The Conte Thread

[the wes 7,212]

 

[OhForAGreavsie 6,073]

8 hours ago, Leif said:

Man City had their worst defence of their modern era last season, while United had their worst attacking output of their modern era last season. 

Arsenal perhaps had their worst season of the modern era last season, full stop.

It was just us and Tottenham; little Tottenham; and they played the better football too. If United didn't bend over, and Man City weren't shambolic at the back, we'd end the season level with Tottenham, them with the better goal difference. This is more a sign of failure from others, than a success of ours. Winning the title while scoring less goals than, and playing worse football than the next best, is like winning a boxing match by default due to the opponent revealing a severe arthritis in round 10, saying he can't go on, after having you beat every single round beforehand. You walk away with the title, not because you're great. But because, at the end, the opponent was in a poor state. A title's a title, but this one feels more hollow than the rest.

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I can't list 1 worse Man City/Arsenal season that there's been since they've been at the top. It was their worst seasons as we know it.
United were a 6th-place team 2 or even 3 seasons running. They too were poor.

The Premier League and its top dogs have never been weaker. Otherwise, they wouldn't lose the title to Chelsea, with the new manager, with barely any new players, following a shambolic season of their own, relying on 1 striker. Not forgetting, these same apparently-not-poor teams, missed out to damn Leicester the season before, and that was without having to deal with us. 

Man City could make it 3 seasons without a significant trophy this time. I can't remember United's last PL title win. Tottenham are bottlers and will probably never win it. And these teams remain toothless in Europe, too.
So it's not like we beat an on-form Atletico Madrid, Juventus and PSG to the title last season. We must be more critical when we measure how much quality we actually have. And we can't measure ourselves against the muts around us. Measure us against the pure-breds elsewhere in Europe.

 

Can’t argue with you about much of this. 

We win trophies frequently but the mentality and spirit Jose brought to the club thirteen and a bit years ago always plays as big a part in those triumphs as does the outright talent of our players. Those attributes are now being shaped by Antonio’s own brand of brilliance, but Chelsea’s reliance on this, and on the failings of our competitors, cannot go on.

We simply have to address our quality deficit, and must try to begin doing so in January. Stating this requirement is the easy part however. Making it happen is a different matter. The difficulties, including the fact that high calibre  players are in no hurry to join us, are well known but solutions have to be found.

On a brighter note, I’m on my way to watch the ladies play Bayern in the European Cup. Based on recent history their chances aren’t good but surely they’ll produce a less frustrating display than the men did on Saturday. Good luck girls. 

[Tomo 21,751]

9 hours ago, Leif said:

Man City had their worst defence of their modern era last season, while United had their worst attacking output of their modern era last season. 

Arsenal perhaps had their worst season of the modern era last season, full stop.

It was just us and Tottenham; little Tottenham; and they played the better football too. If United didn't bend over, and Man City weren't shambolic at the back, we'd end the season level with Tottenham, them with the better goal difference. This is more a sign of failure from others, than a success of ours. Winning the title while scoring less goals than, and playing worse football than the next best, is like winning a boxing match by default due to the opponent revealing a severe arthritis in round 10, saying he can't go on, after having you beat every single round beforehand. You walk away with the title, not because you're great. But because, at the end, the opponent was in a poor state. A title's a title, but this one feels more hollow than the rest.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I can't list 1 worse Man City/Arsenal season that there's been since they've been at the top. It was their worst seasons as we know it.
United were a 6th-place team 2 or even 3 seasons running. They too were poor.

The Premier League and its top dogs have never been weaker. Otherwise, they wouldn't lose the title to Chelsea, with the new manager, with barely any new players, following a shambolic season of their own, relying on 1 striker. Not forgetting, these same apparently-not-poor teams, missed out to damn Leicester the season before, and that was without having to deal with us. 

Man City could make it 3 seasons without a significant trophy this time. I can't remember United's last PL title win. Tottenham are bottlers and will probably never win it. And these teams remain toothless in Europe, too.
So it's not like we beat an on-form Atletico Madrid, Juventus and PSG to the title last season. We must be more critical when we measure how much quality we actually have. And we can't measure ourselves against the muts around us. Measure us against the pure-breds elsewhere in Europe.

 

With that logic we could pick apart any title win, including the back to back titles under Jose the first time.

[LDN Blue 7,903]

7 hours ago, OhForAGreavsie said:

We simply have to address our quality deficit, and must try to begin doing so in January. Stating this requirement is the easy part however. Making it happen is a different matter. The difficulties, including the fact that high calibre  players are in no hurry to join us, are well known but solutions have to be found.

Nothing is happening in January. We're short term philosophy and will only address the situation in the summer depending on what the damage is from this season. It will be the worst time, post World Cup with little time to implement with god knows who as our manager. 

It's the consequence we live with but you've alluded to it anyway. This is how we win trophies, it's a frustrating model but it's tedious to keep complaining about it now when we've seen it cyclical over the last 14 years. 

I don't actually think our team is that bad. We have some obvious shortcomings from this transfer window, no doubt, but we're still competitive enough to be finishing top 4 and have a decent push in the CL. The loss versus City was more down to Pep finally getting it right against Conte but that's tactical battle that can go either way in any given match between those 2. Only 6 points off top place, topping our CL group so far. 

