The Conte Thread

[Jase 43,479]

Champions League and Europa League can't come back soon enough. Need them to help screw some of the other sides up.

[Henrique 9,133]

8 minutes ago, Fernando said:

Hopefully we spend now because I was getting worried people was getting too comfortable with what we got. 

I even saw an article in ESPN where one of the main write said we didn't need to spend, we could win with what we got. 

Hopefully after today they still see we need more. 

and they were right. Every team in the world want to improve the quality of their squads, but its not like we cant win with the current squad.

[Blue-in-me-Veins 4,067]

1 hour ago, The Chels said:

I said in the pre-match thread that it's important not to overreact whatever the result, but it must be said that our performances against the bigger teams this season have left a lot to be desired.

Liverpool, City, Arsenal and Tottenham all exposed us defensively. The media have definitely overrated us in that respect and the big teams know we are there to be got at.

It's therefore even more vital that we remain consistent against the lesser sides. This will hopefully be enough to get us over the line.

 

James York had a very good stat highlighting how night and day we are vs the top 6 and the rest. 

But if you look at today's result, we broke that trend. 

Today's match was not horrific. A la Liverpool/Arsenal. Spurs were the better team, no doubt, but they didn't really "destroy us". What today's match does show, is that, much like we've been ruthless towards other clubs, Spurs were ruthless when they created their chances. Look at the Xg map. 

What annoyed me the most about today was just the abjectness of the wingbacks in Alonso/Moses. They really really let us down today. Failed to keep possesion/win their battles. Alonso  kept getting beat 1v1 vs any body he faced, and Moses played Alli onside for their first goal, and offered very little in attack until we went 2-0 down. 

 

[Henrique 9,133]

1 hour ago, The Chels said:

I said in the pre-match thread that it's important not to overreact whatever the result, but it must be said that our performances against the bigger teams this season have left a lot to be desired.

Liverpool, City, Arsenal and Tottenham all exposed us defensively. The media have definitely overrated us in that respect and the big teams know we are there to be got at.

It's therefore even more vital that we remain consistent against the lesser sides. This will hopefully be enough to get us over the line.

 

Liverpool and Arsenal games were before the 3-6-1 system, and I would not say Spurs "exposed" the team defensively today. I'm not saying everything is okay in the defense. Azpilicueta is not a CB, and he was used in that position because both Terry and Zouma were injured when Conte decided to give the 3-6-1 system a try. Now that Zouma is back, he must be introduced in this side at some point, with Azpilicueta moving into Moses position.

The problem today was not "exposed defense", but imo Conte failed to deal with Spurs high pressure. The team barely had a midfield in the first half, and the defenders were forced to try long balls to the attacking zone. I thought it was a bad decisions to start Pedro in this one, since this game was more suited to Willian, and perhaps Fabgreas was the ideal starter instead of Matic.

[MrExcalibur100 7,124]

Let's not forget how the board failed him last summer, the same board that is now singing his praises. Our transfer window was an utter failure. He got none of his targets. To say Antonio has been a god-send is the understatement of the season. Only God knows we're we'll have been without his tactical nous. Almost half of today's starting XI is not European top club standard but Conte made it look much better than it actually is. Let's not forget that.

[Fernando 6,585]

22 minutes ago, Henrique said:

and they were right. Every team in the world want to improve the quality of their squads, but its not like we cant win with the current squad.

Our squad has a lot of average players. 

We been saying that Conte is over achieving with this squad. The fact we got this far is a great testament to how good Conte is. 

But we seriously need to get better players to upgrade Pedro/Willian, Moses, Cahill, and Alonso. 

Nothing new, I been saying it even before today's game. We still need to improve more. 

[Henrique 9,133]

1 minute ago, Fernando said:

Our squad has a lot of average players. 

We been saying that Conte is over achieving with this squad. The fact we got this far is a great testament to how good Conte is. 

But we seriously need to get better players to upgrade Pedro/Willian, Moses, Cahill, and Alonso. 

Nothing new, I been saying it even before today's game. We still need to improve more. 

Next season with UCL football I would agree. At moment if you look at the other top 6 teams, they are also full of not so great players, so I would not go as far as saying Conte is "over achieving" with this squad.

[Fernando 6,585]

Just now, Henrique said:

Next season with UCL football I would agree. At moment if you look at the other top 6 teams, they are also full of not so great players, so I would not go as far as saying Conte is "over achieving" with this squad.

10th place?

Yes over achieving friend. 

Now is the time to pounce in transfer window to help us make it easier to win that title. And get more prepared for next season. 

[Henrique 9,133]

Just now, Fernando said:

10th place?

Yes over achieving friend. 

Now is the time to pounce in transfer window to help us make it easier to win that title. And get more prepared for next season. 

