Belgiannutt

When AVB came the old guard were already declining. While the attempt at switching styles didn't help let's not put all the blame solely on that. The old guard were already declining and the investment in the squad wasn't the same as it had been in the very beginning of the Roman Abramovich era. "You think we will play ball against Barca or City and win at their own game if we meet under Sarri?" It really isn't as impossible as you're making it seem. These teams aren't invincible. As good as they are they also don't like it when you push back. When you press them high up the pitch they also struggle at times. Noone is saying we should be gung ho about it, Like you really seem to have a very weird and extremely naive view of possession (fancy) football. Like it's apparently impossible to combine defensive solidity with good possession football. The 2 aren't mutually exclusive. You just have to know when to stay back and defend. And be great at it. That wins you titles. Thats why Madrid wins it. Madrid ? Madrid aren't a pragmatic side nor a great defensive side. They are very much a possession side. Just a really experienced one. Can Sarri push back and defend efficiently? Well looking at Napoli in the 3 years that Sarri was there. 15-16 : 2nd place 82 points 80 goals scored 32 conceded 16-17 : 3rd place 86 points 94 goals scored 39 conceded 17-18: 2nd place 91 points 77goals scored 29 conceded I would say he can. I honestly just want to be able to enjoy watching us play. Last couple of years have been hard to watch from a purely entertainment view. It's not really that difficult to understand possession -> control. While control can also be achieved through controlling the spaces it's still beneficial to have the ball as it allows you to take the initiative. Real Madrid really aren't a pragmatic side. They played with a 2 man midfield consisting of Kroos and Modric for big parts these last few years with Carvajal and Marcelo constantly pushing up high. . I think only last season they started to use Casemiro as teams were starting to hurt them on the counter.

Would say a CB, a nr 6 deep playmaker are priority. A third CM and an upgrade on the RW would be welcome to. Striker, maybe. The striker position is a bit of a head scratcher for me. On the one hand i feel like Morata could improve. In a more attacking sytem he could be better but on the other hand what if he doesn't improve and the Morata we've seen this season is the one we get next season... That would be a big problem. No matter how good we'd play if your striker is missing easy chances and falling to the floor you're not gonna win a lot of games. The thing though there aren't really many top strikers available. Most of them are past their prime and would still cost a lot of money.

Azpi isn't a cb, Cahill isn't a ball playing cb, David Luiz is heavily rumoured to be on his way out. That would leave us with just Rudiger and Christensen. A third ball playing cb would be a must. Manolas and Rugani seem to be our main targets for the cb position but i don't expect us to buy them both. It's probably going to be 1 or the other. I've watched a number of full games from Napoli, read articles and yt vids about Sarri's tactics. The cb's are really important. Them along with the nr 6 deep playmaker are the foundation of his team. They are responsible for the distribution of the ball. If they start panicking, and/or start hoofing the ball long then shit will hit the fan real fast.

Gotta disagree with you. Those tough and big characters were the reason AVB failed here. They were all set in their ways and resisted the change making it impossible for AVB to change our way of playing. We then ended up hiring pragmatic managers while we had bought technical players that suited a more attacking possession based approach. The club doesn't need strong, loyal and never give up players. The club's mistake hasn't been that we tried to change our playing style. It's that we didn't fully commit to that change. We found ourselves between two opposite styles and ended up trying to do a bit of both and half assing both styles. The club needs to pick a direction, a style and commit to it in everything we do. Now we seem to have decided to actually commit to a more attacking style of football with the (possible ) hiring of Sarri. Even if it doesn't work out with Sarri i hope the club doesn't hire another pragmatic manager after him but continues to hire a manager that wants to play attacking football.

Yeah agree about Pedro. He really needs a strong system. Regarding the RW position i'd say we need a more direct (both on and off the ball) player on that position. Looking at Napoli under Sarri their left side plays very different from their right side. Insigne constantly moves inside the half spaces while Ghoulam provides the width and attacks the space in the wide area and Hamsik will link up with Insigne and make a lot of forward runs. On the other side it's different. Hysay doesn't push forward as much, Allan doesn't make many forward runs either that means that Callejon has to keep the width more and is mainly responsible for making those forward runs in behind. While it's not certain we'll set up the same way, looking at our best players Hazard, Kante, Azpi. They would fit the roles of Insigne, Allan, Hysay perfectly so it would make sense to set up in a similar fashion.

