Xabi Alonso brought on a 16 year old as Chelsea were beaten by Brentford, and Joe Cole thinks there was a reason for it.
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Chelsea are depleted in midfield right now because Moises Caicedo and Reece James are injured. In last night’s 3-0 defeat against Brentford, manager Xabi Alonso brought on 16 year old Mahdi Nicoll-Jazuli towards the end of the game to play in the middle of the park.
It was a curious decision as Romeo Lavia and Malo Gusto (who has played a lot in midfield already this season) were on the bench.
Joe Cole, who was doing punditry for Premier League Productions, has an explanation for the odd move by Alonso.
Alonso was sending a message with MNJ sub
“Xabi Alonso, that’s a message to the board saying we’ve not got enough that I’m putting a 16-year-old kid in to midfield when we’re chasing the game away at our rivals,” Cole claimed.
“And yeah, that was clear as day for me that and the way he walked off at the end, you know, I think he he’d be furious with that.”
We hadn’t really thought about it like that – we just saw Alonso as realising the game was lost and deciding to give some deserved game time to a young player who has impressed in preseason.
Whatever the reason was, we fully back it.
In other news…
Some of the most damning quotes after the game came from Chelsea defender Levi Colwill, who admitted his team were sometimes getting bullied by the opposition.
Alonso was not happy with his team’s defending either, but pointed to three other areas where his side had suffered against Brentford.
