Alonso on making four half-time substitutions and Colwill’s fitness after beating Leeds | OneFootball

Xabi Alonso took responsibility for Chelsea’s poor first-half performance after his side recovered to beat Leeds United 6-3 in the Carabao Cup.

The Chelsea boss made four changes at half-time with his side struggling, bringing on Morgan Rogers, Cole Palmer, Reece James and Pedro Neto.

But Alonso insisted the players taken off (Estevao, Malo Gusto, Jamie Gittens and 16-year-old Reggir Watson) should not be judged too harshly and admitted he may have made life difficult for those who have had limited minutes this season.

“I need to take my own blame and my own responsibility on the things that happen,” Alonso said. “I need to be able to help them better, for sure, so they are not responsible.

Stay up to date with all the latest Chelsea news by joining our Chelsea WhatsApp channel. 

“After, you need to react and do what’s better for the team. At that moment, it’s part of the game, but for me, the reading and the analysis of them individually is not what I have seen today. I know that they are another level of players.

“I will have a deeper assessment about how I can help players that are not playing that much to have a better impact, to have a better feeling.

“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.”

There was also a concern over Levi Colwill after the defender was withdrawn with 15 minutes to go and appeared to receive treatment, but Alonso played down fears of a significant injury.

“No, no, it’s just some little things that he’s having, but we don’t expect that this is an injury,” he said.

If you enjoy our articles, help us out by making Hayters.com one of your preferred sources on Google by clicking here.