Alonso warns Chelsea: Goals aren’t enough—find balance and learn to win boring games

Xabi Alonso has said Chelsea must find defensive balance and learn how 'to win in a boring game'.

Chelsea came back to beat Leeds United 6-3 in a thrillingCarabao Cup tie on Wednesday night, with the West Londoners recovering from two goals down to progress.

Chelsea have now won four of their five games under Alonso's management, showing real threat going forward but vulnerability defensively.

The Blues have averaged 3.2 goals per game under Alonso, though have conceded an average of two per fixture. The Spaniard said his team must tighten up and learn to win games in 'boring' fashion.

Alonso after 6-3 chaos vs Leeds: Chelsea must “be more solid… to win in a boring game” too

"It’s early days to assess what we will be,"Alonso said.

"There are things, in terms of the connections of players and the associations, that I see are going to be important.

"So we need to keep working on the good things and keep on improving other things. We want to have better balance, to be more solid, to be able to win in a boring game as well, if that happens."

Alonso named a rotated team for the clash against Leeds, but turned to his senior stars at half-time. Cole Palmer, Morgan Rogers, Pedro Neto and Reece James all came on as part of a quadruple substitution, with Palmer scoring twice and Neto also on target. Rogers ended the contest with three assists and Alonso said his side needed a lift.

"[We asked that] they try to have a good impact in energy, in aggressiveness, in tempo, in duels, because we were struggling in that moment against a very intense Leeds. We did very well. I take context for the first half and I will assess my own decisions.

"Even in the first half, I’m not going to blame the attitude. There were many new things together and they were not working – that is my responsibility. Afterward, once you score, you start believing, looking better and making better decisions.

"So it’s about the mind of the players, the feeling and it was much better in the second half."