Thats not a valid argument. Last season the team was a 10th sided place because in the Mourinho games we had a relegation zone performance and record. Everybody with good sense know that team was better than the 10th finish suggested. So its nonsense to bring the position in the last season's table to create this fantastic storytelling that Conte is taking a mid table side and turning it into trophy contenders. Right now 2nd and 3th places belong to Spurs and Liverpool, and those squads are no better than our squad. 

[Leif 6,006]

We will clearly fail under him, we have shown no signs of progress 

[Fernando 6,585]

1 minute ago, Henrique said:

Thats not a valid argument. Last season the team was a 10th sided place because in the Mourinho games we had a relegation zone performance and record. Everybody with good sense know that team was better than the 10th finish suggested. So its nonsense to bring the position in the last season's table to create this fantastic storytelling that Conte is taking a mid table side and turning it into trophy contenders. Right now 2nd and 3th places belong to Spurs and Liverpool, and those squads are no better than our squad. 

The better squads are united and city. 

Especially city, and the difference between Spurs and Liverpool is time. 

Pochetino has been at Spurs more longer, followed by klopp. 

So for a short time frame with a team that was demoralized from last season yes Conte is still over achieving to me. 

[The Chels 2,502]

1 hour ago, Henrique said:

Liverpool and Arsenal games were before the 3-6-1 system, and I would not say Spurs "exposed" the team defensively today. I'm not saying everything is okay in the defense. Azpilicueta is not a CB, and he was used in that position because both Terry and Zouma were injured when Conte decided to give the 3-6-1 system a try. Now that Zouma is back, he must be introduced in this side at some point, with Azpilicueta moving into Moses position.

The problem today was not "exposed defense", but imo Conte failed to deal with Spurs high pressure. The team barely had a midfield in the first half, and the defenders were forced to try long balls to the attacking zone. I thought it was a bad decisions to start Pedro in this one, since this game was more suited to Willian, and perhaps Fabgreas was the ideal starter instead of Matic.

That's true. I might have been harsh by saying we were exposed. Liverpool and Spurs didn't really create all that much in our games with them (but finished well), although against Arsenal and especially City, we conceded too many chances.

Either way, we weren't particularly convincing in any of those big games, and as you mentioned one of the main reasons for that is our inability to cope well with pressing (coupled with our often passive approach limiting our chances going forward). Our standing in the 'top 6 mini league' isn't actually that bad though.

It might be something that won't really be fixed until we get some better players in, but I do hope we at least see some improvement against Liverpool and Arsenal in the upcoming fixtures.

[Magic Lamps 11,692]

IMO it is pretty clear that we can not continue with this formation and/or personnel. This is no overreaction, the cracks have been showing since the first spurs game and ee have not found a solution for that in the big games.  We do not need that many major changes right now but a bit of tweaking would help. Moses and Alonso are clearly defensively overwhelmed in the big games, azpi is too short and matic tends to become a passenger in big games even though he made some vital interceptions today.

 

Maybe we should try something like this in the big games mid term 

 

        Zouma.    David Luiz.   Cahill/new CB

Azpi.           Kante.         New Cm.            Pedro/Moses/new lwb

  Willian/Moses/new Rw.      Hazard

                         Diego Costa

 

However it would require fewer signings if we just change formation back to 4 3 3, add fabregas and simply buy a better left back finally. Esp at Liverpool I fear getting outnumbered in midfield as soon as their full backs push forward

 

 

 

 

 

[Sideshow Luiz 2,310]

 

This is what I wrote after the City match.

Spurs did basically the same thing to pierce our back line.  Instead of DeBruyne in the right half space, it was Erikson.  2 crosses from exactly the same position.  Almost set Kane up as well from the exact same space.

Have an energetic runner to stay wide to occupy Alonso, then try to get your player with the best delivery to find a soft space between Matic (or Fabs in the City match) and Cahill.  That's the soft space in our formation (they all have one).

The difference between this match and City's was that City pushed men forward and got exposed on the counter.  Spurs' midfield was really good today, I have to say.  Alli was playing the "Hazard" position and he was back winning the ball in midfield.  Dembele and Wanyama were too much for Matic and Kante, too quick, too strong.  City didn't have that.  They were playing Gundogan and Fernandinho.  One of our goals came when Gundogan got too far forward and lost the ball.

Alderweireld was really good as well, neutralized Costa.  IMO.

Oh well, had to lose some time.  On to the next.

It's a sign of how much Conte has raised expectations.  Before the season, I would have bitten your hand off for top 4.  Now, we're talking about titles and breaking records.  Hopefully, it's a reminder to the board that we're no where close to the finished article.

 

[OneMoSalah 8,885]

Aye so it took one game after 13 STRAIGHT wins for people to suggest 1) we need a new system 2) Conte will fail 3) Azpi is not a CB 4) we've not shown any progress... need I go on? Quite embarrassing. One game doesn't win or lose you a championship in January. We will definitely finish top 4 and I'd be very surprised if anybody thought that we'd achieve that this year based on last season.