the second half arrived, and with it a familiar collapse: three goals shipped, discipline lost, set-pieces again exposing soft underbelly.
“You need to be very focused,” Alonso said. “Once you concede from set-pieces, it gives them an advantage and control because once you concede the second goal it becomes much harder and we lost a little bit of our discipline when we were close to the box. We have to correct, it was our mistakes.”
The pattern is becoming painfully clear. Chelsea hang in games, occasionally threaten, then unravel. Alonso did not pretend they had done enough with the ball either. The first half brought territory but little incision.
“We were around but not creating big chances,” he said. “We missed the last pass, the last dribble to get shots in clear positions, but that's one part. The other part is when you need to hold, when you need to be tight, [the opponent] is trying to attack you and you need to know how to defend and stick together. Win duels and be consistent in that part.”
The pressure finally told after the break. Chelsea chased, over-committed, and were punished.
Levi Colwill: ‘We’ve been bullied in the box’
Levi Colwill did not sugar-coat it. Speaking to Sky Sports, the defender cut straight to the core of the problem.
“It was tough,” he said. “Firstly conceding a set piece was not the best, we tried to push and maybe overexposed ourselves, played some passes we shouldn't and they hit us on the counter, and got the second goal and the third goal hit home and hurt. Second half we weren't good enough and we have a lot to work on in the international break.”
Five goals conceded from set pieces already tells its own story. Colwill didn’t dodge that either.
“Not been good enough. At times we have been bullied in the box, we need to definitely improve with that. We have got all trust in our set piece coach and still adjusting to new things. We do need to improve as a team.”
He insisted the mentality did not crumble, even as the scoreboard did.
“I don't think spirit went down. It hurt and we tried to push for equaliser and we got hit on the counter attack. I don't think our spirit dropped.
“We still need to improve a lot. We can't rely on our front three to pull us out of danger. The rest of us have to help as much as possible. We definitely have a lot of room to improve.”
Alonso’s harsh reality
The numbers are already stalking Alonso’s early days in the Premier League. He is only the sixth manager in the competition’s history to see his side concede two or more goals in each of his first five games, joining Mick McCarthy, Sammy Lee, Terry Connor, Slavisa Jokanovic and Scott Parker on a list no coach wants to touch.
Alonso knows the issues are not confined to one end of the pitch.
“It's everything,” he said when asked about defensive improvements after the international break. “For sure individual and collective details will have to be better, but it's not only defensively, with the ball there are parts where we need to do better.”
The break arrives whether Chelsea like it or not. “It is what it is. Now we will have time with some players, but we can't change that,” Alonso added. Time on the training ground is coming; whether it brings a tougher, more streetwise Chelsea is another question.
A glimpse of the future
Amid the bruises, there was at least a moment that hinted at tomorrow. Mahdi Nicoll-Jazuli came off the bench to become the first player born in 2010 to play in the Premier League, and the first 16-year-old ever to feature for Chelsea in the competition.
History for the teenager. A harsh lesson for the team around him.
Chelsea walk into the international break conceding too many, creating too little and relying on flickers rather than foundations. When they return, will this still look like a team learning on the job, or one finally ready to stop being “bullied in the box” and start imposing itself instead?
