John Terry tells Xabi Alonso to make big change to fix Chelsea as £70m star blamed after Brentford loss | OneFootball

Chelsea legend John Terry has explained why he wants Xabi Alonso to make a major change to his team to improve results.

There has been a lot of change since Alonso arrived as Chelsea’s new manager in the summer, with Morgan Rogers, Maxence Lacroix and Emiliano Martinez among their marquee signings.

With Chelsea not having European football this season, the Blues have been backed by some to challenge for the Premier League title, but their defensive frailties could prevent this from happening.

The Blues have a great attack, but they have conceded 12 goals in five games and were beaten 3-0 by Brentford on Friday night.

Brentford were deserving winners, but they were helped by Chelsea’s defence and Terry thinks his former club need to go to “man for man” marking from set pieces.

“I’m a little bit old school, I like man for man. I don’t like this zonal marking, front marking,” Terry said on his YouTube channel.

“I think Brentford came out at half-time and identified that we are exposed at the back post and our smaller men are picking up their biggest players so effectively, we were allowing Brentford to win those headers.

“[Valentin] Barco is never winning those headers. You could put 100 balls into the box and he’s not beating Jannik Schuster, absolutely no chance.

“But when that happens, no one knows who they’re marking once it goes over those front-post players in that space.

“Again, I don’t like this zonal marking. I know pretty much every team is doing it but there’s just no responsibility in players.

“For me, you have to be accountable. Whoever is marking Jaidon Anthony comes in at half-time or after the game, puts their hands up and says, ‘Sorry boys, that’s my man and I lost him!’

“As soon as that ball goes over your head in that near-post space, if you’re marking Anthony then your full focus still has to be Anthony. It’s for someone else to deal with that longer ball around the far post.”

“It was after that moment that Chelsea lost the game…”

Jaidon Anthony broke the deadlock with a free header from a corner, and presenter Sam Mattarface has ‘blamed’ £70m defender Wesley Fofana for costing his side at this moment by not following his opponent.

“For me, Wesley Fofana, [just] because the set-piece coach [Austin MacPhee] has assigned you to the far post, it doesn’t mean you cannot leave it,” Matterface said on talkSPORT.

“Especially when Jaidon Anthony has walked in front of you and decided that he’s going to head the ball, you’re allowed to move five yards to engage with him.

“That piece of woodwork isn’t going to score, and it was after that moment that Chelsea lost the game because they capitulated.

“Chelsea were doing good because they were more robust, they were more physical, they were part of the game – they did well up until 60 minutes.”