Jase

Rapid Vienna 2-0 Chelsea MATCH DISCUSSION, LIVE CHAT AND ANALYSIS 2016/17 Pre-Season Friendly Match 1 16th July, Saturday, 2016 Allianz Stadion 17:00 Kick Off (UK time)

Can't believe Conte lost to Ireland, of all teams. Useless manager!

He's versatile, defensively sound and gives at least 7/10 every game! Conte should be sacked if he even entertains the idea of selling Azpi.

Real Madrid have activated his buy back clause...

A case of people reading what they want to read when they don't like someone.

http://www.independent.ie/sport/soccer/european-championships/italys-hammer-will-keep-driving-players-on-34813542.html A piece on Conte and why his teams are unlikely to drop in performance level even when changes are made.

Conte (and Italy) will face either Spain or Croatia (or Czech Republic, but unlikely) in the last 16. Hope they get knocked out by either one of them then.

Think I'm going to recommend some of you lot to The Sun or Daily Mail. Would make a great gossip writer for them.

But what if they sell Pogba?

Now now, there's no need to declare every Italy win as a tactical masterclass from Conte.

Considering he did the interview with beIN sports, I would be wary of mistranslation or quotes taken out of context. That being said, I believe he did mention before previously that he would like to return and retire at Barcelona in the future. So what he said there is nothing new. The only major thing here is he didn't say he wants to leave this summer and he already said before he wants to stay and succeed under Conte and going back to Barcelona now would be stupid on his part because if he couldn't get into their starting XI 1-2 years ago, he certainly wouldn't get into it now either.

Yes, I was clearly concerned about the fixture pile-up...

Just realized that because we aren't in Europe, we'll be entering the League Cup in the second round, which will take place after the second league game.

You do remember Choo Choo is no longer a forum staff, right?

Tough run of games in Sept-Oct and Jan-Feb! 17-Sep Liverpool (H) 24-Sep Arsenal (A) 15-Oct Leicester (H) 22-Oct Man United (H) 26-Nov Tottenham (H) 3-Dec Man City (A) 2-Jan Tottenham (A) 14-Jan Leicester (A) 1-Feb Liverpool (A) 4-Feb Arsenal (H) 5-Apr Man City (H) 15-Apr Man United (A)

United at home in October. Reverse fixture in April. We end at home to Sunderland again!

This could become a trend for us - switch GK every 2-3 years. Maybe we should find ourselves another Hilario or Turnbull!

The point here is not about who created more chances or who could have scored. It's the fact that Italy sat back and played on the break with the 1-0 lead. We did the same under Mourinho and not many liked the approach. Italy could have easily been punished had Belgium not been useless in front of goal. If that had happened, the view on Conte's approach would have likely turned in the opposite direction. No, of course not but one can take a hint or two of what Conte will do when he gets here. No. The difference between Italy and us is that they know how to execute a counter attack. In our case, never mind about getting players into the box, we hardly even get near the box because the players can't make the right decision or play the right pass to save their lives!

Conte may have gotten his tactics spot on but let's not forget who's the manager of the team he faced tonight. On top of that, in the midst of all this praise for Conte, people seem to have missed the fact that Italy sat back and played on the break - something people weren't pleased about when we did it under Mourinho - in the second half. Belgium created some good chances which should have been put away. Had one gone in, people's opinion on Conte might have changed. In fact, it's alright that he's getting all the love right now, but what are the odds of fans turning against him if Italy were to suffer a bad result, say against Sweden next?

It's not just the players that Brazil have left out. It's also the fact that there are hardly any good young players coming through. Compare them to say Germany or Spain and their lack of depth is shocking. In fact their talent factory (if we can call it that) resembles that of the Dutch.

Says a lot about how far Brazil have fallen that they only won against Haiti. The old Brazil would have smashed that group to pieces.