The Conte Thread

[Essien19 1,415]

He'll bounce back. If he plays a new guy and that guy happens to make a mistake, hell breaks loose anyways. Conte knows stuff, the team will go back to the winning days.

What should he have done differently apart from not subbing on Batshuayi?

[Mceachran 109]

From www.chelseafc.com

Conte:  ‘I’m guilty because I’m the coach and it means I have to work more. We must feel the danger in every single moment of the game if we want to win and think like a great team. We must pay attention and be focused."

[Amblève. 4,995]

1 minute ago, Essien19 said:

He'll bounce back. If he plays a new guy and that guy happens to make a mistake, hell breaks loose anyways. Conte knows stuff, the team will go back to the winning days.

What should he have done differently apart from not subbing on Batshuayi?

Starting your best passer would be a start; Oscar and Matic are too weak at resisting counter-pressing and you KNEW a Klopp-coached away team press the hell out of you. Granted Fabregas isn't a monster in that area himself to put it mildly but that midfield-3 consisting of Kante, Matic, and Oscar didn't work in the 1st half at all and you were already losing 0:2 anyway. Bringing on Fabregas for one of Oscar/Matic should have been a priority at half-time.

[Captain Ahmed 528]

*-Conference call: Hard work ahead-*

Quote

Antonio Conte, reflecting on our 2-1 defeat to Liverpool, felt we paid the price for a collective lack of concentration at vital times in the game.Liverpool scored twice in the opening 45 minutes to gain the ascendancy in the contest, before Diego Costa pulled one back midway through the second half.Conte, though, felt we only had ourselves to blame for the manner in which we allowed Liverpool to score their goals.

‘In the first half, I must be honest, I think we gave away two goals,’ said the Italian. ‘The first goal came after a free-kick which they took very quickly and the second after a throw-in. From long distance it was a great goal but when you give away two goals in that way it’s very difficult.‘These are tough games and I think you must pay attention in every moment, every single minute of the game, because that makes the difference. In this case we paid because after the first half we were losing 2-0 and then it’s very difficult.‘In the second half we scored the goal and then missed a chance to draw level through Costa. We had some chances to draw but it was too late.’

Conte explained why he waited until late in the game to make three substitutions

‘In the second half we started with the same players and you saw another game, with great intensity. We scored the goal and created chances so for this reason I waited to make the substitutions. In the last 10 minutes I changed three players to try to give freshness and change the result.‘In that moment I had to decide whether or not to put two wingers in. I wanted to change a midfielder to put Fabregas on but it could have been Batshuayi and not either Moses or Pedro. I needed to put Hazard closer to Diego.’

The Chelsea head coach, who said David Luiz played very well, believes there is a lot of hard work ahead

‘Every single game is very tough and we mustn’t forget last season. That’s important because it was a bad season and I don’t want to repeat that. When you finish in 10th place it’s something strange, it’s not natural or simple. It means we have to work very hard to improve.

 ‘I’m guilty because I’m the coach and it means I have to work more. We must feel the danger in every single moment of the game if we want to win and think like a great team. We must pay attention and be focused.’

chelseafc.com

 

[petre.ispirescu 4,928]

Hopefully a wake up call this match. Must understand some things, such as:

- We're fed up with negative tactics, especially against big teams. 

- Fabregas is Chelsea's best midfielder by a mile.

- No Chelsea fan is going to cry for Ivanovic, Oscar, Matic, Cahill if these frauds are benched.

- Ivanovic's contract is due to end next summer. Conte must be against the board offering him a new deal. These 9 months must be the last for Ivanovic in a Chelsea shirt.

- 7 minutes is not enough for three new players to turn around a football match, no matter how tired the opposition is. 

 

 

[DDA 9,689]

Conte did have a mare tonight but calling for him to be sacked!? Just lol.

 

I have to say thought, if aivanovic isnt dropped after this bullshit then I can't defend his decision at all!

[Supermonkey92 1,428]

Ive always felt top 4 was a fight for us this season, i was getting annoyed when othets talked like we are title contenders. 

First things first, Conte is a great manager. His league form with Juve showed that and the way he took a below average Italy team to neutralise Spain and Belgium made me think he is as good as Mourinho, Guardiola and Simeone if he was different. I think he's as capable as the first 2 with a good team . . . 

But we dont have a good team. We had the whole of last season to show us that. Kantr is the only first team change (until Luiz) remember. That's not enough to bridge the gap against the bigger teams. Matic and Oscar are not good enough. Period. Fabregas is unable to play the way Conte wants to play - he just doesnt have the legs! 

