The Conte Thread

[King11Didier 916]

After a disappointing transfer window, you can see how the club is struggling when 2 players are injured. Last season we were so lucky for not having long term injuries and also playing only in PL and FA, but this season is all different and the board didn't do anything to help Conte.
But what I see as his big mistake is that we have Christensen and Rudiger, playing really solid when they are on the pitch, but mostly staying on the bench for the likes of Luiz and Cahill who are making disappointing performances. Also, I can't figure how is possible Willian to start a game, even the young boy with the angry instagram story will do better than him. It's really hard for him with this injuries and missing players, but I hope he at least makes the right decisions more often and plays the right players on the pitch.

[LDN Blue 7,903]

15 minutes ago, King11Didier said:

we have Christensen and Rudiger, playing really solid when they are on the pitch, but mostly staying on the bench for the likes of Luiz and Cahill who are making disappointing performances. Also, I can't figure how is possible Willian to start a game,

Urgh, such belittlement of our season last year. People forget this time last year we were underdogs, from a poor finish the season before to an average transfer window. Can we say 2016 window was any better than this year? We bought a CM, FB and striker. 

Luiz was hailed a stroke of genius lmao. As for Willian, everyone's favourite fall guy. The Musonda wank-a-thon among Chelsea fans this season is beyond cringe. Same fans probably wanted to keep Tammy Abraham this season.

[King11Didier 916]

1 hour ago, LDN Blue said:

Urgh, such belittlement of our season last year. People forget this time last year we were underdogs, from a poor finish the season before to an average transfer window. Can we say 2016 window was any better than this year? We bought a CM, FB and striker. 

Luiz was hailed a stroke of genius lmao. As for Willian, everyone's favourite fall guy. The Musonda wank-a-thon among Chelsea fans this season is beyond cringe. Same fans probably wanted to keep Tammy Abraham this season.

In 2016 window we were upgrading a team which was going to face only 1 competition the whole season, this season is different as the team plays in CL too and a rotation between the players is a must.

Can't really understand the rest of your post, but I'm not a big fan of Musonda, but when players perform like Willian, I think someone else deserve a chance also.
And I'm really against keeping Abraham in the team right now, eventhough I'd prefer him over Bats at the moment, the boy needs to play week in and week out and this can't happen at Chelsea.

[Jase 43,479]

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2017/oct/15/chelsea-face-difficult-season-fighting-four-fronts-antonio-conte

“We mustn’t be happy,” Conte said. “This season will be very difficult for us. For this reason we have to put 150% in; 100% won’t be enough. I have players with a great will to work and fight. For sure we have to find the strength to overcome this moment. Everyone can see our situation.

“I think every season is different. Last season is the past. Now it is another squad, different players and for this reason if we compare last season we didn’t play Europa League or Champions League. This season we are facing four competitions and we are having a few problems doing this. When you have a few injuries, you are in trouble.”

“You know very well the potential of the other teams but it is important for us to look at ourselves,” he said. “This season will be difficult but also we have to understand we have to try to build something important for the future, to give the opportunity to the new players to have more experience in this league, to give the opportunity to young players to show they deserve to stay and play for Chelsea. We must have patience this season to understand it won’t be easy.”

[BlueLyon 9,359]

I cant blame Conte for the performances, the players are as guailty as management. 

BUT Conte has been absolutely poor in picking players.

We have many injuries and red cards, so there are not many options to pick sometimes, but even when everyone was fit, he decided to play Cesc. The guy offers absolutely nothing except for long passes. Even his so called leadership and experience are nowhere to be seen when we need to step up.

He is perfect as backup and yet this year he comes back as starter.

Definately on Conte this one. We dont have other deeplying playmaker, but we have Bakayoko and Kante and we should play 3:4:3 until we buy new playmaker, better this than 3:5:2 with Cesc and having midfield exposed.

Then there is Cahill. To extent Luiz aswell. Christensen has been amazing, yet Conte picks proven players who dont perform well. Sure not easy to bench captain, but hell if these guys are given to play even when they play shit for weeks, they wont improve and train harder because they have spot in 11 regardless. Complacency comes in place. And what message it gives to youngsters? 

And finaly Willian. He has been absolutely awful this season, seriously cant remember player that was so shit for so many games. Sorry Willy, but its time to stop. Dribbles in wrong direction, missplaces passes, predictable crosses and shots...and hell, no drive to improve and work harder either. 

Yet Conte picks him for nearly every game. 

These three are simply down on Conte. 

Time to show some balls and dunno, play Musonda if necessary. 