[Sideshow Luiz 2,310]

I know that performance against City was terrible, but I think that the mid-week match had a huge toll.  It was the toughest test of the group and we were brilliant.  They worked their socks off in that match.  Then, they returned on Thursday morning and match Saturday.  We had our moments early, but after Morata went off, I figure Conte would be happy with a point, and maybe try to steal all 3 on the counter with Willian and Hazard.  Didn't work, obviously.

I thought that this was a pretty good analysis of the match:  

 

 

[communicate 2,703]

17 hours ago, OhForAGreavsie said:

Can’t argue with you about much of this. 

We win trophies frequently but the mentality and spirit Jose brought to the club thirteen and a bit years ago always plays as big a part in those triumphs as does the outright talent of our players. Those attributes are now being shaped by Antonio’s own brand of brilliance, but Chelsea’s reliance on this, and on the failings of our competitors, cannot go on.

We simply have to address our quality deficit, and must try to begin doing so in January. Stating this requirement is the easy part however. Making it happen is a different matter. The difficulties, including the fact that high calibre  players are in no hurry to join us, are well known but solutions have to be found.

On a brighter note, I’m on my way to watch the ladies play Bayern in the European Cup. Based on recent history their chances aren’t good but surely they’ll produce a less frustrating display than the men did on Saturday. Good luck girls. 

The problem in term of quality deficit is not just on our side, for me it is more the fact that the two teams that have the best squad last year spend far the most money. If this continue, it will be difficult to close the gap.

We all know that we need upgrade on wb the same as city. City then spent 120 m on fb alone without selling anybody, whereas we can only get zappacosta.

The same with united, they need a dm and a CF. They signed lukaku for 75 m + a 29 years old DM for 40 m.

 

[LDN Blue 7,903]

11 hours ago, Sideshow Luiz said:

I know that performance against City was terrible

Were we terrible? I'd say we were worst against Arsenal in the 0-0 than we were in the 1-0 loss to City. Read Zonal Marking's analysis of the tactical battle than ensued at SB. I believe it was more of a case of Guardiola surprising us and getting it on point with his use of Delph, Silva, De Bryune & Walker. It's not like we didn't have chances, Alonso & Azpi were getting the run ins on Delph & Walker sometimes but our passing accuracy was highly lacking unfortunately. 

It's like I said before. Conte v Pep is a very interesting tactical battle, they're both adaptable but as stubborn as each other.. An interesting paradox. But it means one usually gets it right over the other. We got it right twice last season, only team to do City home & away. This game could've gone in any direction. 1-1, 2-0 to them or even 1-0 to us.

[Sideshow Luiz 2,310]

11 hours ago, LDN Blue said:

Were we terrible? I'd say we were worst against Arsenal in the 0-0 than we were in the 1-0 loss to City. Read Zonal Marking's analysis of the tactical battle than ensued at SB. I believe it was more of a case of Guardiola surprising us and getting it on point with his use of Delph, Silva, De Bryune & Walker. It's not like we didn't have chances, Alonso & Azpi were getting the run ins on Delph & Walker sometimes but our passing accuracy was highly lacking unfortunately. 

It's like I said before. Conte v Pep is a very interesting tactical battle, they're both adaptable but as stubborn as each other.. An interesting paradox. But it means one usually gets it right over the other. We got it right twice last season, only team to do City home & away. This game could've gone in any direction. 1-1, 2-0 to them or even 1-0 to us.

I thought we were pretty terrible, toss up as to which match was worse, IMO.

[Blusan Alamb 295]

 

[the wes 7,212]

Claudio Ranieri backs Antonio Conte to remain in charge of Chelsea: 'I'm not convinced by his homesickness'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-4966324/Ranieri-not-convinced-Antonio-Conte-s-homesickness.html

[bigbluewillie 1,930]

Is it likely that the Boss will take up the offer of either the Italian national team or AC Milan?

Is he really pissed at the board for not getting the players he wanted?

That! and the fact he wants to go back to Italia.

[AlesJuve 264]

20 hours ago, Blusan Alamb said:

 

Bullshits:

1)Italian federation can not afford a high salary

2)Conte left the national team because he was going crazy without daily work.

If(and is a big if) Conte leaves Chelsea will only be for a top European club.
 

[LDN Blue 7,903]

Conte-Italy is such an easy narrative to write up for fishing journalists. In an ideal world the club would be doing anything they can to keep Conte beyond next summer but such is the structure of the club that they'll probably be happy they're not footing the bill for a huge compensation payout. 

[bigbluewillie 1,930]

9 hours ago, LDN Blue said:

Conte-Italy is such an easy narrative to write up for fishing journalists. In an ideal world the club would be doing anything they can to keep Conte beyond next summer but such is the structure of the club that they'll probably be happy they're not footing the bill for a huge compensation payout. 

my feelings on the situation exactly.

[Special Juan 28,141]

The media are like me during International week, they get very bored and start thinking silly things....difference is they write about them.

[coolhead23 1,147]

2 hours ago, Special Juan said:

The media are like me during International week, they get very bored and start thinking silly things....difference is they write about them.

Dont u? 

 

P.S. Just kidding!!!

[Special Juan 28,141]

3 hours ago, coolhead23 said:

Dont u? 

 

P.S. Just kidding!!!

[Jase 43,479]

 

 

[Mário César 1,255]

feeling sad for him

[El P. 1,354]

Sad reality, exactly the thing @Leif and myself were pointing out.

We are always one injury away from being average, and two injuries away from being disaster, as in this game against Palace.

We should of course thank God for last season, that won't happen ever again - not with that (this) team.