The Conte Thread

[The Chels 2,502]

Conte says we're showing "great (defensive) solidarity". I think he must've missed the first half. He also says that "we must improve our shots from outside the box to score," because that's of course the most probable way of scoring...

Also about transfer targets: Conte wanted Bakayoko and well, here we are. The board are at fault for not buying top players, not for ignoring Conte targets.

[Special Juan 27,103]

5 minutes ago, Pizy said:

Lots and lots of Chelse fans on Twitter calling for Conte to be sacked. Don't think it's got nearly to that level yet.

I feel for him that in every press conference where he receives question after question about signings and he has to reiterate that he's only the coach and doesn't deal with transfers. He has been hamstrung by the club since arriving.

Perfect aligning of the stars to win the league last season has papered over the cracks in a big way. Just like winning it the last time under José clouded the judgement of our board into thinking we could go again with the same squad, they thought that we didn't need top quality additions to defend this last title.

Ah yeah the Twitter wankers....always the same, not looking past their own arse and following the crowd.

Conte can be pointed at for certain players being picked and the question raised as to why but lets dissect what is actually happening here. We have a forward who cannot finish, last year we had a brilliant striker who bullied the life out of everyone. Also, last season, he worked utter miracles with very average players, but what followed that? I will answer that, a transfer window of penny pinching and not getting targets because we have a board who would rather shop at Aldi and LIDL than Marks and fucking Spencers.

You can yap on about Marcos Alonso all you like and how he has done well, he's over performed and he's still bog average. Moses peaked last season, he will never have another season like that again, he is another very average player that a manager got the maximum from and we won't see it again. Bakayoko is a fucking travesty, this bloke isn't even a decent footballer, he's a car crash. Fabregas barring Hazard is our most creative player and even he is finished. Willian and Pedro are flat coke and lemonade they fizz every now and again but mostly are flat and lifeless.

All of this comes to not nailing the targets we needed last summer, the knock on effect the manger now is under the cosh....."Sack him" but they forget what the board didn't do, they didn't back him and all you have to do is now listen to Conte in his PC week in and week out, he's literally crying and on his knees because this fucking board are a joke. You can't moan or sack your manager if you haven't sone the most to back him, they have sold him short and we are seeing the fruits of this now, City cantering away with the league and us struggling to win games and break teams down.

What a fucking joke.

[MrExcalibur100 7,124]

(1) Hazard off after 60 mins. Rightly or wrongly, even Mourinho knew to never sub him off. 

(2) No more 3-4-3 despite this system bringing us so much sucess last season. Conte seems more concerned in shoehorning Bakayoko into the team!

(3) Pedro underutilized despite having a fantastic last season. He offers us something different with his longrange shooting, ability to make runs in behind and is a goal threat (unlike Fab/Willian)

(4) Bakayoko keeps on playing Bakayoko+Kante (or Kante+Drinkwater) and 5 defenders behind them. This is insanely negative. Think of it this way. When Leicester won the league with basically counter-attacking football, they played Kante + Drinkwater in a midfield 2 in a 4-4-2. Conte's set up is even more negative than Leicesters.

(5) What is Conte afraid of? Play 7 defensive minded players at home to Leicester and complain about attacking play lol.. What attacking play can you produce with Rudiger, Cahill, Azpilicueta, Moses, Alonso, Kante and Bakayoko? Teams who play attacking football and open up the opposition with their movement and fluidity don't play 7 defensive minded players. Sorry.

[MrExcalibur100 7,124]

(6) 3-5-2 is isolating Hazard. This is blatantly obvious. Initially Hazard got some joy in this 3-5-2 (away from home) where he was offered more space on the counter. Initially I wanted to only see a 3-5-2 away from home or in big games but right now I don't want to see it anymore. It just doesn't get the best out of our players and limits us too much in attack. Conte is taking it one step further and playing it as our main formation now. Our best performances have come with a 3-4-3. Especially at home. Teams are just packing the midfield now and Hazard has nowhere to go. Then he subs Hazard off like it's entirely his fault. Strange.

(7) And no one to play with since Fabregas can't dribble past players and use his pace to make runs behind and stretch a defense like a Pedro Can. Everything Fab does is infront of the opponents midfield and defense. 

(8) Conte gets paid millions of pounds to figure this things out. But he's being stubborn, doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results is the definiton of insanity. I'm not saying he's insane but he needs to show more creativity in his coaching. Right now he's looking like the negative manager Mourinho branded him last season.

