The Conte Thread

[LDN Blue 7,903]

Just now, communicate said:

Cahill lack of pace is a major problem imo

Yeah and Alonso isn't blessed with much either. This is an apt time to start blooding Zouma on that side, he's quick enough to be able to get out to those wide areas before the problem develops. Cahill and Alonso painfully exposed today.

[communicate 2,703]

Just now, LDN Blue said:

Yeah and Alonso isn't blessed with much either. This is an apt time to start blooding Zouma on that side, he's quick enough to be able to get out to those wide areas before the problem develops. Cahill and Alonso painfully exposed today.

He probably need more gametime and today's game is definitely not the right time

[LDN Blue 7,903]

Just now, communicate said:

He probably need more gametime and today's game is definitely not the right time

Yeah of course, for the short term that will hold. But once teams start to focus on that weakness of our team, Conte's hand will be forced.

[MefiX19 1,092]

Just now, communicate said:

He probably need more gametime and today's game is definitely not the right time

next 5 games are easy, we neee to start resting some players and give chance to zouma

[communicate 2,703]

Just now, MefiX19 said:

next 5 games are easy, we neee to start resting some players and give chance to zouma

We need to slowly integrate him into the team,  I honestly don't remember how he is on the ball. I just remember Zouma to be a really quick and strong cb

[LDN Blue 7,903]

3 minutes ago, communicate said:

I honestly don't remember how he is on the ball.

Not good is how I remeber lol. Often looked uncomfortable with ball at feet and under pressure too, so yes there's a need for him to now show maturity on the ball - Working with Luiz, Azpi and Conte would help. 

But yeah, he'll need a run of games for sure before he can be considered to be a starter.

[Tautvix 1,321]

5 minutes ago, MefiX19 said:

next 5 games are easy, we neee to start resting some players and give chance to zouma

That's the worst thing we can do now - to think that middle or bottom table teams will be easy to beat. Normally we have to win these games of course but every game is difficult, especially away from home. Stay humble now, celebrate later!

[nofacej 132]

1 hour ago, Tautvix said:

That's the worst thing we can do now - to think that middle or bottom table teams will be easy to beat. Normally we have to win these games of course but every game is difficult, especially away from home. Stay humble now, celebrate later!

So much this.

Winning a league is a case of going even with the other title contenders in the head to heads, and picking up more points against the weaker sides.

Beating your direct rivals makes it easier, but consistency against the also rans is what will win the league.

[MrExcalibur100 7,124]

2 hours ago, LDN Blue said:

He does need to address these wide areas, we seem to be exposed in. Alonso properly caught out today, teams are going to have watched this and Tottenham and seen we can be scored against. We're lucky because we have enough attacking power to outscore the likes of Spurs and Citeh, but areas need to be reinforced.

There's no team in the premier league with the quality City has. You can't speak about Alonso without speaking about the absence of Matic and how that affected the additional covering on the left side.

When you have Navas, Silva, Sane, De Bruyne and Aguero all running at you in various stages of the game, sometimes in 2 v 1, no defender can sustain that on his own. 

[MrExcalibur100 7,124]

2 hours ago, Pseudo said:

He was outcoached today in my opinion. But I love the spirit he has instilled in the squad.

I'm amazed this is actually an opinion here. City superficially looked dangerous but this has to do with them having better attackers than us in general and the absence of Matic. With any other coach in the world, we would have lost this game. 

He outcoached Guardiola in that 2nd half and City only really ran us ragged in the last 10 mins of the 1st half. I don't see how you can say he was "outcoached". He pawned Guardiola. If you think you're going to go away to City with the players that they've got and not expect to get dominated, you're deluded.

 

[LDN Blue 7,903]

3 minutes ago, MrExcalibur100 said:

There's no team in the premier league with the quality City has. You can't speak about Alonso without speaking about the absence of Matic and how that affected the additional covering on the left side.

But it wasn't anything to do with Matic's absence. My point was to highlight the lack of pace between both Cahill and Alonso will be an issue once more teams begin to figure out that we are more exposed than anywhere else. It's nothing to do with City's quality because even Tottenham did well to exploit that but they couldn't exploit it effectively. 

5 minutes ago, MrExcalibur100 said:

no defender can sustain that on his own. 

The point again being, they shouldn't have to. My suggestion is one of simply, if Zouma is blooded into this team in place of Cahill then he can get to those wide players quicker and further away from our own goal than Alonso/Cahill inviting pressure, 

[Leif 6,006]

Our own issue is, we do not have the depth & quality of other teams. We can't rest Costa, Hazard, Azpi, Courtois, Kante, even Pedro, and that is not good. They will tire, and their potential replacements haven't even completed 90 minutes this season. It'll still be a borderline miracle if we win the league. 

[MrExcalibur100 7,124]

I think the fact that we stuck to our principles, pressing them high up the pitch in spurts throughout the game and more importantly, passing out from the back, even with a few mistakes (note - it goes both ways. City made a lot of mistakes trying to pass out from the back as well, even though Pep is supposed to be the master of that art). 

