New Chelsea boss Xabi Alonso admits his team has a lot to do ahead of the upcoming Premier League season, with game management and defensive frailty exposed by an "impressive" Western Sydney Wanderers side at Accor Stadium on Tuesday night.
In his first friendly as manager, the former Liverpool and Real Madrid midfielder said he and his team learned a lot after an unexpected test against the local A-League Men wooden-spooners, who took the lead twice in an ultimate 6-4 loss and posed some serious questions along the way.
"There were moments that we were struggling to find solutions, and we need to have this," Alonso said after the match. "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.
Xabi Alonso says Chelsea must improve ahead of the Premier League season. Photo by Ayush Kumar/Eurasia Sport Images/Getty Images. "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."
The teams exchanged goals throughout the game, with the Wanderers exploiting a number of holes in Chelsea's defence, particularly in transition or off mistakes.
Alonso's second-half mass substitution, where almost the entire starting XI was replaced, allowed Chelsea's stars to shine through -- in particular João Pedro, who scored a nine-minute hat trick in the second half to lift the side to a win.
But the new coach emphasised that every player, no matter their experience, is still a student, and that they all have plenty to learn with the ultimate test of the Premier League season less than a month away.
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"Everyone has to learn," he insisted. "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.