The Conte Thread

[Leif 6,006]

We literally have the best manager in the world. He'd win the league given any of the teams from the top 6 this season, but would Mourinho, Guardiola, Allegri, Zidane, Sampaoli, Klopp, Simeone do the same? No. Because where they're good at tactics, they fall short in man management. And vice versa. Conte doesn't lack in any area; if this were a game, he'd be maxing out the whole stat-tube with neon green. 

Having the best manager in the world, and him being so humble that he probably doesn't even realise it yet, is cute.

[Pizy 17,860]

Now that he's proving himself more and more to Roman and the board, imagine what we'd be like with a couple of his hand picked signings in January. Maybe they'll think that we have a real chance to keep up this momentum and will back him in the market.

 

[The Chels 2,502]

1 hour ago, Leif said:

We literally have the best manager in the world. He'd win the league given any of the teams from the top 6 this season, but would Mourinho, Guardiola, Allegri, Zidane, Sampaoli, Klopp, Simeone do the same? No. Because where they're good at tactics, they fall short in man management. And vice versa. Conte doesn't lack in any area; if this were a game, he'd be maxing out the whole stat-tube with neon green. 

Having the best manager in the world, and him being so humble that he probably doesn't even realise it yet, is cute.

I read earlier that he's now won 41 of his last 47 league games. Pretty insane, that.

He needs to kick on a bit more in the cup competitions to earn the 'Best in the World' title though, in my opinion.

Right now the priority is to just maintain our league standing but it can't harm to hope we have a decent FA Cup run. And I have confidence from Conte's showing in the Euros that he can do better in the CL (next year, hopefully) than he did at Juve.

[Captain Ahmed 528]

Lose

[kellzfresh 7,226]

I'm sure Conte must be working out a solution but we have lost some steam in our gameplay and these are the major reasons that point to why.

1. Hazard has stopped dribbling as well into the box and has stopped taking as much shots as he used to do before the international break. When we were scoring goals he was taking an average of 4.5 shots per game and he was always dribbling into the box which meant people couldn't tackle him or risk penalties. He has also stopped switching wings to cause overloads on the right like he used to do which confused a lot of defenders. 

2. Our one touch passing has evaporated. Before the formation switch, I complained bitterly on how Matic was hugging the ball like willian and slowing down our play but immediately we went 3-4-3,  booom!!! Our passing was swift Matic no longer had more than 2 touches of the ball before passing to hazard, Alonso or switching long to Moses. But now the whole team don't play quick passes anymore except on the counter and it's letting defenders settle. 

3. Tiredness has set in and Moses has lost form. The whole team is looking a bit tired but we used to have a dribbler on the right wing in Moses causing havoc and stretching play, leaving more space for Pedro to make runs behind unnoticed. When Hazard is the only dribbler that is successful in going past players in the starting 11, it is a problem. When we first changed formation, Moses was winning man of the match awards consistently and was a thorn in the opponents flesh. 

4. We're not pressing as a team as we used to do. So we can't maintain any momentum for long and our next attack comes after a long period with opponents keeping us deep with possession. Against Everton, and the first half against manutd was some of the best relentless pressing I've ever seen from Chelsea and we need to get back to that.

5. Teams are now changing their tactics before Chelsea games. This is a problem tactically for any manager, including Conte. You can study your next opponent, watch tapes of their matches for hours and target their weakness and suddenly they have changed their formation to 6-3-1 on the day your facing them.(annoying westbrom) This is where our former strengths of Hazard overloading the right wing with Pedro, and Moses dribbling, combined with one touch passing football should have given us the edge but they are no longer happening often and is letting us get pinned back in matches. 

To counter teams changing their tactics, I think we should respond and play a 3-5-2 for some matches with fabregas coming in for Willian or Pedro. We get solid in midfield and add passing penetration from fabregas which will make us less predictable for opponents to plan for us.

[Belgiannutt 3,201]

24 minutes ago, kellzfresh said:

I'm sure Conte must be working out a solution but we have lost some steam in our gameplay and these are the major reasons that point to why.

