There are starting to be doubts about this Chelsea team’s progress under Xabi Alonso after the Blues lost to Sunderland on Sunday.

Journalists who cover Chelsea have been speaking about the team’s current struggles on the Chelsea Press Room podcast.

There’s been a lot of hope around the Xabi Alonso era, and some bright moments, but the defeat to Sunderland was a poor performance and one that has fans worried. Key players were missing, but the efforts form those out there wasn’t good enough.

Chelsea lack attacking identity

“Where Sunderland have that identity, and you can pick out what they want from a game and what they need from a game and the plan, you look at Chelsea and you can’t find anything,” Sun journalist Jack Rosser said on the podcast.

“Even if you’ve got injuries, if you’ve got an identity you’ve got something to fall back on when it’s hard… so many times they looked really confused with what they were trying to do on the pitch, on the ball, how they were trying to break Sunderland down.”

There’s no denying it – this team looked weak in defence but more importantly looks without any attacking shape while Joao Pedro is out. Given how much time Alonso has to prepare these players, it’s not good enough, and improvements to the team’s identity need to start.

In other news…

Kendry Paez has been linked with some pretty unlikely loan moves to two destinations where we can’t imagine him getting a game.

Paul Merson was very disappointed with one of Xabi Alonso’s lineup decisions for Sunday’s game as the Spanish coach went conservative.