Chelsea have completed the signing of Marco Palestra on a seven-year contract from Atalanta, a transfer that arrives as the first notable addition of the Xabi Alonso era at Stamford Bridge. Inter had been tracking Palestra, but Chelsea agreed terms last week and secured the 23-year-old as they reshape their squad.<\/p>\n
Palestra made clear the manager played a major role in his decision. \u201cIt was very important,\u201d Palestra told Chelsea\u2019s club channels of Alonso\u2019s significance in him joining. \u201cI feel a lot of energy from him. Also, he is one of the best managers in the world [as you can see when] he won at Bayer Leverkusen. It\u2019s important for me to have Xabi Alonso as the manager.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have had two conversations with him and I\u2019m very happy because he told me what he wanted from me. I\u2019m very happy to know him and to start training with Chelsea.\u201d<\/p>\n
Atalanta used Palestra mainly as a right wing back in a three-at-the-back system, but he can operate on the left as well. “If I have a choice, I obviously prefer the right, but I\u2019m equally comfortable on the left and have no problems,” Palestra previously told DAZN of his versatility. That adaptability is timely after Marc Cucurella\u2019s sudden departure to Real Madrid.<\/p>\n
Chelsea\u2019s tactical identity has shifted several times in recent seasons. Antonio Conte popularised a three centre-back and wing-back structure at Stamford Bridge and went on to win the Premier League after changing his approach following a 3\u20130 defeat to Arsenal. Thomas Tuchel also used that system and achieved Champions League success while working with variations of the formation. More recent managers have tended toward a four-man defence, including Enzo Maresca and Liam Rosenior.<\/p>\n
Alonso\u2019s success at Bayer Leverkusen with a 3-4-2-1 suggests a return to a three-central-defender setup could be coming to Chelsea. If that is the plan, the club is likely to recruit further defensive options and may move players on, with Trevoh Chalobah mentioned among those who could be affected as Chelsea recalibrate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Marco Palestra joins Chelsea on a seven-year deal – his versatility and Xabi Alonso attracted him ..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15988,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[190,172],"tags":[1767],"class_list":["post-15989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea","category-epl","tag-marco-palestra"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15989\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}