As for Bats, no words either, but we simply dont have another striker apart from injured Morata, its understandable he plays now.

Bottom line it shows clearly once again how big of a fuckup summer was. We brought 7 new players, sold twice more, but first 11 is no better than last year. Morata and Baka instead of Matic and Costa is a downgrade, but they are young. We have other problems like replacing Cesc, backup striker, new wingbacks, and quality RW. 

No way next summer we adress all those issues.

[Antonio8 736]

bats is not a football player 

 

[kellzfresh 7,229]

We cannot handle pressing. I complained about this so much last season, too many players who dont know what to do when being under pressure.

Before only top teams were pressing us and we suffered against them last season but now, even small teams like crystal palace are pressing us, not allowing us to pass out of the back and we cant cope. I blame this on the board for buying average joes year in year out and on Conte for not figuring out what to do about this. Worst of all Hazard and morata cant seem to get a game together and we keep fielding willian for whatever reason. 

[milka 3,356]

Chelsea's Premier League title defence already looks doomed... so what are the problems facing Antonio Conte after Crystal Palace defeat?

 

Chelsea are eight games into the Premier League campaign and already their aspirations of defending their title appear doomed.

Saturday brought a third league defeat for Antonio Conte's side, following previous reverses against Manchester City and Burnley. 

This was the perhaps the most worrying of all, as Chelsea were comprehensively outfought by Crystal Palace, a team that had previously lost all seven games and failed to score.

 

1. Trouble with Costa, transfers and physical demands

Watch Chelsea this season and there is a nagging sense that something is not quite right. 

The summer yielded fraught tensions between the manager and the club hierarchy, a number of lapsed transfer deals and the Diego Costa situation overshadowed the club's preparations for the new season. 

Conte did not have the squad he wanted when the league season kicked off and the fact Chelsea were 3-0 down at home to Burnley inside 45 minutes spoke volumes.

They still have the capacity to pull off outstanding one-off performances, such as the victories at Tottenham and Atletico Madrid. 

Yet do they have the consistency and depth to keep pace with the Manchester clubs? It appears not. 

Chelsea seem to be struggling with the physical demands too, with Palace offering more sprints and running further as a team than their counterparts on Saturday. 

Conte continues to say how 'difficult' the season will be and the more you say something, the more likely it becomes to be a self-fulfilling prophecy.

2. Midfield balance issues

Chelsea allowed Nemanja Matic to leave for Manchester United and that appears a more careless gesture with every passing week. 

His replacement, Tiemoue Bakayoko, has outstanding qualities in his stride, balance and power but he does not offer the positional discipline of his predecessor. 

With N'Golo Kante sidelined through injury for the next few weeks, Conte can ill-afford to pair Bakayoko with Cesc Fabregas too often. It leaves Chelsea vulnerable on the counter attack and in a midfield battle. 

Danny Drinkwater is not too far away from a return but another option might be to play with David Luiz in midfield and allow a defensive opportunity for Andreas Christensen or Antonio Rudiger.

3. Striking struggles

Alvaro Morata is an outstanding frontman but Chelsea are now one injury niggle away from a crisis. 

When Sergio Aguero missed Saturday's fixture for Manchester City, Pep Guardiola's side scored seven. Chelsea, by contrast, wilted entirely without their star frontman.

Michy Batshuayi has popped up with important goals, notably to win the title at West Brom and to seal victory at Atletico. Yet Conte clearly does not trust the striker to last the distance during a major game. 

When Morata was injured against City early on, Conte preferred to play without a striker than offer Batshuayi a chance and on Saturday, the Belgian played only 57 minutes before being substituted.

He subsequently cursed to the heavens and through a minor hissy-fit on the touchline. It was clear in the summer that Conte wanted a different man, notably Fernando Llorente, and now he is being proved correct in his judgement.

 

4. Flimsy title defence

No side has successfully defended the Premier League title since Sir Alex Ferguson's Manchester United in 2009 and we are coming up to a decade. 

To win consecutive Premier League titles, with the resources of the clubs at the top of this division, appears ever more difficult. 

Since the start of the Premier League era, only Ferguson and Jose Mourinho have achieved the feat. Yet there are title defences and then there are Chelsea title defences. 

Chelsea's mentality was severely questioned two years ago, when Mourinho's all-conquering champions suffered the most extraordinary meltdown. 

Conte warned in pre-season that his team would not endure another 'Mourinho season'. With his team nine points off the pace and 20 behind Manchester City on goal difference, Conte's words may yet come back to haunt him.

