kellzfresh

What a sight seeing a winger for Chelsea not named hazard beating his man constantly and not being shy about his own abilities. Hope Willian is watching

3-0 down while passing like babies isn't inspiring so far

He's too slow to react now unfortunately Why are all our players so bad at holding the ball under pressure. At the slightest pressing all Conte's training goes out the window because they can't even hold unto the ball or pass under pressure

Instead of us getting centerbacks we're playing around with managing a 37year old and cahill. See why kantes speed is necessary in the middle, these players in midfield we have are too slow to bypass pressing

In an ideal world, I'll want us to have kante and Verratti in the middle but it's not possible. We couldn't even get nainggolan who would have been very good too beside kante, but we have to make do with what we have for now. Unless we are willing to sell mikel and go for a more mobile matuidi who would be okay if he puts those performances which he delivered against us in the Champions League for 3 straight seasons now. But a ball playing centreback will ease the stress on the transition play by the midfield by passing from the defense directly to runners.

I found this summary of the match for those who couldn't watch the game. Good performance overall albeit poor transition: Defensive organisation This is probably the best I have seen Chelsea play defensively in a long time. In defence, we lined up in a 5-4-1 formation with one of the wingers joining the last defence line depending on the flow of attack. One of the center forward (Traore) dropping deep to join Fabregas and Matic. in midfield As already stated in the comment thread, this is very similar to Conte’s defensive setup at the Euros. Terry and Cahill look comfortable in this setup and very solid overall apart from a shocking Terry give away and pathetic attempt at slide tackle which led to Mane get away. Begovic was not really tested all match, I can only recall a fantastic save from Coutinho free kick. If we could limit the number of shots at our goal like this all season, I believe we can have a fantastic season. In midfield, Fabragas covered a lot of ground and won some tackles and always creative in possession with some notable quick switch of play to the wingers and Matic looks solid defensively but wasteful in possession. He needs to learn to keep it simple and moving fast. Ola Aina looks very solid all match even better than the very reliable Apzi, I can only remember one notable give away from him in 90 minutes. This could be our own Alaba clone. I think he will have a very significant role to play this season. In Attack, We lined up in Conte’s preferred 4-2-4 when in possession. I personally love this setup because we will always have enough bodies in the attacking third. Today in practice, our transition play was very poor, Matic was particularly wasteful in possession but solid defensively. Moses added the desired width but with the familiar poor end product. Willian very good taking on players but often deliver poor passes. RLC (Conte’s anointed striker) links well with Traore and the midfield, but lacks the killer instinct required for the role. Though Traore showed flashes of brilliance but he was limited by dropping deep to join the second line of defence. Mitshy came on shortly before Fabragas red, so he had limited opportunity on the ball. I believe our transition and attack play will improve with the likes of Hazard, Pedro and Kante coming into the team. Most especially, Kante’s quick passes and ability to drive forward from midfield will be immense for our transition. Conclusion I am excited with our defensive setup, each player seems to know what is required of him defensively, and the emphasized quick transition play will improve with time and personnel. Also I think Kante-Fabregas should be the way to go in most matches against low to mid table teams. However, Chalobah/Matic may be required to pair Kante in top matches. I am a Mikel fan, and also a Nigerian, but I think the time is right to let Mikel go and promote Chalobah. He looks ready to take Mikel’s role. Exciting season ahead for Chelsea. UP CHELSEA.

I think the defensive winger mainly drops deep when we are defending but stays higher when we are attacking. In this scenario, one of the two strikers can easily go wide to provide width on that flank where the defensive right winger is positioned to provide width in preparation for the counter. While the left winger tucks into the midfield, we would be difficult to breakdown and could easily spread passes to the striker who is positioned a little wider. Somewhat of 5-3-2 or 5-4-1 when Defending/Counter-attacking and 4-2-4 or 4-4-2 when in possession. The only problem becomes when our midfielder is giving away passes like matic today or we have no single defender who is comfortable on the ball to pass out to the wingers when they spread wide. We will be hard to beat against the big teams which is what we needed after an awful defensive performance last season but once a mobile striker like costa plays instead of RLC(who was not manking runs like costa does, which impedes counterattacking) we'll have runners up front to pass the ball to and counter at speed. The formation is a very fluid one, which changes based on defending or attacking and once everyone masters it, you'll like it. Besides Liverpool have played much more preseason matches than us and are fitter.

Give the midfield some more time to see if we'll be dominated as much in other matches especially with fabregas out of the midfield two. I liked Willian as the defensive winger so that Hazard can be higher up. But this formation is not used efficiently without good passers in midfield and defence, we missed so many counter-attacking opportunities.