1. Hazard has stopped dribbling as well into the box and has stopped taking as much shots as he used to do before the international break. When we were scoring goals he was taking an average of 4.5 shots per game and he was always dribbling into the box which meant people couldn't tackle him or risk penalties. He has also stopped switching wings to cause overloads on the right like he used to do which confused a lot of defenders. 

2. Our one touch passing has evaporated. Before the formation switch, I complained bitterly on how Matic was hugging the ball like willian and slowing down our play but immediately we went 3-4-3,  booom!!! Our passing was swift Matic no longer had more than 2 touches of the ball before passing to hazard, Alonso or switching long to Moses. But now the whole team don't play quick passes anymore except on the counter and it's letting defenders settle. 

3. Tiredness has set in and Moses has lost form. The whole team is looking a bit tired but we used to have a dribbler on the right wing in Moses causing havoc and stretching play, leaving more space for Pedro to make runs behind unnoticed. When Hazard is the only dribbler that is successful in going past players in the starting 11, it is a problem. When we first changed formation, Moses was winning man of the match awards consistently and was a thorn in the opponents flesh. 

4. We're not pressing as a team as we used to do. So we can't maintain any momentum for long and our next attack comes after a long period with opponents keeping us deep with possession. Against Everton, and the first half against manutd was some of the best relentless pressing I've ever seen from Chelsea and we need to get back to that.

5. Teams are now changing their tactics before Chelsea games. This is a problem tactically for any manager, including Conte. You can study your next opponent, watch tapes of their matches for hours and target their weakness and suddenly they have changed their formation to 6-3-1 on the day your facing them.(annoying westbrom) This is where our former strengths of Hazard overloading the right wing with Pedro, and Moses dribbling, combined with one touch passing football should have given us the edge but they are no longer happening often and is letting us get pinned back in matches. 

To counter teams changing their tactics, I think we should respond and play a 3-5-2 for some matches with fabregas coming in for Willian or Pedro. We get solid in midfield and add passing penetration from fabregas which will make us less predictable for opponents to plan for us.

Think a lot of what you said is simply a consequence of teams sitting deep against us now. 

1. It's a lot more difficult to dribble in the box when there's 10 players behind the ball. I disagree though that he's stopped trying to dribble into the box. He was cynically fouled twice against Palace otherwise he would have gotten into the box in a good scoring position.

2. Again i think that's just about the numbers teams have put behind the ball.(and the lack of quality on the ball from our back 3 and 2 holding midfielders.) The more players the less space you have to put the ball through.

Same with switching play to the wingbacks. There's less space out wide then before so switching play is more difficult as the ball needs to be more accurate to make it.

I think that's why our players are taking more touches they feel the pass is to difficult too pull off so they're looking for easy passes.

3. Yeah, i agree Moses is definitely feeling tired. We really need some squad depth in the wingback positions.

4. Disagree we are still pressing it's just that the likes of West Bromwich, Sunderland and Palace don't really care. They're more then happy to kick it long so out pressing is simply less effective against teams that play the long ball.

Don't think changing formations is really gonna help. It's the personnel that's the issue. In a 3-5-2 we're still playing with the same back three, Kante and Matic. 

Personally i'd just stick Fabregas in for Matic and play the same 3-4-3. 

 

[the wes 7,212]

http://metro.co.uk/2016/12/18/antonio-conte-aims-sly-dig-at-jose-mourinho-by-claiming-chelsea-stars-are-mentally-stronger-under-him-6330550/

Conte hada dig at mourinho 

[the wes 7,212]

19 hours ago, iceboy said:

 

Conte has a strange laugh lol

[kellzfresh 7,226]

57 minutes ago, Belgiannutt said:

Think a lot of what you said is simply a consequence of teams sitting deep against us now. 

1. It's a lot more difficult to dribble in the box when there's 10 players behind the ball. I disagree though that he's stopped trying to dribble into the box. He was cynically fouled twice against Palace otherwise he would have gotten into the box in a good scoring position.

2. Again i think that's just about the numbers teams have put behind the ball.(and the lack of quality on the ball from our back 3 and 2 holding midfielders.) The more players the less space you have to put the ball through.

Same with switching play to the wingbacks. There's less space out wide then before so switching play is more difficult as the ball needs to be more accurate to make it.

