The Conte Thread

[Adnane 1,101]

I think the challenge was to play a back 3 ( 5 ) and keep the team clicking on the offensive end, unpredictable and direct. 

We have the perfect profiles in Luiz, Alonso, Moses, Kanté and the real Matic. 

Genuinely believe that these 4-5 players have been the key to the success of the system thus far. 

[kellzfresh 7,229]

2 hours ago, manpe said:

Can't watch the video now, but fluidity and covering is something I have noticed too. With 3 at the back, we have great defensive solidity, area coverage and also have the option of one of them pushing forward when it's safe/necessary to increase numbers in midfield. Azpi and Luiz do that occasionally.

We are better in possession too because the backline can afford to push higher up now without Ivanovic holding them back while the most dangerous areas are covered.. and instead of having 2 options to pass at the back, we have 3 and that is harder for the opposition to press because they would need to commit more players forward leaving them more exposed. We are using the confusion to our advantage at the moment, it's a matter of time before others start adapting their plans to our new shape and we need to be prepared for that.

Honestly, the more I think about this formation, the more I realize how clever it is and how shit 4-2-3-1 was.

The 4-2-3-1 was too rigid, everyone stays in one position and few movement. But the 3-4-3 /3-5-2 is so fluid in the sense that there's cover from the wide centerbacks and it allows the front 3 to swap positions and give the opponent headaches on who to mark. 

[DYC. 7,542]

I can't get too excited about this system. I'm fully enjoying the moment but it's only been three games. Chelsea are in a good place now and the form of many players has spiked simultaneously. But the true colours of this system will become clear when things aren't going well and teams start to figure out how to combat the new shape. I remember how Chelsea played 4-1-2-1-2 under Ancelotti at first and things were really clicking in the beginning. Great football coupled with great results. But then the team started to struggle a bit and everything went downhill quickly, and Ancelotti eventually reverted to 4-3-3.

It will be interesting to see how the team and Conte react in a tough spell.

[gadget 126]

Picking up on Conte's words on the cfc website re the back 3 makes me think the central position is a fight between Terry and Luiz.

‘The central defenders on the right and the left must be very fast and aggressive,’ said the Italian.

‘The players that play in the middle of the three defenders must be more tactical, must reflect more and find the right position, and also call the line up and down.

 

Fast and aggressive is certainly not a way to describe JT, i don't think he,ll be comfortable there either throughout the recent years he has always liked/needed a left back that sticks close to him (Cole/Azpi). Having a wing back flying up the wing will do nothing but expose JT.

For Luiz, as much as he could play there, i think he is relishing the responsibility on the sweeper and organising the 3 defenders, it seems to have calmed him down, plus when he does have his run forward he's got 2 + either Matic or Kante to drop and cover.

The wing back positions we look weak in numbers with no suitable back up for wither side. and now we've gone from 3 attacking mid to effectively 2, we have about 5 player fighting for one place, (Hazard is almost guaranteed one of them) with Willian, Pedro, Oscar wanting that right forward position. Conte seems to like RLC more attacking to so that is another. My preference is to put Cesc up there behind Costa. with Moses providing the width and running, not too much tracking back needed, i think he could shine in the right forward position 

[Antonio8 736]

56 minutes ago, DYC. said:

I can't get too excited about this system. I'm fully enjoying the moment but it's only been three games. Chelsea are in a good place now and the form of many players has spiked simultaneously. But the true colours of this system will become clear when things aren't going well and teams start to figure out how to combat the new shape. I remember how Chelsea played 4-1-2-1-2 under Ancelotti at first and things were really clicking in the beginning. Great football coupled with great results. But then the team started to struggle a bit and everything went downhill quickly, and Ancelotti eventually reverted to 4-3-3.

It will be interesting to see how the team and Conte react in a tough spell.

with this system things will be better with time: players are learning positions and movements to do, and winning their confidence will increase more and more until they'll 

be able to play automatically, as juve and italian national did under conte..

when the automatism of squad will be reached, then only the major quality of new players can make chelsea improve..

in conte i completely trust

[manpe 10,861]

5 minutes ago, gadget said:

‘The central defenders on the right and the left must be very fast and aggressive,’ said the Italian.

‘The players that play in the middle of the three defenders must be more tactical, must reflect more and find the right position, and also call the line up and down.

Reading this makes me wonder why Luiz is the middle man not Cahill. Luiz is faster and more aggressive, not known to be very tactically disciplined either. Judging by those criteria they should swap places with the slower and less aggressive Cahill.

[Unionjack 7,531]

6 hours ago, -Kaplan- said:

Christensen is a CB, primarily. I think he played as a CM on the rare occasion. Kenedy would be a LWB competition for Alonso. 

