kellzfresh

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.

In hindsight, what a stupid decision this was selling him. Stupid, stupid decision, up there with buying torres instead of aguero.

The only manager I can think of is Sarri of napoli. Attacking football, develops players and wins matches. But I hope conte turns this around and this second season after winning the premier league syndrome doesnt happen at Chelsea again

I think that long injury has slowed Hazards game down. Hes not dribbling as well as he used to. If hes going to have another 2015/2016 season because of injury, we're screwed. We depend on him so much.

Hes so slooooooowwwwwww. So many times hes free, we switch the play from the right to the left, and he has acres of space. Before he can get forward, someone from such a far distance always closes him down. This happens time and time again. He is a huge weakness tactically in both attacking and defensive aspects of the game because fast wingers also target him and keep us pinned back to accomodate his speed. This is Ivanovic in decline all over again. Unless he scores a freekick he's an average joe in all other aspects of the game.

We cannot handle pressing. I complained about this so much last season, too many players who dont know what to do when being under pressure. Before only top teams were pressing us and we suffered against them last season but now, even small teams like crystal palace are pressing us, not allowing us to pass out of the back and we cant cope. I blame this on the board for buying average joes year in year out and on Conte for not figuring out what to do about this. Worst of all Hazard and morata cant seem to get a game together and we keep fielding willian for whatever reason.

This is Bakayoko vs casemiro vs Busquets vs Matic. The one in yellow is Matic. It's from squawka site players comparison

Going forward Even if he got an assist, I was not happy with his attacking yesterday. So many times he was one on one against a player and all he could do was attempt a nutmeg and fall to the floor when he's obviously blocked. Very frustrating, and he never seems to cross from the left. We have a very good header of the ball in Morata and he didn't put in any cross for Morata all game. I just wish we had fullbacks that are good in one on one situations (attacking wise and defensively) and can cross. Our scouts are terrible at this.

New Morata chant Sung to the tune of Hakuna Matata Alvaro Morata, what a wonderful name Alvaro Morata, he’s no passing craze He’ll just keep scoring, for the rest of our days He’s our problem-free, Spanish beauty Alvaro Morata