 

I'm back on my long post shit again lol. Had to break this one up. But that's how frustrated I am with what I'm seeing. 

[Pizy 17,860]

You can be 100% sure that Conte hands the club a list with targets he wants in the transfer windows and they sure as hell aren't the players we end up with. Even ones who have worked out well have clearly not been his top choices. The club just goes "Nope. Here's someone who plays the position of the target you wanted but is much cheaper." Yeah, much cheaper and not close to as good.

 

[Mufassir08 2,400]

3 minutes ago, Pizy said:

You can be 100% sure that Conte hands the club a list with targets he wants in the transfer windows and they sure as hell aren't the players we end up with. Even ones who have worked out well have clearly not been his top choices. The club just goes "Nope. Here's someone who plays the position of the target you wanted but is much cheaper." Yeah, much cheaper and not close to as good.

 

The problem is that the so called cheaper players we sign aren't really that cheap. To put things into perspective, Zappa cost us 23m while Barca signed Nelson Semedo for 26m! Ricardo Perreira also had a similar release clause in his contract. We signed Baka and Drinkwater for 40m and 35m respectively while the likes of Tolisso (42m), Seri (35m), Goretzka, Torreira, Ceballos (12m), Dahoud (10m) could have been had for much less than what we paid for Baka with only Tolisso costing more.

[Laylabelle 9,296]

16 minutes ago, Pizy said:

You can be 100% sure that Conte hands the club a list with targets he wants in the transfer windows and they sure as hell aren't the players we end up with. Even ones who have worked out well have clearly not been his top choices. The club just goes "Nope. Here's someone who plays the position of the target you wanted but is much cheaper." Yeah, much cheaper and not close to as good.

 

Here's who you want... Here's who your getting lol surprise!!! 

[Pizy 17,860]

5 minutes ago, Mufassir08 said:

The problem is that the so called cheaper players we sign aren't really that cheap. To put things into perspective, Zappa cost us 23m while Barca signed Nelson Semedo for 26m! Ricardo Perreira also had a similar release clause in his contract. We signed Baka and Drinkwater for 40m and 35m respectively while the likes of Tolisso (42m), Seri (35m), Goretzka, Torreira, Ceballos (12m), Dahoud (10m) could have been had for much less than what we paid for Baka with only Tolisso costing more.

Very true. No one can tell me he wanted Zappacosta as his top choice. Or Drinkwater. Or Barkley. Or Batshuayi.

Like I mentioned, even players who have been solid like Alonso and Rüdiger weren't his first choices. Alonso was a last minute panic buy after we couldn't get whoever else we were after that summer. Rüdiger was who we settled for when we couldn't get Bonucci, Koulibaly, etc. Zappacosta was a last minute panic buy who was probably our 6th choice fullback. Drinkwater the same. Barkley was the clearest club purchase yet. Our shiny new #9 wasn't even Conte's top choice, FFS!

I mean come on, at least give him the #1 choice every once in a while! Mourinho and Pep have gotten just about every single player they've asked for since they've arrived in Manchester. United would've gotten Griezmann for sure had Atleti not been given that transfer ban. Conte isn't given that luxury.

[xPetrCechx 13,546]

I can't forget the round of "victory" made by Avram Grant at Stamford Bridge after finishing the last game of the season in which he "trained" Chelsea (07/08). He of course led the team to ... nothing, but the fans, many of whom are sheeps with little understanding of football, applauded him and called his name. In contrast, Roman Abramovich had already understood that this was a fraud, that he had been stung by an opportunist, and therefore informed Grant of his dismissal immediately after the season.
Since Avram left, there have been all kinds of impostors like Scolari, AVB, Benitez, but we got rid of them before they managed to destroy every good part.

This time, however, I am concerned. Because Chelsea's "coach" today - the one that comes up against small teams with two attacking players and when its doens't work, he replaces them instead of strengthening them - is the perfect deceiver. . A person who claims to be a coach, even though he has zero connection to this profession. In contrast to Grant - a fat Israeli, without a game career behind him and achievements in the coaching world - Conte is Italian. His hair transplant succeeded beyond expectations, he celebrates the goal that Chelsea scores once a month together with the fans in a kind of happy party, he was a good player, and apparently also achieved some things in Italy as a coach, although he had no serious competitor in the league - just like a year ago in England. He's even nice and smiling at the press conferences. You can't not to love him.