Yeah I know where they play and I'm not saying they're bad players. I'm saying that I can't see the club bringing in so many 'youth' thats been out on loan when we have so many out there too choose from when we already have the likes of Chalobah/RLC/Ailna/Solanke fighting for places now.

And with hopefully Europe next season I wouldn't put faith in a team made of Academy hopefuls. Yes we do have to use some of these lads or it woulld be a shame. But we have say RLC who we really shouln't be using but we hyped him so much and stuck him on £60k a week and now we need to be seen as using him or we look like twats.

Whereas the likes of Chalobah is the real deal and we could happily use him in Europe.

We just need to find the right ballance and I'm sure Conte will gradually do it given the chance/time..

[Yeboii 1,844]

1 hour ago, manpe said:

Reading this makes me wonder why Luiz is the middle man not Cahill. Luiz is faster and more aggressive, not known to be very tactically disciplined either. Judging by those criteria they should swap places with the slower and less aggressive Cahill.

Probably because of Luiz's passing.

[Tomo 21,733]

3 hours ago, DYC. said:

I can't get too excited about this system. I'm fully enjoying the moment but it's only been three games. Chelsea are in a good place now and the form of many players has spiked simultaneously. But the true colours of this system will become clear when things aren't going well and teams start to figure out how to combat the new shape. I remember how Chelsea played 4-1-2-1-2 under Ancelotti at first and things were really clicking in the beginning. Great football coupled with great results. But then the team started to struggle a bit and everything went downhill quickly, and Ancelotti eventually reverted to 4-3-3.

It will be interesting to see how the team and Conte react in a tough spell.

Conte is a lot more astute tactically than Ancelotti, who in my view is somewhat over-rated as a manager despite his 3 CL titles. Also Conte has another advantage to Carlo back then, he doesn't have a set of players so set in their ways, ultimately every manager between Avram and interim RDM had to revert back to Jose's tactics as that was all the squad knew, even Wenger or Pep would have probably conceded defeat and reverted back. Antonio on the other hand has a squad that can still go any which way in terms of style of play, and a squad still young enough to learn new tricks.

Having said that there will be counter tactics to the 3-4-3 sooner or later and i'm worried that it might be sooner with Claude Puel to face on Sunday, he produced a masterclass at The Etihad and totally outfoxed Pep, he knew exactly what moments to press and exactly what moment's to sit back and that got them the goal and a well deserved point. But when the time comes it's up to Antonio to keep making those tweaks (whether that is another formation or tweaks to the tactics) to keep the opposition on their toes and make it hard to predict what we will do from week to week.

[El P. 1,354]

39 minutes ago, Tomo said:

Conte is a lot more astute tactically than Ancelotti, who in my view is somewhat over-rated as a manager despite his 3 CL titles. Also Conte has another advantage to Carlo back then, he doesn't have a set of players so set in their ways, ultimately every manager between Avram and interim RDM had to revert back to Jose's tactics as that was all the squad knew, even Wenger or Pep would have probably conceded defeat and reverted back. Antonio on the other hand has a squad that can still go any which way in terms of style of play, and a squad still young enough to learn new tricks.

Having said that there will be counter tactics to the 3-4-3 sooner or later and i'm worried that it might be sooner with Claude Puel to face on Sunday, he produced a masterclass at The Etihad and totally outfoxed Pep. But when the time comes it's up to Antonio to keep making those tweaks (whether that is another formation or tweaks to the tactics) to keep the opposition on their toes and make it hard to predict what we will do from week to week.

Agree. Went to Chelsea - got team in peak power (Drogba, Lampard, Terry, Cole, Čech etc). Went to Real Madrid, got team in peak power (Galacticos v2.1 - Di Maria, Alonso and guys from today's Real). Went to PSG, got team in peak power (Ibra, Silva, Matuidi, Verratti,...) Went to Bayern, got team in almost peak power (Lewa, Alaba, Neuer, Hummels, Boateng, Alcantara, Mueller, Costa...).

Can't remember about Milan only.

[-Kaplan- 410]

3 CL titles and people still say he's overrated? -.-"

I guess some people can never be pleased. Maybe Messi and CRonaldo are overrated as well; they're just lucky to be playing with great players. 

[Tomo 21,733]

15 minutes ago, -Kaplan- said:

3 CL titles and people still say he's overrated? -.-"

I guess some people can never be pleased. Maybe Messi and CRonaldo are overrated as well; they're just lucky to be playing with great players. 

And you have just gone for the sensation headline.

