Former Chelsea star Pat Nevin believes that Marcos Alonso is Chelsea’s wildcard player. Alonso has started in all of Chelsea’s Premier League games so far, scoring the winner against Arsenal. The Spaniard’s attack-oriented game played a huge role in Chelsea’s win over Newcastle last weekend. He won the penalty that led to Chelsea’s opening goal from Eden Hazard. Then in the 87th minute, his shot caused a deflection from Yedlin for an own goal. The own goal eventually won the match for Chelsea.
Nevin wrote about Alonso’s importance to Chelsea on the club’s official website. He wrote, “What was interesting was the role of Marcos Alonso in the outcome, he is still one of our wild cards. As Chelsea have changed to a 4-3-3 formation it was widely thought that Alonso would have to curtail his more attacking instincts, which were so apparent when he played as a wing-back over the past few seasons. Well it would appear that nobody has got round to informing him!
At Newcastle he won the penalty, hit the shot from the right-hand side that eventually struck Yedlin to win the game, he has been overlapping constantly since the start of the season and he hasn’t stopped attacking the back post when our play is going up the right-hand side. There has been much chat about the full-back role in the current game, with Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester City all having players there who are lauded every week on the TV and radio.”
The former Chelsea star added, There is no complaint from me there as I have been one of those extolling the virtues of Benjamin Mendy at City and Andrew Robertson at Liverpool, but in a golden age of attacking left-backs, Marcos Alonso should not be ignored for the effect he has on games. Even though we had plenty of players on good form against Newcastle and Eden was brilliant, particularly when he was fresh in the first half, I gave Marcos the man-of-the-match on the radio station I was working for. Reports of the death of his attacking role have clearly been exaggerated.”
Chelsea are currently third in the Premier League table below Liverpool and Tottenham. They next play Bournemouth on Saturday.
