Marcos Alonso had been in some pretty dodgy form when he came into the side to replace the injured Emerson Palmieri, and given how bad our team had been defensively, people were right to have concerns about throwing the Spaniard into the mix.
Actually, the team has improved defensively, in part thanks to the additions of N’Golo Kante and Fikayo Tomori to the starting XI. But Alonso’s form has been good too, and against Southampton on Saturday he picked up a nice assist too.
He had 81 touches in that game, as many as Jorginho and just a couple off being the most on the team, as recorded by WhoScored here.
Emerson was picking up similar numbers earlier in the season before he go injured, and it just goes to show how influential the full backs can be in Frank Lampard’s setup. His willingness to use wing backs also creates notable opportunities.
