Xabi Alonso has admitted that the injury to team-mate Momo Sissoko is a massive blow to the club but believes they have the personnel to deal with the loss.
“We’ll have to wait and see how long he’s out, but it doesn’t look very good,” said Alonso.
“If he’s out, it’s clear we’ll have to change something in the team. There are times when we’ve played without him before and we’ve still managed to get good results.
“But now we will have to think of a new system and I’m sure Rafa will do something.
“Stevie and I have played together in the middle a lot. Sometimes it’s worked really well and other times we’ve had some problems.
“We know we need to work together to find the balance which is important for the team.
“Stevie has massive qualities. He has an ability to get into the box and we have to make sure he’s still able to do that because that’s where he works so well.
“If the team is compact and we work as hard and show the same form we did last season, I’m sure the identity of the players in the position isn’t important. It will be harder without Momo, but we can make it work.”