I think that's why our players are taking more touches they feel the pass is to difficult too pull off so they're looking for easy passes.

3. Yeah, i agree Moses is definitely feeling tired. We really need some squad depth in the wingback positions.

4. Disagree we are still pressing it's just that the likes of West Bromwich, Sunderland and Palace don't really care. They're more then happy to kick it long so out pressing is simply less effective against teams that play the long ball.

Don't think changing formations is really gonna help. It's the personnel that's the issue. In a 3-5-2 we're still playing with the same back three, Kante and Matic. 

Personally i'd just stick Fabregas in for Matic and play the same 3-4-3. 

 

I know hazard has less space than before, but he at least used to go to the right wing, combine with Pedro, cause overloads on the right wing and the person on the left side will find it difficult to follow hazard all the way to the right. He doesn't switch as much as before, I noticed this since the international break and it's been the same. Without hazard on song our gameplay can never be as good because costa is our only other world-class attacker.

I agree that the quality of our players on the ball has restricted our passing quality in tighter spaces. Especially as Cahill is allowed more time on the ball than anyone else. But the wide centerbacks should step into midfield more often because it will cause overloads or add an extra body in midfield which let's Azpi have a chance to deliver assists like he did for Costa. Cahill is a dunce in passing and restricts this. We definitely need better personnel to help with this. 

I agree that teams are going long to try and bypass our pressing but still our tiredness has restricted our pressing imo. We don't maintain pressure or intensity on the opponent like before. If we keep on probing, winning the ball high up the pitch, attack again immediately . But now we get a chance and sit back for 5-10 mins before we push again. It's tiredness. 

The reason that I suggested the formation change is that teams are studying our weaknesses, either by overloading players on Alonso's wing like mancity did, or overloading players on Moses wing like tottenham did, or defending with 6-3-1 formation like westbrom, or going long like Middlesbrough. Now we need to surprise them sometimes, instead of coming out with a 3-4-3 which they expected to see, we change to a 3-5-2 which allows an extra man in midfield to cover overloads on our flanks and have fabregas quickly release costa and hazard. I agree that the personnel is a problem too but unless we're buying quality (Verratti, kurzawa, mendy, dybala) in this window to improve our players to play the formation better, we might have to make some surprises to disrupt people's game-plan against us

[xPetrCechx 13,546]

1 hour ago, the wes said:

Conte has a strange laugh lol

 

[the wes 7,212]

3 minutes ago, xPetrCechx said:

 

Lmao 

[Parky 739]

Im just imagining what Conte could bring us if Roman gave him an open cheque book to dominate Europe.

 

 

[Fulham Broadway 16,386]

 

Another view at full time, Great footage

[iceboy 992]

 

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

The football gods have smiled upon us. 

 

[bluephoenix 1,125]

20 hours ago, kellzfresh said:

3. Tiredness has set in and Moses has lost form. The whole team is looking a bit tired but we used to have a dribbler on the right wing in Moses causing havoc and stretching play, leaving more space for Pedro to make runs behind unnoticed. When Hazard is the only dribbler that is successful in going past players in the starting 11, it is a problem. When we first changed formation, Moses was winning man of the match awards consistently and was a thorn in the opponents flesh. 

 

Yes I also felt that Moses has lost his form/aggressiveness he had at the start of the winning streak. I can't believe with just PL to focus on our players are fatigued. This is exactly why we need squad depth.

[Melanicus 5,208]

10 hours ago, iceboy said:

 

The last man to do this was Carlo. Is it coincidence that two of the classiest and beloved managers were Italian (you can count Di Matteo too, so that makes it three).

This quote just sumps it up:

The results have been spectacular. The cliques have been dismantled, the players and staff trust each other again and, crucially, the team is more important than any individual.

[BoyBlue96 990]

Need new/more players in the January. Even though we won last 3 games, some lads are losing their form. Like some say here Moses: was never really that impressed with him and I reckon you this: he won't be in the squad next year if Conte gets his hands on a better RWB.
Also, Hazard. For 3 games done absolutely nothing. Some were crying here we won't be anywhere if he lose Hazard. Shit. You mean when we lose Diego.

Fear this might break us up.

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