According to The Guardian, Chelsea drew with Johor Darul Ta'zim after Alonso rotated heavily, fielding 11 changes from the previous day's win over Milan. The result was a scrappy, heated match that exposed the same fractures from last season: indiscipline, inexperience, and a front line too crowded to function.
Preseason friendlies usually invite shrugs. This one doesn't. Alonso faces Fulham in less than two weeks, and the problem isn't fitness. It's hierarchy. Too many attacking options, too many players competing for the same spots, and not enough training time to build a coherent first XI before the Premier League opener on 24 August.
Selection becomes the immediate test. Alonso must now reintegrate key players, cut through the crowd up front, and decide whether Chelsea are chasing chemistry or just names. The squad's shape will tell you everything about his actual power at the club.
Chelsea's problem isn't the Malaysia draw. Even in a low-stakes August game, the squad looked like a recruitment spreadsheet handed to a new coach and called a football project. Alonso was hired to impose order fast, but managers don't manufacture coherence on command. This club keeps asking them to anyway.
Filed to the World desk · 2 days ago