Jase

Werder Bremen 2-4 Chelsea MATCH DISCUSSION, LIVE CHAT AND ANALYSIS 2016/17 Pre-Season Friendly Match 6 7th August, Sunday 2016 Weserstadion 14:00 Kick Off (UK time)

Judging by what we have seen in pre-season so far, I doubt we will be a defensive side under Conte. Being defensive and being defensively solid are two different two things and maybe Conte was referring to the latter to Baba Rahman? Skeptical about the quotes in the article TBH.

Lose again and I might just lose it completely...

To be fair, I never disregarded his ability to win trophies - be it league or cup competition. It's just that neither come as often as it used to be. He, arguably, has lost that mojo he had 5-6 years ago.

Not so sure about that anymore to be honest. Sometimes it feels like the players are just doing what he asks because they want to win things and it's great if the team is winning week in week out, season in season out. But the minute the team hits a bad period, then I think there's where you will see things unravel, like what we saw last year - we went from a unified title winning squad in 2014/15 to an absolute train-wreck of a squad in 2015/16. Others have mentioned this before - Mourinho looks like a manager who is stuck in the past and is unable to adapt and change according to how football has changed - be it in style of football, tactics, formations, managing players or other aspects - and not even after the countless of same mistakes he's made over the years. It's just like that old saying - those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Sure, Mourinho can still pull off tactical masterclass and win some trophies here and there but if you compare the last 6 years and the 6 years before that, you will notice that his trophy haul has dropped significantly, he's fallen out with more players and become more embroiled in controversies than ever before. But despite that, he still continues with the same style of management and if he doesn't see the error of his ways soon, he will highly likely get left behind and maybe even become irrelevant at the highest level in football.

Nobody interested in the game...?

It wasn't our first team but we still had a strong team out there, certainly stronger than Real Madrid. And was that team Real put out have a lot more quality than we do? I don't necessarily think so, especially when their goals came about due to rubbish defending on our part, which we should have done to prevent them.

Why would Matic said what he said a few days ago about Conte giving him a special feeling if he had wanted to leave in the first place? Sounds like BS rumours from Di Marzio.

Matt Miazga denies any loan plans as Conte confirms talks after U.S. tour

Hazard as the 2nd striker. Loftus Cheek as the striker. Conte is going all Guardiola on us. Only a matter of time before he permanently turns Mikel into a CB.

Go back to playing FM, mate!

If we had played Real Madrid's first XI, then I can turn a blind eye on this but since we didn't, then I can't really do that. And I think you're over-exaggerating it to say it was an 'uphill battle'. It might have been Real Madrid but it wasn't the usual Real Madrid side that we know.

Thought he was decent against Villa, considering it was his debut, but then again, it was Villa. Or maybe Conte is another stubborn manager?

Don't think I was being dramatic. Regardless of who will eventually be in the starting XI, we still put out a strong team with plenty of experience - Cahill, Terry, Azpi, Willian, Matic, Oscar, Pedro, Begovic. That's certainly more than Real Madrid, who only had Marcelo and Varane as the first team starters. The rest are more of a backup. Of course, I'm not saying that just because we had the stronger team out there, we should have won but the least I expected was competency and not being 3-0 down at HT to a weakened Real Madrid side, who didn't even have one from Benzema, Bale, Ronaldo, Modric, Kroos, Rodriguez. The game yesterday was our 5th in pre season - we've played Rapid Vienna, RZ Pellets, an Austrian local side and Liverpool before Real Madrid. There lies the problem isn't it? And it's not just being sloppy on the ball, it's the fact that we aren't good enough defensively to play an open/attack-minded system like the 4-2-4. Pessimistic? More like being realistic. We might have a new manager with new ideas and may have shown some promises in the friendlies so far but that still doesn't change the overall point that we have plenty of gaping holes that we still haven't addressed, especially defensively. It's like I said earlier, we won't get anywhere if we let in stupid goals like Marcelo's second or even his first.

Never mind that. How many strikers do Atletico need? Gameiro, Griezmann, Torres, Correa not enough? Adding Costa into that mix would just be overkill.

Could it be his comments got mis-translated? His English isn't perfect after all even if it's good for a non-English speaker. I don't see what's changed in 1-2 days after he said Costa will stay, especially when the only interested buyer Atletico have bought Gameiro.

I can't imagine Conte, being an Italian manager and all, would be impressed by our defending really. It's atrocious! If he has his way, he would probably replace the entire back 4 but sadly, our transfer strategy seems to be all over the place right now.

To be fair, it was only one game against Swansea. And it makes even less sense not to have seen him play more when you see the more experienced players got embarrassed week in week out last season (e.g. Ivanovic!). That sounded so wrong.

I might be the odd one out here but that's one of the main reasons, if not the main reason, why I wasn't too excited about Terry getting a new contract. Sure, his experience and leadership is invaluable to the team but apart from that, he can't really produce week in week out at the highest level anymore, not if/when we are looking to build a new approach in our playing style. But now that he's staying for another season, it looks like he'll continue playing in the first team and affect how we play particularly in defence etc.

1. Although we lost out narrowly in the end, it was still an embarrassing loss considering Real Madrid played their B/C/D team and only their second pre-season match. 2. We might have gotten new optimism from having brought in a new manager and 2 decent signings, it still can't hide the fact that we still have some rubbish players and a poor defence. We can buy all the best players there is in attack and midfield but if we don't sort that back 4 out, we won't get anywhere. It's almost a joke now that we're about to enter the 4th/5th season playing with the same back 4 that everyone can see there's obvious problems with it. 3. Conte is hell bent on playing the 4-2-4, isn't he? I'm all for new formation being played, even if I'm not liking this new one, but it's somewhat concerning that we haven't really tried out different formations so far. 4. Just as we are often told not to read too much into pre-season results and performances, can we even take positives from some of the players' display today? I mean, they played against a Real Madrid B/C/D side after all.

Chelsea 3-1 AC Milan MATCH DISCUSSION, LIVE CHAT AND ANALYSIS 2016/17 Pre-Season Friendly Match 5 4th August, Thursday, 2016 US Bank Stadium 02:35 Kick Off (UK time)

WHAT THE HELL?! Just saw the scoreline and are we seriously losing 3-0 to a weakened Real Madrid side?!

Let's not forget Costa was only talking about getting better with the team next season yesterday - http://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/chelsea-striker-diego-costa-we-cant-do-worse-than-last-season-we-have-to-be-in-a-better-position-a3306096.html So, I don't see why he would say all that if he was going to leave in the first place. That said, I would be lying if I said I'm not worried at the slightest.

Fair point TBF...