Our defence is on stand by until Zouma returns, and even then we are hoping he comes back as good as he was. Then theres more hope than expectation that Alonso is good enough. Only then can we finally escape Ivanovic and Cahill. 

But our wingers and midfielders are toothless. Willian runs with the ball until the final third and then nothing happens. We know this. Hazard is world class but does not have a good enough shot or final pass. We know this. Matic is a headless chicken defensively (and a lazy one in the first half today). Heck, the only reason Oscar is starting for us in midfield is because he can RUN. Thats his ace card. As a professional footballer he can run (that may pass as a second striker/ no 10, but as a CM he has no intelligence in pressing and leaves so much room. 

So that is what Conte is dealing with. A midfield of Kante and two crap players that have to make up for each others faults. A winger that is only good when the game is quick enough so he doesnt think and the other which is world class except the all important final touch. 

I dont doubt Conte, but he wont work this miracle. If Alonso comes in to kick Ivanovic out, we would still need to fix the gaping holes that are Oscar and Matic. Until then, judge Conte as he should be judged, with a team that finished 10th last season plus a quality midfielder. 

 

 

[Supermonkey92 1,428]

20 minutes ago, Essien19 said:

He'll bounce back. If he plays a new guy and that guy happens to make a mistake, hell breaks loose anyways. Conte knows stuff, the team will go back to the winning days.

What should he have done differently apart from not subbing on Batshuayi?

Exactly. Apart from Batshuayi there was not much i can fault him on. The players just performed poorly. After a team talk they improved. 

Remember, Pedro slips on rubber floors and Moses was born with tunnel vision. Fabregas and Batshuayi were the only choices, and against liverpool especially a 2 man midfield with cesc is risky. 

[Essien19 1,415]

9 minutes ago, Amblève. said:

Starting your best passer would be a start; Oscar and Matic are too weak at resisting counter-pressing and you KNEW a Klopp-coached away team press the hell out of you. Granted Fabregas isn't a monster in that area himself to put it mildly but that midfield-3 consisting of Kante, Matic, and Oscar didn't work in the 1st half at all and you were already losing 0:2 anyway. Bringing on Fabregas for one of Oscar/Matic should have been a priority at half-time.

Matic was one of the reasons why Costa scored the goal the way he did. Conte did the right thing to let him play. Do you think Matic was that bad overall? I think his good moments overshadowed the poor, is Fabregas really the better solution?

Oscar could have ended up getting substituted...Fabregas showed that he can play football at an acceptable level again, still, expected a better free kick (under these circumstances) and not every of his passes were good, a bit knee jerk, i guess. I'm not a fan of his, Luiz showed that he can deliver those long balls.

You say we were already 2:0 down, but you shouldn't forget that this particuar scoreline is the one which has been most times overcome. You only need one goal to be back in it, i would have much rather brought on an agile attacker, someone like Batshuayi. But i have no problems with Conte's decision making.
Chelsea will win lots of games because of him.

[Fernando 6,480]

It's a pity the board didn't get him Nainggolan and koulibaly. Instead we are stuck with a lot of crap players. 

I really hope the board are not delusional to expect a tittle challenge with these players?  

[Melanicus 5,208]

Courtois

Azpilicueta-Cahill*-Luiz-Alonso

Kante

Moses-Fabregas-Matic-Hazard

Costa

*Terry when he comes back and then Zouma

[Essien19 1,415]

6 minutes ago, Fernando said:

It's a pity the board didn't get him Nainggolan and koulibaly. Instead we are stuck with a lot of crap players. 

I really hope the board are not delusional to expect a tittle challenge with these players?  

Is Koulibaly better than the David Luiz we've just seen? Early days, but if he can keep this up...?
Maybe Nainggolan coming in could have put an end to Matic's second coming at Chelsea who did okay, imo.

But yes, a few more quality signings wouldn't have been an idea, if they ever were for a club apart from Madrid...

[Styles 9,790]

Honestly, Conte may or may not be a top manager. I want to give him the benefit of the doubt (and I will) but I'd be lying if I said there weren't some worrying signs.

But what isn't in doubt is that we have an awful of shit footballers and that arguably more than half the squad is dead-weight. And we will continue to be an also-ran for the foreseeable future because of those reasons.

Tonight we lost to the first good team we have played this season. We couldn't get near them in the first half and we only came back into the game because their level dropped. A large part of the second half was what I would call 'fake pressure' - they let us have the ball and we had no idea how to create any meaningful chances.

Tonight's game was eerily similar to what we saw last season and why would it be any different? The team is largely the same - there haven't been nearly enough changes to have a clean break from the rubbish of the 15-16 season.

Hate to sound so downbeat but I'm just sick and tired of watching us get outplayed by every half decent team we play and resorting to shit on a stick football. Surely at some point enough is enough?

