kellzfresh

Oops Burnley was 5th for a while above liverpool. But my point still stands. Im definitely sure we'll finish above United

With the amount of space our wingbacks have, and constant 1 on 1's they get, they should be causing a lot of dangerous attacks, but they all cant cross a ball (Azpi is our best crosser ) Alonso gets the most 1 on 1 situations in our team but cant beat a man, and zapacossta cant make right decisions when in dangerous areas. Look at the amount of space they had against swansea but couldnt capitalize. We just have to improve on them if we want to be dominant world class team with 3-5-2.

He is a terrible shooter of the ball. I dont think ive seen him strike a ball hard with his feet for Chelsea. He actually has more power on his shots with his head than with his feet which is weird.

They always get the rub of green from referees, but mancity is on another level now in terms of getting favors. How did mancity get 6 mins added on when there was no injuries or long stoppage of play. Meanwhile, United have yet to play a single match against a top 5 side, besides their loss to us. And their average opponent’s table place right now is 12th. In fact, they’ve played: 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 17, 18, 19, 20 Will be curious to see how Mourinho does against the other good sides.hh

Exactly. Conte was spot on with his tactics. People forget We got back to England on Thursday morning after a long trip to Azerbaijan (Quarabag) and had only Friday to train before Saturday. We had to conserve energy for a while, while showing threat on the counter ( we should have scored in the first half, hazard, Morata, drinkwater all had clear chances while Courtois didn't have a save to make) In the 2nd half we then had the energy levels to go on (instead of collapsing physically in the 2nd half like we did against mancity). This was actually our best performance at Anfield for years and people everywhere have given us credit for going at Liverpool for a large portion of the game and our own fans here are negative as ever instead of being realistic. To say we parked the bus like the Mourinho days is just What more do they want Conte to do when zappacosta, Alonso Bakayoko and drinkwater are the type of reinforcements the board offers for improvement nowadays.

Looking at the table, the only major blip we had was losing to crystal palace. Our other losses were understandable( We had a red card at burnley, Mancity were better than us) if we won palace, we would have had 25 points, comfortably second and well in the title race (6 points behind) waiting for mancity to lose some form (they've already hit their peak performance wise and can only go down from here) But 9 points is a little bit far, unless something dramatic happens (like another 13 match winning streak) But Conte has done well overall, contrary to what the media wants to portray.

He's fantastic under pressure. Doesnt come out of his position carelessly, and doesnt misplace a pass carelessly. Hes already one of the best young Centerbacks already. Another fantastic peformance in another big game

If only Conte found a solution to when the bigger teams press us. He'll undoubtedly be one of the best 5 managers in the world if he figures how to play against pressing out. We absolutely dominated manutd yesterday. Spot on tactically.

He's no defensive midfielder. Hes completely a box to box player. Playing him deep to protect fabregas instead of setting him free was a mistake. He's still a terrible shooter though.

All spurs defenders are ball playing, their wingbacks are fast, can dribble, can cross their midfielders have energy to run and are okay in passing, their striker is the best in hold up play in Europe right now. On top of that, did you see how they press? Tottenham don't sit back like us, but press their opponents. Thats why they look fluid in 3-4-3 while we look gassed out.

Sarri is a fantastic tactician in attacking football. His love for technical players all over the team and pressing football is exactly how I love football

I'll rather have azpi play LB than Alonso there. We have enough centerbacks now, conte should push azpi there and reduce one tactical problem. It'll be carnage on the wings lol

This is the most pessimistic i've been about a match in a while. We have no chance here, Conte will play a Fabregas-Bakayoko midfield, (Instead of benching Fabregas and bringing him off the bench when we need a goal) We'll be dominated in midfield because of Fabregas presence. Alonso will start on the wings. (Instead of a faster player) Alonso will be targeted defensively for his speed once again and left free when we attack because he's easy to close down once we switch the ball to him. our defence will be pressed and we wont press back, so Courtois will be pinging hopeful balls to Morata and Alonso all day, while we stay deep. Bakayoko will get the ball pinched off him at least once in this game that will lead to a Man Utd chance. Morata will be targeted by the physical Jones, Baily or Smalling and he'll be on the floor (a lot) Conte doesnt change, Ive seen enough to know how this will turn out. Hopefully we get a lucky early goal and nick it somehow.

