Alonso accepts responsibility for Chelsea’s poor first-half display

Xabi Alonso took responsibility for Chelsea’s sluggish first-half performance against Leeds, insisting none of his players were to blame for a difficult opening period.

Chelsea trailed 2-0 in the Carabao Cup third-round tie, before two goals each from Cole Palmer and Danny Welbeck, as well as goals from Pedro Neto and Valentin Barco secured a 6-3 win.

Manager Alonso made wholesale changes to his starting line-up for the game, handing opportunities to several players who have featured less regularly this season.

The changes he made at half-time transformed the performance, and Alonso pointed to a lack of time working with his fringe players as the reason behind the slow start.

“So many things happened in the game, for sure. I take responsibility for all of them,” said Alonso.

“No player is to blame — it’s the decisions that we took. And for sure, in the first half, things were not going the way we wanted.

“When you haven’t had the time to work with them, it’s difficult to compete at this level. So it’s my responsibility.

“We had to make decisions at half-time, and we saw a different second half — another quality, another tempo. We need to analyse it, but we’re happy that we went through, happy with the reaction.”

Asked about the performance of the fringe players he had started, Alonso admitted the game had proven a tough test for them.

He said: “I will have a deeper assessment of how I can help the players who aren’t playing as much to have a better impact, a better feeling.

“Today it was difficult for them — maybe I made it too difficult, because Leeds are a strong side.”

“Overall, you need to react, you need to make decisions, and the impact from the players who came on was good.

“I need to take my own blame, my own responsibility for what happened. I need to be able to help them better, for sure — they are not responsible. After that, you need to react and think about what’s best for the team in that moment. It’s part of the game.

“I prefer not to take that cynical way. I prefer to think that — and I know that probably I haven’t made the right decisions for them to show their best level. It’s something I will analyse and learn from today.”