 

5. Predictability

Chelsea's 3-4-2-1 formation stunned the Premier League last season and over the past year nearly every side in the division have trialled the system at one point or another. 

Conte changed the way managers think but now English football is used to the formation and Chelsea are struggling for a Plan B. Does Conte have another trick up his sleeve to change matters up? 

It may be that the system yields more success in Europe, where more clubs are unfamiliar with the benefits of the formation.

 

[The Skipper 20,593]

Courtois

Azpi Luiz Christensen Rüdiger 

Bakayoko Kanté Fabregas RLC

Hazard Musonda Morata Abraham

Only players CFC must build around (in terms of general squad, different options) even if Conte leaves in the near future. Everyone else is pretty much expendable imo. 

[Henrique 9,133]

5. Predictability

Chelsea's 3-4-2-1 formation stunned the Premier League last season and over the past year nearly every side in the division have trialled the system at one point or another. 

Conte changed the way managers think but now English football is used to the formation and Chelsea are struggling for a Plan B. Does Conte have another trick up his sleeve to change matters up? 

It may be that the system yields more success in Europe, where more clubs are unfamiliar with the benefits of the formation.

[Henrique 9,133]

This forum is way too lenient with managers. Okay, the squad is not as good as could be, but Conte is not doing his homework. 

At this point its pretty clear he a one trick manager, and he relies on 3CB formation. He just doesn't have a plan B. With very few exceptions, after 20 minutes of the game we know how the rest of the game will unfold. It means if the team start the game playing really bad, the team will keep playing bad until the final whistle. 

Conte is good, but not a genius. Its really weird that people in this forum are mad because he didn't sign a contract extension yet when still got two more seasons left.

[Fernando 6,486]

13 minutes ago, Henrique said:

This forum is way too lenient with managers. Okay, the squad is not as good as could be, but Conte is not doing his homework. 

At this point its pretty clear he a one trick manager, and he relies on 3CB formation. He just doesn't have a plan B. With very few exceptions, after 20 minutes of the game we know how the rest of the game will unfold. It means if the team start the game playing really bad, the team will keep playing bad until the final whistle. 

Conte is good, but not a genius. Its really weird that people in this forum are mad because he didn't sign a contract extension yet when still got two more seasons left.

And you think there's any better manager out there that can work good with what we have?  

[LDN Blue 7,903]

1 hour ago, Henrique said:

He just doesn't have a plan B.

Tbh, what manager right now does? Pochettino seldom shows tactical flexibility, if anything Conte showed he's more agile there when we played Spurs and he went with diamond formation. Granted his hand was forced by needing to draft Luiz in a DM. But he still managed to out-whit MP. 

Mourinho we know has no plan B. He has only one plan game-to-game as he showed vs Liverpool (Lmao the irony United fans are now defending 'park the bus'). So unless you're going to name me a manager outside the PL, I struggle to see anyone who every implements a plan B or C. 

[Tomo 21,733]

2 hours ago, Fernando said:

And you think there's any better manager out there that can work good with what we have?  

I am not doubting Conte just yet but i always felt that "who can do better?" narrative to be quite simplistic.

Two year's ago a lot of people wanted to keep Jose because apparently there was no one better but alas, there was. If Conte's tenure crashes and burns at any point ofcourse there will be better option's out there.

[Jase 43,479]

 

[Jase 43,479]

29 minutes ago, Tomo said:

I am not doubting Conte just yet but i always felt that "who can do better?" narrative to be quite simplistic.

Two year's ago a lot of people wanted to keep Jose because apparently there was no one better but alas, there was. If Conte's tenure crashes and burns at any point ofcourse there will be better option's out there.

But sooner or later, we're gonna run out of good managers, if we haven't already. Conte hasn't helped himself with some poor decisions this season but it's obvious that he's trying to extract as much as possible out of this flawed squad. Any other manager would likely be struggling as well and worse, they might even be clueless like AVB, Scolari or Grant.

[11Drogba 2,000]

3 hours ago, Tomo said:

I am not doubting Conte just yet but i always felt that "who can do better?" narrative to be quite simplistic.

Two year's ago a lot of people wanted to keep Jose because apparently there was no one better but alas, there was. If Conte's tenure crashes and burns at any point ofcourse there will be better option's out there.

And saying "of course there will be better options" without giving even one name isnt simplistic I guess. 

[Leif 6,006]

Nobody comes to mind, but if there's anyone 'technically' or tactically better than Conte, they no doubt have less titles + experience.

All the other managers with relative titles + experience are either really old and employ boring, yesteryear football, or, are Guardiola.