Xabi Alonso believes the Blues’ pre-season victory over Western Sydney Wanderers will be ‘very useful for the future’, with the Chelsea manager emphasising the importance of finding solutions to in-game problems.
The opening fixture of our pre-season tour, and Alonso’s first in the Chelsea dugout, was certainly an entertaining one. Ten goals were scored, six of which went to the Blues.
Dastan Satpayev broke the deadlock after five minutes, but Wanderers responded with two goals of their own. Yet by half-time, the contest was level following a well-worked Dario Essugo strike.
The second period remained as back and forth as the first, with the introduction of several first-team regulars just after the hour-mark helping the Blues end strongly. Jamie Gittens netted soon after coming on before Joao Pedro netted a nine-minute hat-trick to ensure a winning start in the Sydney Super Cup.
‘I think that this friendly is going to be useful for the future,’ said Alonso. ‘There were moments in the game that we were struggling to find solutions, and we need to have this experience.
'The positive is that we corrected them, but these moments of game management are something we can learn from today.
'When they were pressing so high, it was tough to find a solution from inside. We have to have a different understanding of what's happening and try to make those changes in the game, as it's something that will happen often.
'The more situations we have where we are struggling and we find the solutions, the better team we will be. So, for that, this friendly will be useful.
'So, no injuries, the young players having a good experience of coming on the tour and playing minutes, the senior players came on for good minutes and made a good impact, and it was an exciting game for the fans as well.'
While the majority of the senior players named in the matchday squad were handed minutes, there were none for Romeo Lavia, with Alonso explaining that it was a precautionary decision.
'He felt something in the hamstring,' Alonso explained.
'Not a big thing and, hopefully, we are expecting him to be fit for Saturday [against Tottenham Hotspur]. But there was no point in taking risks today, which is why Reggie Watson played 90 minutes and did well.'
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