Marco Palestra Scout Report At Chelsea 2026/2027: Is Xabi Alonso's New Wing-Back Ready For The Premier League? – Player Analysis

Following a very positive season at Cagliari, the Italian right-back Marco Palestra has joined Chelsea on a seven-year contract after he was on the verge of moving to Inter Milan.

Palestra was an Atalanta player who got loaned out to Cagliari for the 2025/2026 season.

He began his career in the academy at GS Assago before moving to Inter Milan’s academy and subsequently to Atalanta’s.

He played for Atalanta’s youth teams until he joined the senior team, but did not receive his full chance there.

Throughout this last season, Palestra garnered attention from several teams in Italy and abroad, with Inter Milan being the club that was the most interested in acquiring his services.

However, the situation quickly changed at the end of the season as teams from the Premier League became interested in Palestra too.

Eventually, Chelsea’s offer to Atalanta and the player was deemed too attractive to refuse.

The chance he got at Cagliari and, more importantly, the playing time he benefited from there helped Palestra build experience quickly and demonstrate his abilities at a high level.

His ability to make a difference on the right wing through penetrations, overlaps, assists, and efficient playmaking makes him a highly reliable right-back with outstanding qualities.

In this Marco Palestra scout report, we examine Palestra’s traits as a right-back/right wing-back, positional versatility, playmaking, goal-contribution abilities, and what he'll offer to Xabi Alonso's Chelsea.

Who Is Marco Palestra?

First, it is important to note that Palestra was initially a central midfielder before being converted to a winger and then to a right-back.

However, this does not change the fact that Palestra has played in other positions, including as a right or left midfielder, prior to this season.

Palestra uses his physical strength and dribbling skills effectively to win a large share of the duels he enters, and his success in offensive duels is among the factors that make him a distinctive right-back who can be highly useful in the attacking phase.

Marco Palestra Heat Map & Position Map 2025/2026

In general, Palestra’s attacking numbers have been quite a bit better than his defensive statistics.

This can certainly be considered an advantage for Palestra, as right-backs with a proven and effective attacking contribution are uncommon at the highest level.

That’s why having a right-back with exceptional dribbling skills and a success rate comparable to Palestra’s is something that all teams want to have.

Palestra has a relatively high dribbling success rate despite the fact that he attempts a lot of dribbles per game and relies a lot on beating his direct opponents in duels.

Additionally, his high average of dangerous passes per match aligns well with his excellent dribbling.

This means that Palestra’s dribbling is not merely showy; it has no concrete effect on the team’s attacks.

He exploits his dribbling and acceleration extremely well to create dangerous passing possibilities for himself in advanced areas of the pitch.

This quality should be further improved and worked on at Chelsea in order to make Palestra an even more crucial right-back.

In fact, players with excellent passing, exceptional acceleration, and dribbling abilities are afforded greater freedom to advance and are instructed to be more involved in attacking play in modern football.

Xabi Alonso can exploit his attacking qualities to develop something similar to what Inter Milan’s head coaches achieved with Federico Dimarco, and like what Alonso himself has achieved with Jeremie Frimpong at Bayer Leverkusen, turning him into a clinical and pivotal attacking weapon for the team.

To reproduce something like that with Palestra, it will be important to work on the chemistry between Palestra and his teammates at Chelsea, especially in passing and movement without the ball, and to encourage Palestra to assume more attacking roles more regularly.

Additionally, goalscoring and goal contribution are areas in which Palestra can improve, given his potential.

He can increase his goal tally primarily by moving into the penalty area more often and engaging in set-pieces and crossing situations to exploit his height and excellent aerial ability.

That said, Palestra’s defensive numbers are worth improving, as his positioning and ability to win defensive duels can be significantly enhanced with time and experience.

At the same time, this season (his first active season in Serie A), he has averaged 5.17 defensive duels per match, with a 60.2% success rate.

Maintaining the same average and improving it will make Palestra much more reliable from a defensive perspective.

Nevertheless, from a defensive perspective, Palestra has performed well in aerial duels.

He wins an average of 48% aerial duels per game last season and can do even better if he focuses further on his jumping and timing of interventions, given that his height and physical strength allow him to win most of these aerial duels.

How Can Marco Palestra Fit Into Xabi Alonso Tactics At Chelsea?

With the new head coach Alonso to manage the team in this coming season, Palestra has got a golden opportunity to convince the Spanish coach and earn the desired playing time during the season.

However, his mission will not be as easy as it may sound, simply because the right-back position is already filled by the first-choice right-back, Reece James, who was recently reconfirmed as the captain of the team under the management of Alonso.

In fact, Palestra’s starting chances are low if he is going to compete against James and Malo Gusto (if Gusto stays at Chelsea this season) for the right-back role, unless the plan is to primarily use James elsewhere.

That said, we should take into consideration the fact that Alonso has long been known for preferring the 3-4-2-1 formation.

So, if Alonso prefers to use this formation at Chelsea and avoids resorting to the back-four formations, this would actually represent a very good opportunity for Palestra.

Such back-three formations would open the door for using Palestra in a more advanced position, in other words, as a right wing-back.

Palestra fits this position perfectly as he combines useful attacking input with disciplined defensive duties whenever needed, with more efficiency in the attacking phase.

Alonso would therefore be tempted to rely on Palestra as a right wing-back more often, with James potentially used as a right centre-back and Gusto alternating with either James or Palestra when needed.

The use of Palestra as a right wing-back would help Alonso’s lineup remain balanced and secure that right flank defensively.

Cole Palmer and Estêvão will most likely be relied on as wide playmakers in this type of 3-4-2-1 or 3-4-1-2 formation.

On the other hand, it is true that Palestra can play on the left flank too, but the quality and the experience of Chelsea’s players on that side is actually superior to Palestra’s potential on the left.

Potential Chelsea Lineup Under Xabi Alonso Tactics 2026/2027