Hes so slow, and hes a such a terrible crosser, I thought he was a technical player. He is presenting our team with a tactical flaw, he's being targeted because hes too slow to recover in time to catch any third runner in behind. Hes also left free when we are attacking (while they mark all our other attackers) and as soon as we switch the ball over to his side, he is closed down easily because of his speed and he passes back to cahill. Last season because of lesser games, he was fresh and got by, but now its a disaster. Very frustrating and Im pissed at Conte for not noticing such an obvious tactical flaw that is hampering our team. Im beginning to think that the only reason he's playing is because of his height for courtois to punt the ball to

He isnt dribbling as much as he used to before the long injury, but hes getting more creative with his passing (more through balls) and hes getting back to his best. https://twitter.com/WhoScored/status/924599198510542851 https://twitter.com/WhoScored/status/924599198510542851

Very correct. Its down to the quality of our players really. Mourinho is known to be terrible at orchestrating attacking patterns, but his madrid team (especially in his second season) was an absolute joy to watch (121 goals in the league alone) and it was down to the quality of players in attack and nothing else. Ronaldo, Ozil, Young Benzema and Higuain is a fearsome front four and we've never had that number of quality players at the same time in attack.

After listening to Contes comments complaining about how we are training 70% less than last season, I think that is what is causing the inconsistency in our play. Conte's style is to train and force down patterns of play into the players, till the master all the patterns and way to play in all given situations. But unfortunately, we have only 2 days training sessions compared to the 4-5 days we used to have last season. So conte no longer has the time to train the players to prepare for all situations (absorbing pressing pressure, defending, attacking, control or counters) so it is more instinct from the players this season, when it used to be drilled in training last season. Maybe Conte should abandon training on the 3-5-2 for now and use just the 3-4-3 which most of the players are already accustomed to, so that we can master one formation first even if it has its disadvantages.

Exactly. He didnt mess about by holding unto the ball for long without achieving anything with it. He tried to make something happen and also finally he crossed a ball in the air instead of that stupid low cross to the near post he does everytime even if he doesnt get any assist out of it. Hopefully he improves for our sake.. We need every bit of our attacking power with our defending in shambles of late.

The moment Alonso was removed, we became very mobile on the left with Azpilicueta. Watford couldn't attack as much through that side and Azpi had the speed to both defend and attack. Wing back is the only position that gives us width, playing a slow snail like speed in that position is unheard-of among any top team except Chelsea.

Im just praying that Watford dont press us, so that we can win a match. Because our style to absorb pressure of the press, and wait till opposition is tired and then attack is just not working well because of how porous our defense is looking. We need to press back when opponents press us, but what do I know.

Exactly. See how he performed against city pressing with driving runs and speed. We havent had that since ashley cole

We were not good against pressing under mourinho, but he was better than conte against big teams in terms of picking out results and finding a way to not get beat. Arsenal dominate us and beat us nowadays. Conte just doesnt know what to do against a press. I love conte but i know a weakness when i see one

I wouldnt say hes ultra limited with tactics, what ill say is he has a weakness that is so obvious to any small time manager in the world. Press his team and he has no answer. Just like mourinho is so defensive against the top teams away from home, Just like Klopp cant fix his defensive issues, Just like wenger is naive against top teams, Conte is a failure against pressing teams. It took one year for others to figure that out but its happened. The pressing is why Conte wanted Llorente so bad... but our board had other ideas.

Alonso is the new Ivanovic. Both play on the wing, both slower than a turtle, in a position that depends on speed to massively.