The number 6 role (at the base of a 3 man midfield) isn't a good role for him imo. It limits him too much. He needs to have some freedom to get stuck in all over the pitch. Sarri's system would be perfect since it relies on a deep playmaker on the 6 and a more attacking CM and a more defensive one. Kante would be perfect as the defensive one.

Martinez and Lukaku said in interview afterwards he's okay just a knock. It wasn't a thigh injury. One of Costa Rica players tackled him and caught him with his studs just below the knee/above the shinn protectors. Hopefully it's nothing, he's in great form atm, best player on the pitch by a country mile tonight and in the last 3 games. EDIT : Compilation of his game tonight. The tackle is at 10:44

A player making a single comment at the very end of the season stating we need to strenghten the squad vs a manager constantly complaining about the squad in the middle of the season while we were fighting for a top 4 spot. The timing and the amount of times makes a big difference. If Conte had just said it once it would have been fine but he just kept saying the same shit over and over again. After the 4-5th time it was "okay we get it, now get on with it". I'd rather have a manager ,being paid millions to do his fucking job, not act like a 5 year old.

Could we stop with this nonsense of player power being the reason for Conte failing ? Conte brought this on himself by acting like a freaking 5 year old throwing a fit because he didn't get what he wanted in January. What exactly did he expect would happen when he was constantly bitching about the board and saying stuff like "i've gotten the maximum out of this group of players" while we were in the middle of fighting for a top 4 spot. For a supposed winner he was quite eager and happy to throw in the towel this season. So can we stop with the pity for Conte crap ? It's driving my nuts.

I never said Conte had complete control just that he does have a clear hand in our transfer targets. Regarding the Rudiger link all i'm finding is some reports quoting his agent claiming we showed interest but there aren't any reliable outlets reporting us actually making a bid. Emerson had a significant knee injury and we all know Conte is extremely cautious with players who've been injured. Emerson played that little because he was considered a squad player by Conte and he only came in the january transfer window. Zappacosta has 1000 + minutes because he was bough in the summer. Not sure why you feel the need to dismiss Koulibaly, Sandro and Nainggolan just because they're top players. There are plenty of top players in football the fact that both of them are from the seria A is significant considering they were our primary targets. Add in the 4 signings we made and it's clear that Conte had a signficant part to play in what players we wanted. "These are mere links" euhm no they're not. Did you actually click the links i put in my post ? Both have direct quotes proving we went after them. The first has Nainggolan himself stating "I could have gone to Chelsea and many other clubs, but starting something knew when you are 28, 29, in a new culture, another lifestyle, that's not for me," he told Belgium's Sport Voetbal Magazine. The second has quotes from ADL stating “They offered to me £30, 35, 40, 45, 50 [million],” declared De Laurentiis. 2 vs 6 it's still a clear difference. It kinda speaks for itself to be honest. If you want to stick your head in the sand then that's fine but don't tell i'm being dishonest just because you don't like it. Matic wanted to leave. Not much the club could do. Disagree with your conclusion. This squad was built by the board AND Conte. Just because we signed players that Conte wasn't 100 % on board with doesn't mean you can just absolve him of any responsibility. I do agree with your last sentence although i would add to it that we also need to hire a manager that actually wants to be here, works with what he got and doesn't start sulking when we're in the middle of the freakin season because he's unhappy with our transfers.

Yeah people just need to take a quick look at the amount of players we signed who played in Italy or are Italian in the 2 years Conte was manager to realize Conte had a clear hand in our transfer targets. Rudiger, Zappacosta, Emerson, Alonso and while we got Luiz and Kante our first choices were Koulibaly and Nainggolan. Nainggolan rejected us (https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/radja-nainggolan-says-he-rejected-chelsea-because-he-would-not-give-up-perfect-life-in-rome-for-a3777761.html) ADL rejected our £58 million bid (https://www.football-italia.net/92528/adl-chelsea-bid-£58m-koulibaly) That's 6 players in 2 years under Conte. How many italian players did we sign the 2 years before Conte ? 1 well 0.5 actually if we're being precise. Filipe Luis is apparently part Italian. Clear difference yet you still have people yapping about how our managers have no say whatsoever.

The remainder of his contract is "only" 3 million euros though (1.5 million a year 2year contract).

