New manager Xabi Alonso said on Monday that there was “good energy” at Chelsea as he bids to turn around the club’s fortunes, but was reluctant to say what a successful first season would look like.
The Spaniard officially began the job on July 1 and will take charge of his first competitive fixture in Sydney on Tuesday when they face Western Sydney Wanderers.
He faces a huge task to get Chelsea back in the running for major honours after their disappointing 10th place finish last season and failure to make Europe.
They last won the Premier League a decade ago, under Italian manager Antonio Conte
Alonso, who has made a series of pre-season signings headlined by Morgan Rogers from Aston Villa, said he liked what he had seen so far.
“We want to build a competitive team. We are in that process. We have great quality, great talent,” he said.
“We need to know what it takes to compete in the Premier League, and we want to have a squad with the right balance between quality and mentality.
“But I think that we are starting the new season with good energy, that’s going to be important.”
The former Liverpool and Spain midfielder rose to prominence as one of Europe’s brightest coaches by guiding Bayer Leverkusen to an unbeaten German league and cup double in the 2023/24 season.
However, he lasted just seven months in the Real Madrid hotseat. Appointed last year, he departed the Spanish giants in January.
Alonso is associated with a short passing game and implemented a 3-4-2-1 system at Leverkusen that proved so successful.
But he has also shown pragmatism in his tactics, a trait he plans to bring to Chelsea.
“We will be flexible in our tactics, in our approaches, game plans,” he said, conscious of not trying to impose a completely different system from last season.
“It’s not that I’m changing everything. It’s about updating. It’s about developing something that they have done with new concepts that each manager has.
