Alonso: Happy for Lavia; will field youngsters against Johor Darul Ta'zim

After a 3-0 pre-season friendly win over Milan, Chelsea manager Xabi Alonso spoke to the club's official media.

Xabi, first of all, a great win tonight. A very good performance—you must be very happy right now.

Indeed. It was a good game. All the players showed a very complete performance. Of course, we hope that such a performance will help everyone find good form. We know that during this tour, we are adapting to many situations, including players constantly returning. But yes, I think today we showed a very complete performance in a fantastic stadium with excellent turf, which helped a lot.

You changed the starting lineup and the team's formation today. How well did the players execute throughout the match?

Yes, that's just a matter of tactical system. The most important thing is the team's movement, vitality, and the principles we want to implement. We want to maintain diversity in our tactical approach. So I think it worked very well today. But we will continue to refine our philosophy, and there is no doubt that things will be good going forward.

How satisfied are you with the tactical cohesion you saw today? Not just the backline, but also the midfield, the partnership of Moisés Caicedo and Romeo Lavia, and the coordination of the entire team tonight?

Yes, I think players in all positions performed very well. The connection between them was very strong. All the movements we expected were reflected in some excellent attacks and superb passing. This is very positive, but we still need to continue improving, and witnessing this process will be very exciting.

One of the most exciting things today was seeing Romeo play the full 90 minutes. How satisfied are you with his development this summer?

Very happy for him, because he had been stagnant before—like he hit a plateau. He was indeed tired, but I told him to play, to let him play and enjoy the 90 minutes until he was exhausted. So I think he himself was really happy.

Was it always your plan to give the players more playing time today? So many people played 80, 90 minutes.

Yes, that's right, that was our idea. As we head into this final weekend, playing this game today and another tomorrow, we wanted to allow some players to play the full 90 minutes. So far, we want to have a reasonable progression in physical load. We made a plan and strictly followed it.

Given that, what impact will this have on your planning for tomorrow's game (Sunday against Johor Darul Ta'zim)? There's more travel and another game.

That's how it is. We have another plan; the idea for tomorrow was actually prepared yesterday.

Does having such a large squad with so many young players help with this? I know we discussed this before, right?

Yes, it does. The idea is to give many of the young players who traveled with us a chance to play tomorrow. Normally, if you don't have enough players, it's difficult to play two games in two days. It's quite compact, and we'll need them tomorrow.

These two weeks have indeed been very compact. How satisfied are you with the progress you've seen?

Yes, we have improved a lot and learned a lot in these two weeks—not only in football but also in human relationships, such as getting to know the players and experiencing time spent together abroad. So it's all good. Tomorrow is the last game, and then we will fly back to London.

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