Actually you can, if you simply ignores the distractions and examines him by results, the team's ability on the field and players he bought. If he had been judged only by those criterions,. every could see how bad he is. chelsea is scoring like a weak mid-table team. If the fans had judged the product in front of them, they would have seen that the players have no desire, the players that Conte bought-the dreadful Bakayoko, instead of Matic and even more dreadful Morata instead of Costa- are a shocking incomes...  

The journalists pointed out that only an injury causes conte to make a substitution before the 65th minute (regardless of the game situation) and that almost all the players are not fit and the person who is responsible for their fitness comes out clean again and again. And above all, Roman Abramovich would have realized that for 10 million pounds per year (conte's Salary),  and 70 million pounds for Morata, he deserve far more than he gets.
The question is whether he will wake up in time, understand that he is being tricked, and send home the impostor  - or he will understand it only when Chelsea will finish out off the Top 4 and will not play in the Champions League next season.

[Mufassir08 2,400]

3 minutes ago, Pizy said:

Very true. No one can tell me he wanted Zappacosta as his top choice. Or Drinkwater. Or Barkley. Or Batshuayi.

Like I mentioned, even players who have been solid like Alonso and Rüdiger weren't his first choices. Alonso was a last minute panic buy after we couldn't get whoever else we were after that summer. Rüdiger was who we settled for when we couldn't get Bonucci, Koulibaly, etc. Zappacosta was a last minute panic buy who was probably our 6th choice fullback. Drinkwater the same. Barkley was the clearest club purchase yet. Our shiny new #9 wasn't even Conte's top choice, FFS!

I mean come on, at least give him the #1 choice every once in a while! Mourinho and Pep have gotten just about every single player they've asked for since they've arrived in Manchester. United would've gotten Griezmann for sure had Atleti not been given that transfer ban. Conte isn't given that luxury.

Our transfer and scouting strategy must change drastically. The past three summers have set us back considerably. Literally the only transfer which dignifies our horrible transfer activity is of Kante. God knows how we managed to land him given our subpar transfer dealings. 

[xPetrCechx 13,546]

Morata For Costa

Baka For Matic

Loss in the pocket and loss on the field. Brilliant.

[Jase 43,479]

1 hour ago, MrExcalibur100 said:

(1) Hazard off after 60 mins. Rightly or wrongly, even Mourinho knew to never sub him off.

Can you blame him for taking off someone who was playing poorly, even if that someone is our best player? Let's not pretend as if Mourinho didn't make some mind boggling decisions with Hazard. He, once, benched Hazard against Aston Villa (ASTON FREAKING VILLA!!!) at HOME because he wanted balance in the team.

1 hour ago, MrExcalibur100 said:

(2) No more 3-4-3 despite this system bringing us so much sucess last season. Conte seems more concerned in shoehorning Bakayoko into the team!

3-4-3 and 3-5-2 produce its own dilemmas really. Play 3-4-3 and we risk getting overrun in midfield and who is best to partner Kante? Neither Drinkwater nor Bakayoko offers anything of note and dare I say Fabregas even offers nothing these days, not even offensively anymore. Play 3-5-2 and we're able to at least try and control the midfield and put Hazard in probably his best position to do damage. But we become far too predictable if the entire XI isn't on it, especially if the midfield doesn't take control and Alonso/Moses do zilch out wide.

1 hour ago, MrExcalibur100 said:

What is Conte afraid of? Play 7 defensive minded players at home to Leicester and complain about attacking play lol.. What attacking play can you produce with Rudiger, Cahill, Azpilicueta, Moses, Alonso, Kante and Bakayoko? Teams who play attacking football and open up the opposition with their movement and fluidity don't play 7 defensive minded players. Sorry.

I see where you're coming from but I don't know why people keep on saying 7 defensive players. Can we really term Alonso and Moses as defensive players when they are key part of our attacks as well? They aren't just in the XI to defend but also provide key offensive contribution.

[manpe 10,855]

1 hour ago, xPetrCechx said:

I can't forget the round of "victory" made by Avram Grant at Stamford Bridge after finishing the last game of the season in which he "trained" Chelsea (07/08). He of course led the team to ... nothing, but the fans, many of whom are sheeps with little understanding of football, applauded him and called his name. In contrast, Roman Abramovich had already understood that this was a fraud, that he had been stung by an opportunist, and therefore informed Grant of his dismissal immediately after the season.
Since Avram left, there have been all kinds of impostors like Scolari, AVB, Benitez, but we got rid of them before they managed to destroy every good part.

