Barbara

wut?

I already wrote most of what I think about him and today's match in Michy's and match's threads, but he deserves all the praise he can get. I was very much okay with the team he chose, even before the match - no moans from me and I think today we showed again the dominance we did before the last three short results. I've read some people complaining about space, chances and whatnot we offered to Bournemouth in the first half, but I've seen none of that. It's not like you won't allow the other team to have nothing. They scrapped a couple of shots, but have we gone so pampered and spoiled that we don't expect us to concede this sort of thing to a team just because they are on the second half of the table? They are a good unit, very well organized and not the kind of the team that will sit and wait for you. their manager has been with them since 2006 (player and assistant coach), and full time since 2012. They came from almost dropping to fifth division only eight years ago to a second year in a row in the highest flight. They aren't those pushovers we faced in Sunderland or Tony Pulis 10-man defense. They are a decent side, that tried to play decent football, but we were just too good for them. I think we went a few notches up today compared to the last few matches and the team doesn't look battered for the next two matches before some of them catch a break. Conte seems to have everything figured out and of course, at some point we will lose the winning streak (hopefully with a draw), but he is confident and so are the players and the kind of mentality he already imprinted to the players in such a short time - especially considering how long they've been conditioned to defend a 1-0 league with all their might and with everyone behind the ball (it precedes Mourinho's second spell). Conte has been magnificent and I couldn't be any happier.

I was pretty upset about the treatment he got, but then I read the interview and as I should have known, Conte knows what he is doing. It's not that he isn't confident on Bats yet, based on the interview he is, but he wants to keep that winning streak more than any of us (whether he will voice it or not) because he is the kind of manager that chases those records and he knows it is important for us to keep it up for as long as we can because someday it will come to an end and we must have collected as many victories as possible until then. So he chose to go with players that have been playing and deciding games (except Willian, that is) rather than throw the responsibility of filling Diego's shoes on Bats' back. I am ONE HUNDRED PERCENT SURE that he has been talking to Bats and although he is probably very frustrated right now - especially because he is still very young - I hope whatever Conte has been telling him is enough to keep him motivated. Conte closed the door for loans, and he said that if Michy doesn't make it here it's his failure as well. That's a man owing his responsibilities developing a kid such as Michy, but also a man addicted to winning, and right now his #1 priority is keep winning rather than developing any player. Some may think it's possible to have both, but I believe Conte is the kind of guy that doesn't want to take that risk unnecessarily. So I go against what I said myself (before reading the interview) about Michy and Conte, as well as a possible loan. His time will come, Conte will work on him, it's just that right now what matters the most is to keep the wins coming and Conte feels wearing the starting XI down is how he will accomplish it. As we don't have anything else going on except the FA Cup round next week, I think he can afford it. Also small injuries and suspensions already gave resting time fo Matic, Costa, Kanté and Hazard. I'll choose to keep trusting the coach and having my fingers cross for my Barbshuayi.

that skill... chirp over the ball, not step on your team mate and keep going <3 <3 <3 and what a goal that would have been. Even the TV kept showing it over and over despite play being stopped before his shot (vid) http://3one3.tumblr.com/post/154981036731/excuse-me-wut

We dealt very well without Costa and Kanté. I was especially worried about the pivot because Bournemouth are no pushover. They tried and I think we defended very well overall. I know it's trendy to say Cesc and Matic don't work in the pivot, but I think we were very well posted throughout the whole match. Matic will never play Kanté role as well as he does, but we dealt well with everything. And their best two chances had nothing to do with either player. Luiz was also very solid - again. It's becoming routine for him and that's something I didn't think I'd live to see. I suspected Conte wasn't going to play with Barbshuayi after his presser on Thursday, although like many, I thought it would be the case of playing 3-5-2. Fact remains Pedro worked perfectly as a striker. It was no false 9 BS, he literally played as a striker and alternated a few times with Eden. Costa is very physical and while he moves well and has a decent run on him, Pedro offers something else. He's quick and I lost count of how many times he made those runs. The assist and his touch for the first goal were both sublime. Cesc does make it look very simple and easy. Hazard was my MOTM because seriously, that's football porn. He was on fire and it felt like he couldn't be dispossessed unless fouled. And that touch for the save by Boruc (even though the referee had just stopped playing) was something else. He had 13 take-ons today - the most by any player this season in one single match. I felt bad for Barbshuayi even if Conte wanted Tibo to kick the ball out so he could come in. That was already at mark 90'. There's no way for the boy to make progress and get used to things if he plays at most a couple of minutes (or seconds) every other match. If he isn't what Conte, loan the boy, sign him off, but don't let him go to waste like that... All in all, it was a great match, one I thought we would win with scratch another 1-0 win with a lot of effort. It looked effortless to be honest and I really don't know what can stop us (other than injury tragedy). Great job, boys and Conte.

