When Thomas Tuchel first came into the club back in January, the team was broken, battling in the mid-table, and had just suffered a 2-0 loss against Leicester City. There were many players in the Chelsea team who had lost their confidence and were looking for a new start under the new manager. One of these players was Antonio Rudiger however, he was never a bad player, and he was only on the bench because he had a falling out with Frank Lampard. One of the players who needed a huge boost, both in his abilities and his mental confidence, was Marcos Alonso. Tuchel managed to do a fine job with the Spaniard and this season Alonso has shown Chelsea that he can still contribute to the team.
The Spaniard was never an average player, in fact, he was one of the best in his role. His advanced playing role can be emulated by only a few players in the world, and he has to be named as one of the best wing-backs when he is in form. Luckily for Blues fans, Alonso is in the form of his life. He is looking even better than his 2016/17 title-winning season and it is truly magical to see how a player can change with the change of managers. Tuchel’s 3-5-2 formation requires two speedy wing-backs who can help out the attack and fall back to defend. These wing-backs need to be energetic and speedy in order to play in both halves of the field.
Thomas Tuchel managed to turn around this Chelsea star’s career.
This was Alonso’s biggest problem in the past. Although he was a very technical and advanced player, his defensive skills were lacking. He was lacking the ability to track back properly, as well as the brute strength that Reece James can offer on the right side of the pitch. Due to these problems, Alonso’s wing was often exploited, and Lampard dropped him from the main team last season. When Tuchel took over, he started playing Alonso more and Spaniard came back with a bang.
This season he has been unstoppable. Not only does he do the job of a winger, but he is also aware enough to fall back and defend as well. He has fixed his only flaw in the game and he has secured his place in the first team over Ben Chilwell. However, the resurgence into the first team has not been easy for the former Sunderland man. He has stated many times that being frozen out of the team affected him mentally. Training every day but not being able to play in the match can affect anyone.
The transformation did not happen overnight. Tuchel knew that Alonso was not very confident last season, so he played him but mostly chose Chilwell over him. Chilwell played in the more important matches while the 30-year-old was played as a rotation player. This slowly built up his confidence to the point where he has overtaken Chilwell in the pecking order. This time it is the Englishman who is suffering from a lack of confidence, mostly due to the fact that he was not given any playing time by Gareth Southgate in the Euros. Thankfully for us, Alonso has proven that he can fill in for Chilwell and play even better than him.
Tuchel and his team have done an amazing job with Alonso’s progress and he has never looked better. His performance against Tottenham Hotspur was once again top class, and there is no reason to drop him from the team. Tuchel has also managed to reignite Kepa Arrizabalaga and Kai Havertz. All of these players have benefited from the German coach’s arrival, and we hope that he can lead us to even more trophies.
Do you think that Chilwell will make a comeback, or is this Alonso’s season? Let us know in the comments down below.