{"id":671289,"date":"2026-06-24T09:07:04","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T13:07:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=671289"},"modified":"2026-06-24T09:07:04","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T13:07:04","slug":"chelsea-xabi-alonso-tactical-decision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2026\/06\/24\/chelsea-xabi-alonso-tactical-decision\/","title":{"rendered":"Latest Chelsea Reports Hint at Xabi Alonso Tactical Decision"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>One of the big questions around Stamford Bridge is how their new manager will set the team up. After seeing a number of coaches use a 4-2-3-1 base over the past few years, there have been some questions floating around. A Xabi Alonso tactical decision may have been made based on recent transfer reports which hint at the Spaniard aiming to use the 3-4-2-1 system that brought him success with Bayer Leverkusen.<\/p>\n<h2>Xabi Alonso Tactical Decision Hinted At In Latest Transfer Rumour<\/h2>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"max-width: 600px\"><smartframe-embed class=\"smartframe_wp_element\" customer-id=\"a61405551f80e72f675225f083759bb9\" image-id=\"fwuQBiiTErec\" style=\"width: 100%; display: inline-flex; max-width: 4252px; aspect-ratio: 4252\/2835;\" ><\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n<h3>Here We Go<\/h3>\n<p>According to <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/FabrizioRomano\/status\/2069669349489828237\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Fabrizio Romano<\/a>, Chelsea have moved quickly to hijack Inter&#8217;s move for Marco Palestra with the Atalanta player set to become one of the first signings of the Alonso era. The 21-year-old is a versatile defender, capable of playing as a left back or right back, particularly as a wing back in Atalanta&#8217;s 3-4-3 setup.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read More:\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2026\/06\/18\/projected-chelsea-squad-2627-june\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Projected Chelsea Squad for 26\/27 as of June 18<\/a><\/p>\n<p>This is a pretty important designation as this likely replacement for Marc Cucurella is a slightly different profile to the Spaniard and hints at a tactical shift.<\/p>\n<h3>What This Move Hints At<\/h3>\n<p>Not only is versatility appreciated with the rumoured new signing being able to play in either a back four or back five, bis his speciality being in the wing back spot is an early indication that Alonso will be looking to use a back five setup at Chelsea. While there won&#8217;t be a way to know for sure until pre-season, the shift from a natural left-back to a wing-back and the number of centre-backs being kept hints largely at a 3-4-2-1.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read More:\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2026\/06\/01\/every-chelsea-player-world-cup\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Every Chelsea Player Going to The 2026 World Cup<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The signing of Palestra seemingly marks a move from the Blues to back their manager specifically, something they haven&#8217;t always been keen to do since Clearlake Capital took over. Signing a player who specialises in one system is a good way to show their incoming coach and fans that they&#8217;re willing to back his ideas with signings.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Featured Image Credit<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>IMAGO \/ Visionhaus<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the big questions around Stamford Bridge is how their new manager will set the team up. After seeing a number of coaches use a 4-2-3-1 base over the past few years, there have been some questions floating around. A Xabi Alonso tactical decision may have been made based on recent transfer reports which [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2013,"featured_media":650203,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11,30],"tags":[8611],"class_list":["post-671289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea","category-news","tag-chelsea-transfer-rumours"],"modified_by":"Alex Richards, LWOF Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2013"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=671289"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671289\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":671290,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671289\/revisions\/671290"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/650203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=671289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=671289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=671289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}