Matic has been awful in passing. Whats up with him?

I'm not basing what I said off just this match, If you studied our team pattern under Mourinho, you'll remember that a lot of times we looked like the players were playing together for the first time. It was only when we were defending that we had any sort of proper pattern. But in attack, we repeated the style of passing to hazard and hope something happens, then when that doesn't work, we give ivanovic who's always free to cross aimlessly into the box. We looked lost in so many big matches, remember against PSG when we were defending and trying to counter and suddenly ibrahimovic got a red card, we collapsed. We didn't know how to hold possession or know what to do with the ball, even hazard said we don't play football. This will never happen under Conte because he practices his ideas, his pattern of attacking is so visible on the pitch. This makes average players like Giacherinni, Pelle and Eder look good because there is a practiced routine of attack. Under Mourinho he rarely practiced attacking patterns, what he did was tell hazard to play freely, hence the confused look on a lot of our attacking players at the time especially for less quality players like Oscar and ramires. They need instruction. I don't hate Mourinho, I loved him but now he's with manutd, I don't need to defend him but say the truth exactly how it was. Exactly. You can easily see the patterns of Conte's attacking when you watch us. It is very hard to spot for Mourinho even after years of watching us. That's why we looked so confused in attack a lot, especially for less quality players like Oscar and ramires. They need instruction.

At least for us, the era of our team looking confused when attacking like we didn't practice any attacking patterns is over. And even more importantly, the era of having less than 6 shots on target in 90mins against big teams is over.

https://www.google.com.ng/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://www.dailystar.co.uk/sport/football/531859/Chelsea-Antonio-Conte-pre-season-friendly-secret-sportgalleries&ved=0ahUKEwiEia6f4IXOAhUOM8AKHesuDycQFggoMAM&usg=AFQjCNGcA7GgzhTDaWCAaofI0ubDz6J1wA&sig2=b8YXUHyK2Y6dnroSaZb6Uw Therewas a secret friendly??? I never knew of this

Wtf. Hopefully it's fake. But even if its true, it doesn't reveal much, I'm just more concerned that if this is true, there is a nasty rat in our club.

We need to do everything possible to qualify for the Champions League this season. Then we should try everything possible to sign Verratti, even if it means giving up fabregas and Oscar with money. He has the passing range of Fabregas and can tackle in the midfield, we won't be struggling for a formation to fit everyone with Verratti.

It's really not been the same since Frank left I loved him so much, even more than zola. Now I just want our team to be strong again, hard to beat, even if it means getting rid of some remaining legends..

We need at the very least one defender who can mark a fast attacker one on one and can pass a ball from defence. This is a priority. All our defenders are too slow to manmark any average fast player, in fact only Azpilicueta and Zouma are good at defending one on one's in our defense. After watching baba, I'm starting to give up on if he knows what defending means. We might need a leftback too if there's any available.

Is he better than Manolas???

Roma just signed Juan Jesus Is Manolas free???

Italy didn't play well during Conte's friendlies too, he was experimenting here and there, but they were different during euros.

I saw this too from a Juve fan on another forum: Skeleton or not, you won’t enjoy watching Conte’s team in pre-season. He will run them ragged with double seasons daily to improve their fitness.. He lost his very first pre-season with Juve too, and won a couple with uninspiring 1-0s. Be prepared for a shock. You will see a completely different Chelsea against West ham on the first day of the season in comparison to what you’ll see during the pre-season. I still remember the first game of the season against Parma, 90 minutes of tireless non stop attack.

Conte: "I think that Kante can give a lot to Chelsea. To enforce a zone very important for us. We want to play with 2 central midfielders."

Like I've always said, we need a new centerback. Ivanovic is a disaster and cahill backing off his duties will soon follow. We conceded 56 goals last season, Get a CB and stop playing around.

I can't watch the match unfortunately... Is he passing well, does he have long passing?? is he good on the ball???

Oh club football is truly back, ivanovic doing his stuff....

Conte brought vidal to Juventus and he was vital to the system there. Kantes not on the same level as vidal attacking wise, but defensively and the energy of essien is in abundance. Now get that ball playing centreback and we have a solid spine once again. 4-3-1-2 Costa Bats Hazard Matic/kante Willian Kante/Fabregas Azpi Koulibaly/Manolas Ivanovic Zouma Can easily change to 3-5-2 Costa Bats Hazard Azpi Fabs/Matic Kante Willian Ivanovic Koulibaly/Manolas zouma Or 4-2-4 or 4-4-2 Costa Bats Hazard Fabs/Matic Kante Willian Azpi Koulibaly/Manolas Ivanovic Zouma All interchangeable formations during the match to confuse the opposition easily.