I did some digging and found this. https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/jul/08/marcelo-bielsa-resigns-as-lazio-manager-after-just-two-days Apparently 2 years ago Bielsa resigned after 2 days at Lazio. There seems to be some articles saying Lazio wanted to sue Bielsa for 50 million but there's no info on whether they actually did. So it does seem possible that Sarri could just resign. Napoli would probably sue him to get some compensation. Edit: unless ofcourse there's a specific clause in the contract stating a fixed amount if there's a unilateral breach of contract.

NVm ffs

I wouldn't pay too much attention to the english media regarding this managerial situation. They seems absolutely clueless about what's going on. All the news that has come has been from the italian media.

Yeah problem is it doesn't seem like he's backing down. “I don’t give anyone discounts and no-one has called me about the clause in Sarri’s contract. This was a clause put in his contract when it was renewed and his salary increased - so now it is going to be paid. “I have to defend our fans. The clause defends my choices. “When I modify a contract, it is with agreement. I inserted the clause, and it has to be honoured. Now the clause is not valid? I don’t like this one-sided idea.”

I can understand our side though. Sarri is on 1.5 million euros a year. He has 2 years on his contract. That means the value of the contract is 3 million. ADL is asking 8 million while he already hired another manager.

"Meeting Chelsea in the afternoon. Question manager is the first argument. Tomorrow last day for Sarri's clause, but it may be after 31 May" The first bit is the most confusing. Meeting between who ? The board ? Chelsea-Napoli ? it's clear it's a meeting about the manager situation. Then the last bit. Tomorrow is the last day for Sarri's clause but it may be after 31 may that it gets resolved. That's my take on it atleast

https://spielverlagerung.com/2016/04/08/team-analysis-napoli/ Found this article. Goes more in to detail about how Napoli play the way they do.

But keeping Conte will solve it ? I think it's just as daft to actually want Conte to stay after this poor season. Quite frankjly he's burned that bridge himself by constantly bitching, moaning and sulking about the board. Second part of the season did Conte actually look like he wanted to be here ? "Roman doesn't want to invest more money? Then don't do it. Come up front and show some support to Conte, see if he wants to continue and keep him. Inform him that these are the conditions and he needs to get the best out of what he has available at this point." You really think the board didn't already tell him that this season ? and what was the result, bitching, moaning, sulking.

What Special juan said "Conte had every right to be pissed but he spoke too publicly about it far too often." Also he was backed in the Costa case. We sold Costa. We could have just as easily told Conte to bugger off or simply tell him to get over it and keep Costa. I don't think the players commitment this season was the major factor that made the difference between last season and this season. This season we lost 2 starters and their replacements simply haven't been as good. and like i said before the back 3 system was found out this season and Conte didn't have an answer. He just kept flipping between the 3-4-3 and the 3-5-2.

Couldn't the same thing be said about Conte though ? The board are his employers. He's been bitching and moaning about them since january. How long do you think you'd still be at a job if you publicly bitch and moan about how poor your bosses are doing while doing a piss poor job yourself ?

The players and the board aren't without blame for this season but Conte has to take a significant amount of it aswell. There were plenty of times this season we were completely outplayed from a tactical standpoint. That is on the manager. This season our back three system was found out and Conte had no answer for it. Apart from that he also didn't show the same level of energy, commitment and fire he did in his his first season here.

No one expected him to win the CL or even win the league this season. But this team was capable of getting a top 4 finish. If Conte had spent more time coaching instead of whining and moaning we could have been playing in the CL next season. He made countless of mistakes this season that cost us points.

Don't think you'll find anyone that won't give massive credit to Conte for winning the title last season but this season hasn't been good at all an fA cup doesn't chance that. Just feels like people are trying to paper over the cracks when they point to the fa cup this season. Feel like the back three sytem got found out this season and Conte simply didn't have an answer for it. This last couple of years, whenever we've won trophies, it always felt like we took 1 step forward 2 steps back. Like we were slipping further away from the top even when we won trophies. I honestly wouldn't mind Sarri coming in for 2-3 years not winning anything but laying down a strong foundation to play a more attacking type of football. I'm just looking for us to take a step forward into the direction of becoming a high energy pressing, attacking possession team. If Sarri manages that i'll be happy. That game against City this season where we needed to win and Conte having us play with Hazard as a false 9, with 2 fit strikers on the bench. 1-0 down yet he kept us sitting deep with no real attempt to actually attack them. It just made me sick to my stomach because with a set up like that we simply gave up before the kick off. One of Conte's famous quotes "We must suffer" Well, i did suffer watching us this season.