The Conte Thread

[Georgy 439]

We've actually spent money almost on par with the Manchester clubs but bought only trash.

[Pizy 18,963]

If I were Conte I'd be begging the board to get him a quality LWB and a forward of top quality this month to help ensure a CL place. Qualification through a top 4 finish looked like a sure thing just weeks ago but it now may turn into a massive struggle.

If we go out and get Mahrez and say Telles who actually offers pace, ability to beat his man, and can cross a bloody football while on the run I think we'd solidify our place.

Surely the higher ups at the club realize that we're really struggling? They must feel as anxious as we do? Actually, they clearly don't as there aren't even any links to these players.

[xPetrCechx 13,577]

Looks like he gave up here...

[xPetrCechx 13,577]

This is your Chelsea right now. Directionless, apathetic, with no apparent attacking plan on the pitch, and no discernible philosophy off it. Don't worry though, "we are working hard".

[Laylabelle 9,536]

Hopefully they realise.. Even linked with players who are cup tied it shouldn't be a put off.. Seeing as we aren't likely to go far and out focus needs to be still being in the cl next season.. Sadly looks like another pointless window 

[Alabama 1,992]

He should stop using Bakayoko before he gives up...

[MrExcalibur100 7,124]

Conte has become so predictable its become painfully unfunny. I hate to say I did but I did call this on Wednesday when I posted this on this thread:

"I won't be surprised if he continues with the 3-5-2 in our next match against Leicester. He really is a very stubborn manager who loves to prove himself right."

There are several reasons why this formation isn't working. I don't know what point he's trying to prove but its only going to lead to his demise here. 

[Jase 43,479]

Not sure what's worse - watching us bore our way to a 3rd 0-0 draw within a week or reading the stupid, drivel comments from the fans after the game (I don't necessarily mean you lot here).

@manpe mentioned this the other day - plenty of irony in fans calling for Conte (or the manager in general) to be sacked when we hit a tough period and then later wonder why the club are so trigger happy. Some might argue that we have done this in the past with decent success but at some point, the novelty of that will run out, if not already. Why would any saint manager want to come here if they know they will face the sack when hit a bad period and worse of all, have a pathetic, average squad to work with?

Has Conte made bad decisions? Yes. Does he deserve to be criticized? Yes. Should he be sacked? No. But we will probably do it, won't we? Have been repeating this for ages but the manager can only do so much because at the end of the day, this squad is extremely average. I mean, just look at that last shot from Moses against Leicester earlier. That's how bad this squad. We can sack Conte and hire Sarri, Allegri, Tuchel or whoever but they aren't gonna be successful year in year out if the board don't invest, never mind not giving what the manager wants.

Also, people need to make up their mind about who's at fault for our current problems. One week, it's because Willian, Bakayoko etc are shit. Next week, it's because of Conte. Which is it? If you can see them lacking the quality already, why even moan about the formation? People like to moan about it as if a simple change of formation will spark an upturn in form out of the blue (last season was down to because no one knew how to counter it in the early stages). No formation change is gonna suddenly make the players become the Brazil, Ajax or Milan or yesteryear. It's also silly that people praise the players and not Conte for getting it right when we win but put all the blame on Conte when we don't.

[Laylabelle 9,536]

Agree! That the problem people won't want to come into the job here. Except to work miracles with what is a average squad and then when shock horror doesnt work they get the sack. We should offer one year contact's from now on. Save the hassle! 

Agree he definitely isn't blameless as it's who he chose and the tactics etc etc but he ain't a sodding magician. Players who should be performing just aren't.. Except it seems most rather then a few.. The price tags aren't paying off

[Pizy 18,963]

Lots and lots of Chelse fans on Twitter calling for Conte to be sacked. Don't think it's got nearly to that level yet.

I feel for him that in every press conference where he receives question after question about signings and he has to reiterate that he's only the coach and doesn't deal with transfers. He has been hamstrung by the club since arriving.

