Chelsea manager Xabi Alonso has outlined the principles and ‘pillars’ he wants his side to embody as he builds up to the start of the new Premier League season.
The new Blues boss was keen to explain his work ethic and expectations ahead of another busy campaign of football, which begins in earnest against Fulham in August.
Alonso is aiming for a successful campaign and has already begun laying the foundations, explaining his philosophy to the world’s media on Monday afternoon at Stamford Bridge.
Xabi opened: ‘We need to have hunger. We need to have the passion for the game. We need to want to improve.
‘The Premier League is such a competitive competition, and for that, we need to prepare ourselves. We need to be really, really determined in the details, really strong in our basics and how we want to play.
‘We need to build the right basics, the essentials on a daily basis, to be ready for the weekends. We will have time for that, but those are the most important pillars in our game.’
Although he has only spent a few days working with the squad at our Cobham training base, Alonso believes the early signs have been encouraging.
‘I have already felt that they want to have a good season,’ Alonso said of the squad. ‘After last year, we are starting from zero. There are some new faces, from the staff, from the manager, but they are really keen on whatever we are doing.
‘We can't really tell that much – it's just four days with some of the players, but you see that the energy is good, the excitement is there, and we need to prepare well.
‘We have time for that, and I said before, it's very important that we build the right mentality to compete.’
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