Rogers' versatility offers Alonso tactical solution for Chelsea partnership with Palmer

Morgan Rogers arrived at Chelsea with one thing on his mind: playing alongside Cole Palmer. The two had been texting, calling, dreaming about it for months. When Rogers signed from Aston Villa for £117 million as an attacking midfielder, Palmer was waiting. "He's been non-stop ringing my phone," Rogers said. "That's probably the most special thing, playing with one of your best friends."

But wanting to play together and actually being able to do it are different things. Both men occupy similar attacking territory—playmakers, ball-strikers, players who thrive in the space between the lines. The question facing new Chelsea manager Xabi Alonso was whether his system could hold them both without one canceling out the other.

At Aston Villa, Rogers had thrived in a very different kind of football. Unai Emery built his team on defensive discipline and quick transitions, often defending in a 4-4-2 before exploding into space on the counter. Rogers played left-sided, narrowing inward and using his right foot to curl shots toward the far post or drag them inside at the last moment. He was a winger who could also press like a forward, a forward who could also drift wide. His athleticism and ball-striking ability made him dangerous in transition, where space opened up naturally. He didn't need the ball constantly; he thrived when it arrived suddenly in dangerous areas.

Alonso's Chelsea operates on opposite principles. The Spaniard wants to dominate possession, build attacks methodically in the opponent's half, control the game through short passing and positioning. This is a system built on having the ball, not waiting for it. Yet modern football has shifted beneath these principles. Teams now press man-to-man high up the pitch, matching opponents one-on-one rather than defending shape. Against this pressure, possession-based teams have learned to adapt—to play longer passes, to skip the build-up, to find players capable of receiving direct balls and beating their marker in isolation. Alonso learned this lesson painfully when his Leverkusen side lost the 2024 Europa League final to Atalanta, a team that pressed relentlessly across the entire pitch. "We probably tried to play too many passes in the first phase," he reflected afterward, "when we should have tried to attract the first player and then go long a bit more."

Rogers, it turns out, is exactly the kind of player who solves this problem. He combines impressive ball-striking with standout athleticism and the ability to beat defenders one-on-one. He can receive a direct pass in a congested area and create space through sheer physical presence and technical quality. He is, in other words, valuable precisely because modern defenses have become more aggressive.

Alonso's preferred shape in possession is a 3-2-2-3 formation—three defenders, two holding midfielders, two attacking midfielders, and a striker. This is where Rogers and Palmer can coexist. Rogers would occupy the left number 10 position, Palmer the right. Both would operate in the half-spaces, the areas between the wing and the center, where they can combine with each other and with the striker. Rogers' ability to make runs in behind defenders would give Palmer someone to play off; Palmer's positioning on the right would create space for Rogers to operate on the left. Their combination play—short passes, one-touch football, movement off the ball—becomes a weapon against structured defenses.

To get them into these positions, Alonso has options. He can start with a back five and wing-backs, positioning Rogers and Palmer as the two attacking midfielders from the start. Or he can begin with a back four, with one of them starting as a number 10 and the other inverting from the wing, with a full-back pushing up to provide width. Either way, the shape in possession becomes the same: two playmakers in the middle, operating in tandem, with width provided from elsewhere.

Rogers and Palmer won the FA Youth Cup together at Manchester City in 2020. Whether that chemistry will translate to the Premier League under Alonso remains to be seen. What is certain is that Rogers' versatility—his ability to play across multiple attacking positions, his capacity to thrive against man-marking, his combination of athleticism and technical skill—aligns with what Alonso needs. He is not a solution to every problem, but he is a solution to the specific problems that modern football has created.