Perfect aligning of the stars to win the league last season has papered over the cracks in a big way. Just like winning it the last time under José clouded the judgement of our board into thinking we could go again with the same squad, they thought that we didn't need top quality additions to defend this last title.

[MrExcalibur100 7,124]

I just posted a lengthy comment on what I feel Conte is doing wrong and it never posted. Pretty frustrating:

Anyway here is a shortened version.

[Laylabelle 9,536]

6 minutes ago, Pizy said:

Lots and lots of Chelse fans on Twitter calling for Conte to be sacked. Don't think it's got nearly to that level yet.

I feel for him that in every press conference where he receives question after question about signings and he has to reiterate that he's only the coach and doesn't deal with transfers. He has been hamstrung by the club since arriving.

Perfect aligning of the stars to win the league last season has papered over the cracks in a big way. Just like winning it the last time under José clouded the judgement of our board into thinking we could go again with the same squad, they thought that we didn't need top quality additions to defend this last title.

That's what I don't get. Soon as the window opened so so many people could see we needed players and although we won the league there was obvious cracks paved over.. Then not a lot done and now we're back here again.. If fans could see it why couldn't they! Or did just didn't act.. 

[Pizy 18,963]

Like, you can watch our team for just one match and pick out the obvious 2-3 areas that need reinforcement/upgrades. It's so obvious to us fans and I'm sure to the manager, but the club do nothing about it. Makes me want to pull my hair out.

It's like you know you have some holes in your boat and notice yourself slowly sinking but doing nothing about it.

[The Chels 2,502]

Conte says we're showing "great (defensive) solidarity". I think he must've missed the first half. He also says that "we must improve our shots from outside the box to score," because that's of course the most probable way of scoring...

Also about transfer targets: Conte wanted Bakayoko and well, here we are. The board are at fault for not buying top players, not for ignoring Conte targets.

[Special Juan 28,156]

5 minutes ago, Pizy said:

Lots and lots of Chelse fans on Twitter calling for Conte to be sacked. Don't think it's got nearly to that level yet.

I feel for him that in every press conference where he receives question after question about signings and he has to reiterate that he's only the coach and doesn't deal with transfers. He has been hamstrung by the club since arriving.

Perfect aligning of the stars to win the league last season has papered over the cracks in a big way. Just like winning it the last time under José clouded the judgement of our board into thinking we could go again with the same squad, they thought that we didn't need top quality additions to defend this last title.

Ah yeah the Twitter wankers....always the same, not looking past their own arse and following the crowd.

Conte can be pointed at for certain players being picked and the question raised as to why but lets dissect what is actually happening here. We have a forward who cannot finish, last year we had a brilliant striker who bullied the life out of everyone. Also, last season, he worked utter miracles with very average players, but what followed that? I will answer that, a transfer window of penny pinching and not getting targets because we have a board who would rather shop at Aldi and LIDL than Marks and fucking Spencers.

You can yap on about Marcos Alonso all you like and how he has done well, he's over performed and he's still bog average. Moses peaked last season, he will never have another season like that again, he is another very average player that a manager got the maximum from and we won't see it again. Bakayoko is a fucking travesty, this bloke isn't even a decent footballer, he's a car crash. Fabregas barring Hazard is our most creative player and even he is finished. Willian and Pedro are flat coke and lemonade they fizz every now and again but mostly are flat and lifeless.

All of this comes to not nailing the targets we needed last summer, the knock on effect the manger now is under the cosh....."Sack him" but they forget what the board didn't do, they didn't back him and all you have to do is now listen to Conte in his PC week in and week out, he's literally crying and on his knees because this fucking board are a joke. You can't moan or sack your manager if you haven't sone the most to back him, they have sold him short and we are seeing the fruits of this now, City cantering away with the league and us struggling to win games and break teams down.

What a fucking joke.