There's a big flaw in your analysis. You didn't give it time. At this rate English football will dominate again, but those things take time and good administration. I have no doubt we will soon be at the top again. It's going to be more and more difficult for teams with less investment to go far in Europe. We need to catch up and that's investing. English teams have the funds now, not spending it with very top players won't take them anywhere. Football became this. Organized teams with less investment can have a fluke now and then and reach finals or fight for titles up to a few weeks before the end of the season. They will win nothing and those chances are going to happen less and less. The problem with England isn't how much they've been investing, but the lack of a well founded plan.

Finally! What a big disappointment this guy has been. He had the tools, but he lacks ambition, goals, will. Biggest proof of that is settling to go to China at this age. He had potential to be more than he turned out to be, but he comformed with mediocrity. What a waste of everything, lately more so of space

Can we remove the poll from this thread? It became old six months ago and Conte deserves better on his thread

Fact remains we need more talent in the the side. Maybe James isn't the guy that will take us to the next level, but he's definitely clear improvement over Willian and Pedro combined. We keep saying Eden is the only talented player we have in the attack, the one capable of producing magic. James is nowhere close to Eden, but he is talented, smart and it balances the attack out with three threats in Eden, Diego and James. Work rate is overrated because it looks like people think one can't learn how to do that. Conte is the kind of manager that will make you work his way and if you don't have work rate you will learn because, guess what, work rate is something one can learn. Now talent on the other hand you either have it or you don't. Bring the gems and let the manager lapidate them. I have a small wishlist for the window and James is at the top of it - no matter how much I dream about other players, they won't come now. The winter window is adjustment time and to add depth, but it isn't the window to turn things around completely. We did very good deals at this time of the year in the past, and I'd be ecstatic if we we brought James because I'm positive he would become yet another example of that. Reject, world class, slow, fast, work rate. Seriously, why are people discussing those things? It's the same as it was with David Luiz. I stated the same, it isn't what I think will solve our problems, but it is a clear improvement over anything we have. Look how well that turned out to be. Just bring the kid and let Conte work his magic. We need to bring more names like James to our attack. You can't simply have Eden and Diego - although they are huge names. If we aim to be really big, we need more names, James is one of them.

Cesc needs to play more, especially if Diego won't. He brings the sparkle we need

why there has never been any contract extension talk in the media? I'm afraid he won't want to extend his stay, but I hope with conte here now - he seems like the kind of manager Diego likes - he actually accepts it when we offer him the well deserved contract extension

when a guy wins the match for you like that, you just bow down. Diego, you can own my body!!!!!!!!!! DIEGO DIEGO DIEGO DIEGO

why bring fucking Ivanovic? Sometimes Conte makes no sense...

DIEGO FUCKING COSTA, BABE

sub makes no sense willian is pretty useless in this kind of match

the only way for us to score here is a set piece, but even on that we've been sucking today

there is nothing wrong with him playing today The fact is rather than having a more creative midfield, Conte preferred to have Azpili playing almost as a FB, going into the attack and exposing Luiz more, who is actually having to chase players down. Hold Azpili back and everything is back to normal. The one I believe shouldn't be playing is Matic... I hope he is subbed off at HT. You don't add much to attack by bringing Azpili to their half.

second time Luiz makes a mess defending As Azpili is playing higher, Luiz has to actually mark... which he isn't that much used to anymore, is he?

what is Matic even adding to this match other than shaky passing?