I'll tell you why I think Carlo is overrated, because his league record for the teams he has managed is rubbish, and call me old fashioned by I consider the league the bread and butter, always have always will, he even blew the league with PSG, which is apparently impossible. I also don't like him as a tactican,his team's get complacent at inappropriate times and he takes far too long to change things when they go wrong, which usually see's off his team's title bids in the proces, compare that to Conte reacting almost on the spot to change things after the awful Arsenal firat half. Also Chelsea and Milan went badly stale under his watch, and neither have fully recovered.

I'm not saying he's a bad manager, far from it, but I'd much prefer a Conte, Simeone, prime Fergie or prime Jose type manager who's teams regularly challenge for and win titles. Of course I find the 3 CLs impressive, but as an overall package, there's quite a few managers I prefer before Carlo.

[-Kaplan- 410]

13 minutes ago, Tomo said:

And you have just gone for the sensation headline.

I'll tell you why I think Carlo is overrated, because his league record for the teams he has managed is rubbish, and call me old fashioned by I consider the league the bread and butter, always have always will, he even blew the league with PSG, which is apparently impossible. I also don't like him as a tactican,his team's get complacent at inappropriate times and he takes far too long to change things when they go wrong, which usually see's off his team's title bids in the proces, compare that to Conte reacting almost on the spot to change things after the awful Arsenal firat half. Also Chelsea and Milan went badly stale under his watch, and neither have fully recovered.

I'm not saying he's a bad manager, far from it, but I'd much prefer a Conte, Simeone, prime Fergie or prime Jose type manager who's teams regularly challenge for and win titles. Of course I find the 3 CLs impressive, but as an overall package, there's quite a few managers I prefer before Carlo.

 

He didn't win the league with PSG that year because he was appointed manager in December.

Stale Chelsea? He was here for a whopping 2 years in which he came 1st and 2nd. And we were in the title race until the last 3 matches of the second season. 

At Milan he finished outside the CL places once when Milan started to sell all their players. He also famously designed the "Christmas Tree" formation as a result of losing players, which he won the UCL with. So I don't understand this idea of him not being able to change tactics.  

If you ask me, most Chelsea fans were rather disappointed when he left us. 

[Tomo 21,733]

9 minutes ago, -Kaplan- said:

He didn't win the league with PSG that year because he was appointed manager in December.

Stale Chelsea? He was here for a whopping 2 years in which he came 1st and 2nd. And we were in the title race until the last 3 matches of the second season. 

At Milan he finished outside the CL places once when Milan started to sell all their players. He also famously designed the "Christmas Tree" formation as a result of losing players, which he won the UCL with. So I don't understand this idea of him not being able to change tactics.  

If you ask me, most Chelsea fans were rather disappointed when he left us. 

Yes very much stale, that 10/11 season most of our group stagnated and totally lost their hunger, apart from the man united game at home I don't think we had a convincing display all season, and I include those early 6-0s in that, very flattering scores.

We finished 2nd due to a combination of two things, the league being the weakest for a long time and the sheer mentality of the leaders ability to grind out undeserved results.

That season set us back years and left uswitha a massive rebuilding task.

[manpe 10,861]

8 minutes ago, Tomo said:

Yes very much stale, that 10/11 season most of our group stagnated and totally lost their hunger, apart from the man united game at home I don't think we had a convincing display all season, and I include those early 6-0s in that, very flattering scores.

We finished 2nd due to a combination of two things, the league being the weakest for a long time and the sheer mentality of the leaders ability to grind out undeserved results.

That season set us back years and left uswitha a massive rebuilding task.

Why no blame for the board? Do you think Ancelotti alone was at fault for this stagnation? It could be seen coming miles away, but the club did nothing, they even made it worse with Torres.

[Tomo 21,733]

1 hour ago, manpe said:

Why no blame for the board? Do you think Ancelotti alone was at fault for this stagnation? It could be seen coming miles away, but the club did nothing, they even made it worse with Torres.

The board deserve their fair share of the blame but some of Carlos tactical decisions and were baffling, I don't blame him for not playing Josh, Gael etc because they weren't ready, but Danny was and to carry on playing the stagnant Kaloudanelka over him was criminal.

And Wilkins said Carlo chose Torres.

[Tautvix 1,321]

I don't think we needed to make so many changes. What's the point? We are not playing CL or EL. We don't have too many games. At least someone like Hazard and Pedro should have started.

[bluephoenix 1,126]

11 minutes ago, Tautvix said:

I don't think we needed to make so many changes. What's the point? We are not playing CL or EL. We don't have too many games. At least someone like Hazard and Pedro should have started.

He probably wanted to give youngsters a chance. Terry isn't suited for Conte's system judging by the way he played today.