[MrExcalibur100 7,124]

(1) Hazard off after 60 mins. Rightly or wrongly, even Mourinho knew to never sub him off. 

(2) No more 3-4-3 despite this system bringing us so much sucess last season. Conte seems more concerned in shoehorning Bakayoko into the team!

(3) Pedro underutilized despite having a fantastic last season. He offers us something different with his longrange shooting, ability to make runs in behind and is a goal threat (unlike Fab/Willian)

(4) Bakayoko keeps on playing Bakayoko+Kante (or Kante+Drinkwater) and 5 defenders behind them. This is insanely negative. Think of it this way. When Leicester won the league with basically counter-attacking football, they played Kante + Drinkwater in a midfield 2 in a 4-4-2. Conte's set up is even more negative than Leicesters.

(5) What is Conte afraid of? Play 7 defensive minded players at home to Leicester and complain about attacking play lol.. What attacking play can you produce with Rudiger, Cahill, Azpilicueta, Moses, Alonso, Kante and Bakayoko? Teams who play attacking football and open up the opposition with their movement and fluidity don't play 7 defensive minded players. Sorry.

[MrExcalibur100 7,124]

(6) 3-5-2 is isolating Hazard. This is blatantly obvious. Initially Hazard got some joy in this 3-5-2 (away from home) where he was offered more space on the counter. Initially I wanted to only see a 3-5-2 away from home or in big games but right now I don't want to see it anymore. It just doesn't get the best out of our players and limits us too much in attack. Conte is taking it one step further and playing it as our main formation now. Our best performances have come with a 3-4-3. Especially at home. Teams are just packing the midfield now and Hazard has nowhere to go. Then he subs Hazard off like it's entirely his fault. Strange.

(7) And no one to play with since Fabregas can't dribble past players and use his pace to make runs behind and stretch a defense like a Pedro Can. Everything Fab does is infront of the opponents midfield and defense. 

(8) Conte gets paid millions of pounds to figure this things out. But he's being stubborn, doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results is the definiton of insanity. I'm not saying he's insane but he needs to show more creativity in his coaching. Right now he's looking like the negative manager Mourinho branded him last season.

 

I'm back on my long post shit again lol. Had to break this one up. But that's how frustrated I am with what I'm seeing. 

[Pizy 18,963]

You can be 100% sure that Conte hands the club a list with targets he wants in the transfer windows and they sure as hell aren't the players we end up with. Even ones who have worked out well have clearly not been his top choices. The club just goes "Nope. Here's someone who plays the position of the target you wanted but is much cheaper." Yeah, much cheaper and not close to as good.

 

[Mufassir08 2,400]

3 minutes ago, Pizy said:

You can be 100% sure that Conte hands the club a list with targets he wants in the transfer windows and they sure as hell aren't the players we end up with. Even ones who have worked out well have clearly not been his top choices. The club just goes "Nope. Here's someone who plays the position of the target you wanted but is much cheaper." Yeah, much cheaper and not close to as good.

 

The problem is that the so called cheaper players we sign aren't really that cheap. To put things into perspective, Zappa cost us 23m while Barca signed Nelson Semedo for 26m! Ricardo Perreira also had a similar release clause in his contract. We signed Baka and Drinkwater for 40m and 35m respectively while the likes of Tolisso (42m), Seri (35m), Goretzka, Torreira, Ceballos (12m), Dahoud (10m) could have been had for much less than what we paid for Baka with only Tolisso costing more.

[Laylabelle 9,536]

16 minutes ago, Pizy said:

You can be 100% sure that Conte hands the club a list with targets he wants in the transfer windows and they sure as hell aren't the players we end up with. Even ones who have worked out well have clearly not been his top choices. The club just goes "Nope. Here's someone who plays the position of the target you wanted but is much cheaper." Yeah, much cheaper and not close to as good.

 

Here's who you want... Here's who your getting lol surprise!!!