I think we are performing WAY MUCH BETTER than *I* expected. Never in my life I expected us to be in the position we are, playing the way we are. All merits to Conte. We are where we should be as a club, considering our size, but some steps above based on the squad we have. Despite the additions to the squad in Kante, Alonso, Luiz - as regular starters and the incorporation of Moses in the lineup, I still believe we have an average team with five special players: Costa, Eden, Kante, Azpi and Courtois. It might look like a decent number as this makes almost half the team, but really isn't. We have average players everywhere else and our bench is even worse. On his day Cesc is special, and Luiz has been playing really, really, really well. But neither could play in the best teams in Europe, and probably not even in the best teams in England. It is overachieving imo. Even more so than the title we won 2 years ago.

I have my priorities straight. I will find some time this weekend to show how much love and respect I have for this man... He won me over, proved me wrong, shut me up and I have no qualms in saying that based on form, he's the best manager in the world right now. If players are assessed on form, managers could as well.

and smoking hot. Dear gosh

I'm going to disagree with both in general, although you have a few points among the two of you I agree with. I started watching around mark 60 and of course I can only talk about from that on, but when your team scores from a deflected ball and that's all, it doesn't show strict dominance. IT either shows you didn't capitalize and that is a flaw or the other team neutralized your attempts, allowing them to happen, but not allowing them to be indeed dangerous. Even with Kevin missing a crucial sitter that would have taken them 2x0 who's to say what would have happened? We won with a 2 goals lead. People saying we would lose can't know that for sure the same way I'm positive they couldn't say for sure at that very moment when he missed we would win 1x3. Fact remains we are deadly, we are incredibly efficient and our defense got their shit back together after two shaking displays (based on the minutes I watched, sure). We give teams the ball most matches, and a shallow analysis would say they control the game, but in reality we are still very much in control, just because you are allowing yourself to be under attack it doesn't mean you're being controlled if you can still prevent anything major to come from that attack volume. When you have your defense well posted and things working as they should, you may not have the ball, you may suffer pressure, but you are still in control if you prevent them from creating clear chances of goals or scoring. It's a difficult kind to control to grasp because you give opposition the sense of control, but in fact everything was still under control... ours, not City's. Many times in the 36 minutes I watched I saw them struggling to break our lines. Everyone in real blue was doing what they were supposed to and then we shone brighter than ever. Every time we had a counter I was giddy. Willian wasted at least 3 deadly counter attacks with bad decisions (shooting some nonsense out of the box, moving - or rather staying static in a perfect through ball I guess by Costa, and dribbling when he should have been directed and passed the ball to Diego - I guess). Even then every time we got the ball in counter attack in the second we were seriously dangerous. How can you tell that's not controlling the game? What is control anyway? What's the point of having possession, of pressuring the opponent if you don't create dangerous chances? Did City create chances? Of course they did and two of them were dangerous - Aguero's shot that Courtois defended and Kevin's sitter. We were dangerous in at least twice more - the three goals scored and at least one of the counters wasted by Willian (the through ball he didn't follow). So who controlled who? We allowed the illusion of control to them, the same way we did to other teams, but when things got thick we just went there and showed our new true colors. This team has everything figured out. We could always have an off day and drop points, but last week I said when we were being dominated by Spurs (that I agree, we were dominated for nearly 40 minutes, but yesterday was nothing like that) that we were going to turn that around, partly because it's Spurs, they won't beat us at the Bridge, but mainly because I trust this team to find solutions when things get difficult. That was my biggest concern a month ago when were beating everybody and their mothers because we took early leads. But now we came back against two of the top 5 teams, showing calm, control and precision. That's, my friends, it's the very definition of control. Yesterday I arrived and saw us losing and my first comment on Facebook was about us turning things around. I'm no prophet, I'm just confident in this team. One day they will come short, but most days they won't and they will just grind the result we need. City were never as dangerous as we were and the scoreline reflects just that.

was Fernandinho sent off too or just got a second yellow? I didn't see the actual bookings. Did we get any yellow in that mess?