Answer me this. How many times under Jose did we ever play away from home and pass out from the back with almost all our goalkicks? How many times did we ever have our fullbacks/wingbacks so high up the pitch? How many times did we have 5 shots on target? Or score 3 goals? 

Jose would have gone 6-3-1 in this game. Hazard fullback for 90 mins. Costa feeding off scraps. I'm actually disappointed by the (admittedly very very few) posters here still having a moan about Conte needs to do this and that.

8 wins in a row, including wins against Utd, City, Spurs, Everton and Southampton. We obviously need upgrades in defense in the next transfer window(s), but can you imagine how good we'll be if we're already this formidable with this backline?

[MrExcalibur100 7,124]

4 minutes ago, LDN Blue said:

But it wasn't anything to do with Matic's absence. My point was to highlight the lack of pace between both Cahill and Alonso will be an issue once more teams begin to figure out that we are more exposed than anywhere else. It's nothing to do with City's quality because even Tottenham did well to exploit that but they couldn't exploit it effectively. 

The point again being, they shouldn't have to. My suggestion is one of simply, if Zouma is blooded into this team in place of Cahill then he can get to those wide players quicker and further away from our own goal than Alonso/Cahill inviting pressure, 

Zouma won't do shit in this lineup. Stop overrating him. Also, how can you single out Alonso and not think the discussion with Matic has to be accounted for? Alonso was left stranded on many occassions. On his own. No one is saying he's Cafu but this obsession of inferring he's this mediocre player is stupid. In case you haven't noticed, we've conceded 2 goals and won 8 matches in a row with Alonso as LB. The defending player is always at a disadvantage when isolated with an attacking player. Azpi being so amazing in 1 v 1's spoilt a lot of you.  Get a grip.

[Blue-in-me-Veins 4,067]

2 hours ago, The Chels said:

It's normal to be outplayed against a Guardiola team at home. In some ways it reminded me of the Bayern-Atletico game in last year's CL SF.

Sure we were lucky not to go 2-0 down (although we could ourselves have taken the lead through Hazard...) and there's a lot of work still to be done, but we exploited their defensive weaknesses with ruthless efficiency. 

That's how you win these games.

I was thinking of the exact same match too. Because after KDB missed those 2 chances and Aguero fumbled on top of the box when he was all free, City then went balls to the wall throwing the kitchen sink trying to score that winner, much like that 2nd half vs Atleti at home. 

And much like how Atleti countered with the Griezzy goal, we did the same with our Willian goal. 

For some reason, City took upon this mentality that they simply "had to score"/ going for the jugular when in reality, if they regathered themselves and played more methodical, they most likely would have won the game. 

However, it must be stated, that Pep Guardiola has a habit of turning big-games into these frenetic end-to-end, helter-skelter matches, but his sides end up on the winning end of said matches because he posses the better finishers on the field. 

You know what else this match mirrored? City vs Barcelona at the Etihad 4 weeks ago.

[LDN Blue 7,903]

27 minutes ago, MrExcalibur100 said:

of inferring he's this mediocre player is stupid.

Lol I don't suggest that at all. He's more than a competent player and has allowed us to play this formation because he's a capable defender and I give him credit for that. However the two things he lacks is a) finishing (which is irrelevant because he's not really there to finish) and b] he's not very quick. I find that a problem because when he's a wingback it's expected he can get back as quick as he can go forward lol. Moses does it very well. But also Moses has Azpilicueta on his wing, they're both quick. 

It's not much of a problem because again, we're outscoring teams. But it's an area we're weak, on the right we're more than okay (it's quite refreshing to longer have to worry about Ivanovic)

[manpe 10,855]

2 hours ago, Pseudo said:

He was outcoached today in my opinion. But I love the spirit he has instilled in the squad.

The scoreline disagrees with you.

29 minutes ago, MrExcalibur100 said:

Zouma won't do shit in this lineup. Stop overrating him. Also, how can you single out Alonso and not think the discussion with Matic has to be accounted for? Alonso was left stranded on many occassions. On his own. No one is saying he's Cafu but this obsession of inferring he's this mediocre player is stupid. In case you haven't noticed, we've conceded 2 goals and won 8 matches in a row with Alonso as LB. The defending player is always at a disadvantage when isolated with an attacking player. Azpi being so amazing in 1 v 1's spoilt a lot of you.  Get a grip.

Exactly. Alonso did well enough considering he rarely had any cover and notched an assist in the process. He isn't perfect, but he's absolutely been irreplacable so far.

[LDN Blue 7,903]

35 minutes ago, Leif said:

They will tire, and their potential replacements haven't even completed 90 minutes this season.

Yeah but at the same time they only have 38 games to play lol. Whatever is also of the FA Cup games plus international break also but that's about it. Injuries would be a problem, yes, but I wouldn't expect fatigue to be an issue.