The Conte Thread

[Iggy Doonican 4,186]

Not going to elaborate anyone wanting Conte out is a cock of the highest order and so plastic they shouldn't go near radiators for fear of melting.

[Vybz Kartel 1,613]

Conte has to go man his tactics are outdated

[MrExcalibur100 7,124]

Though we won the game today, I'm sure I'm not alone in not wanting to watch a home game against a promoted team with 7 defensive players + our goalkeeper. If we were more ambitious we would have blown them away. Brighton just lacked any real quality to punish out inept 1st half. A better team would have taken some points off us today.

What is wrong with him this season? Why so negative. Okay we're not competing for the title but at least lets see some ambition. 

[zekinjo 449]

You can bring in Guardiola and Sarri as assistant coach nothing would change. Only formation. Too many wrong players in the squad. This is why Pep rejected us at first place. Last 2 summer transfer windows were the definition of human stupidity. Spending +£400m mostly on squad players. For that amount of money we should look like Real Madrid on (at their best) and off the field (on the paper). Thanks god on Antonio Conte. He upgraded almost every player to the possibly maximum level. And most of them are limited and one dimensional. Shame he didn’t get his first team targets. I don’t know. Don’t expect him to stay because it’s Roman’s toy. But definitely people should show more respect to Antonio for what he’s done and he is still doing with this average team. 

[Jase 43,479]

11 minutes ago, MrExcalibur100 said:

Though we won the game today, I'm sure I'm not alone in not wanting to watch a home game against a promoted team with 7 defensive players + our goalkeeper. If we were more ambitious we would have blown them away. Brighton just lacked any real quality to punish out inept 1st half. A better team would have taken some points off us today.

What is wrong with him this season? Why so negative. Okay we're not competing for the title but at least lets see some ambition. 

What did you think was the difference between the first half and second today? Conte didn't change anything at HT and yet we looked far more threatening after the break.

[MrExcalibur100 7,124]

9 minutes ago, Jason said:

What did you think was the difference between the first half and second today? Conte didn't change anything at HT and yet we looked far more threatening after the break.

I think it was the early goal we scored. Burnley had to be a bit more proactive after that and it left a bit more space for us to play. 

[Jase 43,479]

11 minutes ago, MrExcalibur100 said:

I think it was the early goal we scored. Burnley had to be a bit more proactive after that and it left a bit more space for us to play. 

Maybe. But then again, even when we have scored early like in previous home games, we still played at a pedestrian pace - e.g. the wins over Swansea, Bournemouth.

[MrExcalibur100 7,124]

22 minutes ago, Jason said:

Maybe. But then again, even when we have scored early like in previous home games, we still played at a pedestrian pace - e.g. the wins over Swansea, Bournemouth.

We need to start with more attacking players. There are too many limited players in that XI we started. It's been a while we actually went for a 3-4-3 with Hazard, Morata and Pedro. I want to see that next game 

[Chelsea Legend 11 4,062]

Conte has to go man his tactics are outdated

You need to go you plastic.

[Chelsea Legend 11 4,062]

Though we won the game today, I'm sure I'm not alone in not wanting to watch a home game against a promoted team with 7 defensive players + our goalkeeper. If we were more ambitious we would have blown them away. Brighton just lacked any real quality to punish out inept 1st half. A better team would have taken some points off us today.
What is wrong with him this season? Why so negative. Okay we're not competing for the title but at least lets see some ambition. 

We don't have a big enough squad to decide how we want to play game after game. Pedro and Willian played 4 straight games in short window of time.

Conte is managing the squad, we just don't have the squad depth to play the way you think is acceptable against smaller teams.

We have more defenders than we have attackers right now, look at the squad what else could be done to rectify this?

[Chelsea Legend 11 4,062]

What did you think was the difference between the first half and second today? Conte didn't change anything at HT and yet we looked far more threatening after the break.

He most definitely changed something. Bakayoko was basically a secondary striker today. The shape looked like 3-2-5, Moses and Alonso were basically wingers not wingbacks.



We had an excellent reaction in the second half and it showed in the final score.

[MrExcalibur100 7,124]

10 minutes ago, Chelsea Legend 11 said:

 

We don't have a big enough squad to decide how we want to play game after game. Pedro and Willian played 4 straight games in short window of time.

Conte is managing the squad, we just don't have the squad depth to play the way you think is acceptable against smaller teams.

We have more defenders than we have attackers right now, look at the squad what else could be done to rectify this?

 

Pedro and Willian played 4 straight games in short window of time. So has Hazard, no? Besides those two players are squad players.They've gone through stretches were they haven't played for weeks. I see no reason why they should be as fatigued as actual first XI players like Hazard, Kante and Cesar. It's just a cheap excuse.

Face it Conte is a defense first manager at heart. We're not the only ones with a small squad. Liverpool and Spurs are blowing the weaker teams away because they have attack minded managers 

[El P. 1,354]

This story about "negative tactics" is blown out of the proportion.