[Styles 9,790]

1 hour ago, Blue-in-me-Veins said:

We invited pressure in the first half, misplaced many passes, and struggled to clear out our lines on multiple occasions, and we were punished. 

It's only Conte's first loss and his forst major tactic screw up, it happens. 

It's clear Conte wants us to play through the wings, but when our wing play is bad (like it was today), we're done for. The lack of penetration through the middle has to be addressed sooner or later.

We didn't invite pressure. What happened (and what tends to happen when we play good teams that do things like pressing well) is we got exposed for what we are: a shit footballing team that cannot build play under pressure or even keep the ball beyond 4 passes. So we end up camped inside our own half with no outlet.

This has been the Chelsea way for several years. We only play well against shit teams that don't press and show us too much respect.

What needs to be addressed more than anything is the fact we have so much fucking dead weight all over the place - players that wouldn't make the bench at top clubs are first choice here. It's a joke. Conte may or may not be a good manager but we'll never know because of the group of players.

[Tomo 21,733]

1 minute ago, Styles said:

We didn't invite pressure. What happened (and what tends to happen when we play good teams that do things like pressing well) is we got exposed for what we are: a shit footballing team that cannot build play under pressure or even keep the ball beyond 4 passes. So we end up camped inside our own half with no outlet.

This has been the Chelsea way for several years. We only play well against shit teams that don't press and show us too much respect.

What needs to be addressed more than anything is the fact we have so much fucking dead weight all over the place - players that wouldn't make the bench at top clubs are first choice here. It's a joke. Conte may or may not be a good manager but we'll never know because of the group of players.

Poch had similar problems in his first season at Spurs, positive signs but still too much Deadwood in the squad.

Even if we finished 6th Id still be behind Conte if we showed positive direction and there was enough there to make me believe that when he cleared the bad apples we will thrive, despite tonight I do believe that.

Judging by early evidence we might end up becoming flat track bully's but have some awkward big games, not nesseseirly a bad thing, well not in league football anyway.

[Henrique 9,133]

Conte was gamble. When he was announced, many people tried to picture him as a genius, and he is not. At least no yet. His job with Italy NT has nothing to do with club stuff. Managing clubs and NTs are different animals. Dont tell me he did great with Juventus, because Juve is miles ahead of other teams in terms of money and structure at the moment, so winning Seria A 3 times in a row with Juventus don't turn Conte in a great manager.

I'm not saying (yet) he is a fraud or must be fired. Just take a look at last weekend game between United and City. United is not a Mourinho side yet. Far from solid at the back, conceding way too many chances to City, and City is also far from solid, and their passing is still far from what you would expect from a Guardiola's side. This Chelsea is not a Conte side yet, but I'm really worried about his in game decisions. After 5 games, I cant tell I've never seen a manager making such stupid decisions like he is doing. In that aspect, until now he is worse than Scolari, AVB, RDM, Ranieri, Mourinho, Hiddink, Grant, Mourinho and even Rafa Benitez. I mean, the mean is getting outplayed the whole game, and we are entering in 77th minute with not a single sub. I mean, WTF? He is not even changing the players role in the pitch, the team basically keep using the same rigid tactics.

His team selection is also weird. Mourinho basically had the same line up (Matic, Fabregas; Oscar, William, Hazard; Costa), and when he wanted a more solid midfield he only changed Ramires for Oscar, but Conte is even worst. Same line up, no matter who he is facing. 

For the usual suspects, don't start with the "this squad is not good enough" bullshit. That would be a valid point if we were talking about a game against City or even United. This was a game against Liverpool. Liverpool's starting XI today was not even close of being stronger than ours. Conte was completely outclassed by Klopp. 

[bluephoenix 1,126]

I wonder why we turn to the manager every time we lose a match. Aren't the players to be blamed for it? 

Also, why is it that I feel the players take their position in the team for granted? And none of the managers are able to do anything about it.

 

[Styles 9,790]

1 minute ago, Tomo said:

Poch had similar problems in his first season at Spurs, positive signs but still too much Deadwood in the squad.

Even if we finished 6th Id still be behind Conte if we showed positive direction and there was enough there to make me believe that when he cleared the bad apples we will thrive, despite tonight I do believe that.

Judging by early evidence we might end up becoming flat track bully's but have some awkward big games, not nesseseirly a bad thing, well not in league football anyway.

What would you class as positive direction? We could play awful football for most of the year and still finish higher than we did last season.

Positive signs for me would be a progressive, modern style of play being implemented, some dead-wood being banished and players like Aina getting a chance. How likely are those things to happen? I'm not gonna hold my breath.