The full transcript from Xabi Alonso's press conference at Stamford Bridge following Chelsea's nine-goal thriller against Leeds United in the Carabao Cup third round
Xabi Alonso
Xabi Alonso during a Chelsea press conference(Image: Darren Walsh/Chelsea FC)
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Xabi Alonso has spoken to the press at Stamford Bridge following Chelsea's incredible 6-3 win over Leeds United in the Carabao Cup third round.
Tarik Muharemovic broke the deadlock shortly before the half-hour mark, leaping above Malo Gusto at the back post to latch onto a delightfully weighted cross by Harry Wilson. Daniel Farke's side had the Blues up against the ropes, but they couldn't land the knockout blow.
Chelsea were saved by the half-time whistle, and Alonso had seen enough. The Spaniard made four changes at the break, bringing on Cole Palmer, Morgan Rogers, Reece James, and Pedro Neto to save the day, or so he thought.
Leeds leapt out of the gates in the second half, with Brenden Aaronson doubling the deficit. Then, Cole Palmer grabbed the game by the scruff of the neck, scoring twice in two minutes: the first from the penalty spot, and the second with his first shot from just outside the box.
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In the 10 minutes that followed, Pedro Neto and Danny Welbeck found the net, too. Dominic Calvert-Lewin pulled another back for the visitors, but Valentin Barco extinguished any hope of a comeback.
Then, in the dying embers of stoppage time, the former Brighton striker put the sixth and final nail in the coffin to book a place in the Carabao Cup fourth round. So, with that being said, football.london has transcribed everything Alonso had to say about the barmy game.
What are your initial feelings about the match?
Yeah, so many things happened in the game. For sure, I take responsibility for a lot of them; no player to blame, it's the decisions that we took, and for sure, the first half, things were not going the way we wanted.
When you haven't had time, and when you don't have time to work with them, it's difficult to compete at this level, so it's my responsibility, and we have to take the decisions at half time, and we have seen a second half with quality, tempo, and we need to analyse, but happy with that we are going through, happy with the reaction, but as well analytic about what you have done.
Forgive me, but it looked like the fringe players that you brought in struggled, and then your best players came on and simply won the match. Was that your assessment?
No, no, I will have a deeper assessment about how I can help players that they are not playing that much, to have a better impact, to have a better feeling, and today, it was difficult for them. Maybe I made it too difficult because it's a strong side. But overall, you need to react. You need to take decisions, and the impact was good from the players that came on.
Now 26 goals in five games is quite remarkable. On the one hand, it's a lot of goals, but then, on the other hand, you've won four out of those five games. So what do you make of that?
That it's early days, to assess what we will be. I think that things that, in terms of the connection of players, in terms of associations, I see that those are gonna be important, but we need to keep working on the good things, keep improving on other things.
We want to have better balance, to be more solid, to be able to win in a boring game as well. If it happens, but so far, for sure. Five games, we are now through, and now we have these two games before the international break are fundamental. And this is our only focus. We want to finish well before the break, and we have two tough games against Hull, against Brentford.
Will you have to speak to the guys you pulled up for half-time, because it was quite ruthless, the changes you made. Will you need to speak to those players?
I need to take my own blame and my own responsibility on the things that happen. I need to be able to help them better, for sure, so they are not responsible, and after, you need to react until what's better for the team, and at that moment, it's part of the game, but for me, the reading and the analysis of their individual is not what I have seen today. I know that they, they, they are other kind, other level of players.
Anyone cynical watching that today could come away thinking that your best players are good enough to win you any game, but the squad players are not good enough on that evidence. Can you see why someone might leave the stadium feeling that way straight? I prefer not to take that cynical way. So, I prefer to... to think that, and I know that, probably, I have him take the right decisions for them to show their best levels. So it's something that I will analyse and learn from today.
One of the fringe players who has done well tonight, obviously, Danny Welbeck. He's not started a Premier League game, but he's got three goals in this competition. Is that an example, maybe, to some of the younger players?
Well, Danny has done great for sure, but not about the young ones. It's about the team, it's about the momentums, and we had to make some changes, and I'm happy for Danny, again, that he has scored in this competition.
In the Premier League, Joao [Pedro] starts normally. He's doing really well, so, as I said to the, apart from the different two halves, I get context on the performance of the players, you know, because when you put everything new together, it's difficult to perform, and we have seen it, so I need to check it for the future.
Levi Colwill came off. Was that any kind of injury related problem. He seemed to go down the tunnel for some treatment?
No, no, it's just some little things that he's having, but we don't expect that this is an injury.
Morgan and Cole Palmer, Reece James, they're having to come on and save the game. There's a game on Saturday as well. It's similar to the Brighton and Luton games. Is there a reliance on the same individuals when you need those guys?
There will be moments for everything. I prefer not to be too categorical about just the first half of the second half, that is gonna be always like that for the level of the performance, collectively and individually.
I take the context, I take my own decisions, my responsibility for that, and now, we've gone through, and now, it's Hull and Brentford before the international break. We want to finish up there with more points, and from tomorrow, we start preparing.
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