This time, however, I am concerned. Because Chelsea's "coach" today - the one that comes up against small teams with two attacking players and when its doens't work, he replaces them instead of strengthening them - is the perfect deceiver. . A person who claims to be a coach, even though he has zero connection to this profession. In contrast to Grant - a fat Israeli, without a game career behind him and achievements in the coaching world - Conte is Italian. His hair transplant succeeded beyond expectations, he celebrates the goal that Chelsea scores once a month together with the fans in a kind of happy party, he was a good player, and apparently also achieved some things in Italy as a coach, although he had no serious competitor in the league - just like a year ago in England. He's even nice and smiling at the press conferences. You can't not to love him.

Actually you can, if you simply ignores the distractions and examines him by results, the team's ability on the field and players he bought. If he had been judged only by those criterions,. every could see how bad he is. chelsea is scoring like a weak mid-table team. If the fans had judged the product in front of them, they would have seen that the players have no desire, the players that Conte bought-the dreadful Bakayoko, instead of Matic and even more dreadful Morata instead of Costa- are a shocking incomes...  

The journalists pointed out that only an injury causes conte to make a substitution before the 65th minute (regardless of the game situation) and that almost all the players are not fit and the person who is responsible for their fitness comes out clean again and again. And above all, Roman Abramovich would have realized that for 10 million pounds per year (conte's Salary),  and 70 million pounds for Morata, he deserve far more than he gets.
The question is whether he will wake up in time, understand that he is being tricked, and send home the impostor  - or he will understand it only when Chelsea will finish out off the Top 4 and will not play in the Champions League next season.

Wow man, you talk so much crap. The fact you had to bring up his hair transplant to make some kind of point (what was the point anyway?) renders your post crap.

[Special Juan 27,103]

I think it was a copy and paste job from Petr.

[Belgiannutt 3,201]

24 minutes ago, Jason said:

Can you blame him for taking off someone who was playing poorly, even if that someone is our best player? Let's not pretend as if Mourinho didn't make some mind boggling decisions with Hazard. He, once, benched Hazard against Aston Villa (ASTON FREAKING VILLA!!!) at HOME because he wanted balance in the team.

3-4-3 and 3-5-2 produce its own dilemmas really. Play 3-4-3 and we risk getting overrun in midfield and who is best to partner Kante? Neither Drinkwater nor Bakayoko offers anything of note and dare I say Fabregas even offers nothing these days, not even offensively anymore. Play 3-5-2 and we're able to at least try and control the midfield and put Hazard in probably his best position to do damage. But we become far too predictable if the entire XI isn't on it, especially if the midfield doesn't take control and Alonso/Moses do zilch out wide.

I see where you're coming from but I don't know why people keep on saying 7 defensive players. Can we really term Alonso and Moses as defensive players when they are key part of our attacks as well? They aren't just in the XI to defend but also provide key offensive contribution.

Hazard and Fabregas were playing poor but they really are our only 2 creative sources in the squad. Considering it was 0-0 i thought it was silly to sub both of them out. They're both capable of creating chances out of nothing. Atleast 1 if not both should have stayed on in my opinion.

Anything less then a win against Leicester at home was unacceptable.  

 

Alonso and Moses don't really offer much going forward. Besides that there's also the fact that most opponents pin our wingbacks back. So by the time they get up the pitch it's already too late.

And our midfielders either dont have the quality to be efficient in the final third (Bakayoko, Drinkwater, Kante) or lack the legs to make the proper runs (Fabregas). 

In order for the 3-5-2 to work it really needs more versatile midfielders and better wingbacks going forward.

[lucio 5,394]

he needs to be more proactive with bringing in new players too, (I know barkley has been injured, but still) , Valencia have put coquelin straight into their starting XI tonight, and they signed him 2 days ago. He spent an age introducing Morata, drinkwater, - takes too long bringing people back from injury too imo - could have played luiz today if fatigue was such a big issue - at cb or cdm

[Polo7 3,496]

Has been pretty much begging the board for signings since the summer. Hasnt got any of his targets. Yet will always get the blame.

[iceboy 992]