Moses is nowadays considered to be defensive player, really? Man played 90% of his career as a winger, his main strengths are speed, dribbling and stamina, and now we are considering him "defender" because he plays slightly different role in team? Maybe he is not the brightest player in the world in final third, but to call him defensive player is like calling Cuadrado defensive player and of course whole Juve's team because he plays on the wing. I guess then Verratti is too a defensive player, he plays in defensive midfielder role?

I agree that Conte should sometimes try to deploy Fabregas in the two-man midfield against lesser opponents, at least from the half time if result is 0-0, but let's not get carried away. Fabregas in the middle with Pedro/Willian on the wing could bring whole another set of problems, against any decent team, not just top 6. That's not anywhere near enough reason to call on Conte's head for.

[Chelsea Legend 11 4,062]

Pedro and Willian played 4 straight games in short window of time. So has Hazard, no? Besides those two players are squad players.They've gone through stretches were they haven't played for weeks. I see no reason why they should be as fatigued as actual first XI players like Hazard, Kante and Cesar. It's just a cheap excuse.
Face it Conte is a defense first manager at heart. We're not the only ones with a small squad. Liverpool and Spurs are blowing the weaker teams away because they have attack minded managers 

Can you ever justify dropping our most important attacker?

You sound like someone who hasn't played at all. 4 games in 12 days is without doubt A LOT of football and it's shown in both
of their performances of late.

And no he's not defensive he works with what he is given. We don't have a brilliant attacking team.


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[Jase 43,479]

14 minutes ago, Chelsea Legend 11 said:

 

Can you ever justify dropping our most important attacker?

You sound like someone who hasn't played at all. 4 games in 12 days is without doubt A LOT of football and it's shown in both
of their performances of late.

And no he's not defensive he works with what he is given. We don't have a brilliant attacking team.


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Just had this debate with someone on Twitter (subsequently got blocked because of disagreement ) and really don't get some fans these days. One minute they are moaning about Willian, Pedro etc. The next, they want them back in so that we can be more attacking. That fella suggested Willian/Pedro would be world beaters if they were playing under Guardiola. I get Pedro may be more effective but Willian? Some fans suddenly think these average players are better than they actually are and are being held back by Conte's supposedly negative tactics.

[Chelsea Legend 11 4,062]

Just had this debate with someone on Twitter (subsequently got blocked because of disagreement ) and really don't get some fans these days. One minute they are moaning about Willian, Pedro etc. The next, they want them back in so that we can be more attacking. That fella suggested Willian/Pedro would be world beaters if they were playing under Guardiola. I get Pedro may be more effective but Willian? Some fans suddenly think these average players are better than they actually are and are being held back by Conte's supposedly negative tactics.

And also advanced in age! 4 games in less than two weeks is a lot for most let alone two guys in their 30's? Even when they were in their prime and peak of their performances we are talking about good players not great. Certainly not the centrepieces of an attacking dynamo.

I get what people would like to see, entertaining attacking football where we score 5's and 6's and keep a clean sheet in the process but that's just not what we have here. We have a manager who values hard work over relying on individual talent. In the end what you can always call on is for effort, that is the hardest part of the game to coax in today's footballer. It's the reason Jose is less effective and why Pep has to spend €500m to compensate for lack of motivation.

We have a manager who is very intelligent and tactically brilliant! What we don't have is the ability to buy whoever we want regardless of price so as a result we are relying more on team tactics than going into the transfer market and building a fantasy team.

Having said that people were moaning that we haven't done enough business in the window, they may be right on paper but in the context of a squad, how many players are advisable to bring in without disrupting the team dynamic? I mean we've seen it with so many teams who make 5/6 changes then struggle to find their feet for the entire season. Too much change isn't always a good thing, we've replaced players and not added to the squad perhaps due to this reasoning. Maybe January is another chance to add to the squad since we seem a more settled side? I don't know....

Bottom line is we need stability in order to see significant growth in the club. Conte is at the 18th month mark and we've seen him completely overhaul the team, implement a new philosophy and tactical deployment, lower the average age of the team and stabilize a sinking ship reeling from finishing 10th! All that while winning the league and coach of the year honours as well as getting to the finals of the fa cup.

My suggestion is for all the kids who started following post 2003 id to have a bit of patience because the one thing we haven't had throughout that incredible run is a real identity and coincidentally some stability.

Overhauls are expensive when the expectations are so high so my message to the conte out brigade is CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR! If Conte leaves right before a period where we are rationing our dollars because we have a new stadium to build and an owner who seems reluctant to spend at will, the club will suffer immensely!

Just some food for thought as we move forward.... Back the manager, accent what we have, and we'll be champions again!

[Jase 43,479]

 

 

[The Skipper 20,593]

Conte isn't a defensive manager... he's pragmatic. There's a difference. Last season when we easily beat most smaller side confirmed this for me. We would be so much better with more quality going forward. If we have Sandro ahead of Alonso, if we had someone like Alexis ahead of Willian etc. we'd be so much better.

Yes, Conte has made mistakes but his squad isn't great. He's at fault I would say 25%. The rest falls on the board's inability to actually upgrade the squad. This squad we have is worse than last seasons - the sooner people accept that, the better.