The Conte Thread

[Blue Armour 4,436]

2 hours ago, Chelsea Legend 11 said:

I have to salute Conte for ending an ugly spell by changing the shape of a very predictable team. 

Deploying Kante as a box to box midfielder was GENIUS! It allowed us to recover balls high up the pitch and keep them on their back heels.

3-4-3 is the way to go moving forward, I liked having two dedicated attack minded players on the flank in Moses and Willian, it looked so dangerous.

The shape can easily be adapted to a 4-3-3 too so its very hard to predict how we will play.

 

Maybe that's the way we should be as a team moving forwards. Different horses for different courses. Switching from 3-5-3, 3-5-2 or 4-4-2 and so on.

Felt we had kind of got ourselves into a rut with trying to fit players into that old 4-2-3-1 formation for the past 3 years.

[WNDS 502]

I love the potential that this new 3-4-3 formation appears to have when it comes to our current squad: it can provide the team with enormous tactical flexibility if we manage to apply it correctly.

Using Hazard and Willian as genuine hybids between '10's and wingers could be a way of getting the best out of both of them, whilst simultaneously negating many of their weaknesses. Both of them have the pace and skill needed to operate as wingers, but their insistence on slowing play down to receive the ball into feet and assess their options ensures that neither of them is consistently decisive enough when operating from the flanks. However, both have also struggled to make a consistent impact when deployed as the 'number 10', as opposition teams have frequently congested this area of the pitch and denied them the space that they need to operate effectively; because neither of them (Willian in particular) possesses Fabregas' vision, they have sometimes been unable to find a way of dealing with this. In the formation that we used against Hull, however, they can share the responsibility of a 'number 10' with each other, whilst also doing the same thing in the context of wing-play with the wing-backs.

I particularly like the Willian-Moses combo on the right, because I feel that they cover for each other's strengths and weaknesses very well: Willian has the technique, passing, and combination-play that Moses lacks, whilst Moses is far more physically imposing, direct, and effective on the outside than Willian. Meanwhile, Moses' defensive inexperience can be compensated for (at least in part) by having both our best 1-on-1 defender (Azpilicueta) behind him and Kante directly in-field from him. If we can get this formation working, the right side of our team actually has the potential to be extremely solid: Azpilicueta (right CB) - Moses (right WB) + Kante (right DM/CM) - Willian offers a huge amount of energy, and looks very well-balanced (on paper).

Hell, even if this right side (or our central CB in the back-three) is having a difficult time in any given game, having Marcos Alonso as the left wing-back and then Azpilicueta as the right CB allows us to shift into a 4-2-3-1 formation with Alonso and Azpi as the FBs, any two of Terry, Luiz, and Zouma as the two CBs, Moses as the genuine RM/RW, Willian as the '10', and Hazard as the inverted LM/LW; if this isn't working, we can then sub in one or both of Fabregas and Oscar for one or both of Matic and Willian.

So.... yeah..... I'm a big fan of the changes that Conte's decided to make. Although they may NOT end up working-out for the team, something had to be done after the Liverpool and Arsenal games, and full credit to the manager for actually doing something genuinely different; it's quite refreshing to see.

[Adnane 1,101]

5 hours ago, Barbara said:

 

How convenient of you quoting this post 3 weeks later when all his weaknesses have been (re)visited due to a poor, awful performance at Arsenal. He was also bad at Leicester, couple goals saved his performance. 

If we want Chelsea to reach the levels it is supposed to be in, the maximum role players like Cesc should have in this team is a super sub, at best, and that's what he's been brilliant at in the first couple of weeks : coming up when have complete control of the ball against tired legs and finding spaces in between. 

[The Skipper 20,609]

We should've kept Kenedy, would've been perfect for that wingback role in his 343. 

[Antonio8 736]

italian media notice that in the last game chelsea played with 352

                  curtois 

            azpi  luiz cahill

moses kante willian matic alonso

              hazard costa

what a great coach antonio..

 

[Mceachran 109]

it was hull.

[WNDS 502]

1 hour ago, Mceachran said:

it was hull.

It was a team we needed to beat, simple as that.

If we are to stand a chance of getting top four this season, then these games are absolute 'must-wins'; we're not currently playing well enough to shrug-off victories against the less 'impressive' sides in the PL as if they were actually League 1 outfits.

[TheIceMan 596]

2 hours ago, The Skipper said:

We should've kept Kenedy, would've been perfect for that wingback role in his 343. 

Also BaBa would've been nice there! 

[Mceachran 109]

3 hours ago, WNDS said:

It was a team we needed to beat, simple as that.

If we are to stand a chance of getting top four this season, then these games are absolute 'must-wins'; we're not currently playing well enough to shrug-off victories against the less 'impressive' sides in the PL as if they were actually League 1 outfits.

To take nothing away from anything you said, because it's all true...

 

My point is that there shouldn't be any talk of "we finally found our formation!"  "yeah _____ should definitely start!" because I'm not quite sure anything Conte did actually caused that win to happen.  Because it was hull.  With a lowercase h.

 

 

[!Hazard! 3,394]

I played this formation in FIFA 17. It was amazing! Dave turned into a real beast in that midfield position. Antonio, follow my advice.

[kiwi1691 255]

4 hours ago, !Hazard! said:

I played this formation in FIFA 17. It was amazing! Dave turned into a real beast in that midfield position. Antonio, follow my advice.

 

JT wouldn't make that team, he is too slow to play that high up.

[akgw13 867]

19 hours ago, Mceachran said:

To take nothing away from anything you said, because it's all true...

 

My point is that there shouldn't be any talk of "we finally found our formation!"  "yeah _____ should definitely start!" because I'm not quite sure anything Conte did actually caused that win to happen.  Because it was hull.  With a lowercase h.

 

 

I agree Hull is a team we should beat every time, I think its just finding positives in each match. Conte changed the formation and dropped someone no other manager would. We kept a clean sheet, looked solid in D after we settled down, Kante looked like the Kante of last season, Moses looked bright. I dont know if that is the formation we should go with forever however it is beneficial to us that it was a success regardless of the opponent. and as always 3 points are 3 points ill take them no matter who we play.

[LAM09 7,043]

I hope he continues to weed out the individuals that have plagued us in recent months.

[Barbara 15,149]

On 02/10/2016 at 10:20 PM, Adnane said:

How convenient of you quoting this post 3 weeks later when all his weaknesses have been (re)visited due to a poor, awful performance at Arsenal. He was also bad at Leicester, couple goals saved his performance. 

If we want Chelsea to reach the levels it is supposed to be in, the maximum role players like Cesc should have in this team is a super sub, at best, and that's what he's been brilliant at in the first couple of weeks : coming up when have complete control of the ball against tired legs and finding spaces in between. 

how convenient life prevented me from LOGGING into the site for some days and when I do I have to come across your post in my notification tray. My post was just after the Arsenal game, I don't know what you are doing, but keep going, lol

[communicate 2,703]

On 10/4/2016 at 6:56 AM, !Hazard! said:

I played this formation in FIFA 17. It was amazing! Dave turned into a real beast in that midfield position. Antonio, follow my advice.

Passing has never been azpi quality,  he will struggle big time in midfield role