The Conte Thread

[petre.ispirescu 4,928]

26 minutes ago, Chelsea Legend 11 said:

Marquinhos: "I think this year I will stay in Paris. #PSG do not want to sell me. It is hard to leave with these conditions."

Yes, I know the interview, it was for Catalan newspaper Sport (Barcelona was always interested in him) and I read it. He said that he went to the PSG offices to ask for a transfer, but the PSG officials denied him the request because they did not know about the new coach's intentions. This was before Emery was appointed as a manager at the beginning of July. Back then it was the obvious choice to deny him the request because no one knew who is going to be the new manager and what was his plans. But right now, I don't know if Marquinhos can come from the Olympics and slot into the first team instantly. After he's missed the pre-season and Emery has tried different tactics with him nowhere near the squad.

I still think he would be available for the right price.

[Unionjack 7,531]

I'm as pissed off as anyone with the state of our back 4 but I'm not one of the Doom merchants thinking Contes out and its the end of the world

No - I got no fuckin clue why we are using the same broke down hasbeens that the board and various managers fave failed to do fuck all about. But we all know if it dont change we wil be sitting here this time next season saying the same spiel.

But I really cant imagine IF the board ARE dragging their feet that Conte is sitting there nice n quiet tugging on his forelock saying ''Thank you sir can I have another one!"

I hope to god we dont end up getting last minute panic buys I'd much rather pay double the fee for a player we know is good.

I still got faith and till the window closes 'In Conte I trust'

[Sideshow Luiz 2,310]

53 minutes ago, Chelsea Legend 11 said:

Yes and we clearly aren't in a financial position to spend 80m on one defender. We have money but if you believe FFP is real we clearly can't spend crazy money and comply, especially with no champions league football.

Man Utd have limitless funds at their disposal. 

I don't think it's FFP.  I think we stopped spending in order to fund the stadium re-development.  We're doing an Arsenal ATM.

[Jase 43,479]

1 hour ago, Chelsea Legend 11 said:

Again you have no idea who has been targeted, all you know is we haven't concluded any deals. You sound like Charlie "the Hurricane" Skillen or Joe Tweeds...

If we actually have a target, we wouldn't be sitting here having this conversation right now.

1 hour ago, Chelsea Legend 11 said:

Signing anyone who is available is precisely what got us into this predicament to begin with.

No. It's the lack of foresight and proper scouting that's got us in this predicament. Everyone, I'm sure you do as well, can see the problems with this squad a year ago (or even 2 seasons ago) and yet, we have done nothing to improve the squad.

[Melanicus 5,208]

With only a few days left until the start of the new season, Chelsea’s defensive situation looks less than ideal. It was a huge area of weakness in a season that many could not have predicted. A unit that has often been one of Chelsea’s strongest started to looks its age over the course of a troubling campaign. Branislav Ivanovic and Gary Cahill particularly struggled to add solidity to Chelsea’s right hand side after Kurt Zouma’s injury. John Terry’s renaissance waned and even the reliability of Cesar Azpilicueta disappeared.

Arguably the best defender Chelsea currently have available is Terry. At 35 years old that situation itself is baffling. As the disappointing Baha Rahman departs for Germany, Chelsea currently have six active defenders to select for the opening game against West Ham. Of those six players two have not played a single minute of Premier League football. With a week to go until the reign of Antonio Conte commences how are Chelsea in a position as bad as this? West Ham are weeks ahead in their pre-season schedule and will relish playing a Chelsea side who are regularly ceding goalscoring opportunities.

Watching the Werder Bremen game it is highly likely that Chelsea start the season with Ivanovic, Cahill, Terry and Azpilicueta. It has been 84 days since Chelsea ended their season and in that period not a single addition to the back four has been made. Of course there are still three weeks left until the transfer window closes, but as Gabriele Marcotti argues it is always best to get business done early. The pursuit of a centre half is entering the realms of John Stones absurdity. How long have the links persisted with Kalidou Koulibaly? If Napoli are insisting on playing hard ball, why not just look elsewhere?

Chelsea have spent nearly £70 million already with a reported £100 million necessary for the purchases of Koulibaly and Lukaku. Surely £100 million is enough to remedy a significant portion of Chelsea’s defensive issues. A back four comprising of Azpilicueta, Zouma and two new starters is actually pretty good. Obvious reservations about the condition Zouma returns in aside, the positive thought has to be that he comes back at a high level. It seems a straightforward assessment to make, but one that Chelsea are ignoring.

There are an abundance of good centre-backs playing in Europe at the moment. GOOD, at this point, would be an upgrade over what Chelsea are likely to start against West Ham. Jonathan Tah, for example, brings a perfect balance of having ability to immediately upgrade Chelsea, with an exceptionally high ceiling in the long-term. In an inflated market his fee is still likely to be less than that of Koulibaly, with a lot more upside. Tah is one of many players who are good enough to start for Chelsea now.

In many ways the success, or lack thereof, hinges upon the ability of Chelsea’s back four this season. N’Golo Kante will give a certain amount of protection, but pairing him with Fabregas, Oscar or Matic leaves many of last season’s issues at hand. Chelsea have a soft core that is compounded by the fact that their centre back pairing is now a major weakness. Can Chelsea get away with having a more progressive midfield if Gary Cahill and John Terry play the majority of the season?

Ultimately Chelsea are aiming to get back into the Champions League. People might say that lacks ambition but it reflects the nature of a side who finished 10th with an ageing back line. Chelsea have signed one player that improves the starting XI and likely needed another 4 or 5 to return to former power. Conte is under incredible pressure to deliver an immediate upturn in fortunes: the question remains have the club done enough to allow him to achieve this?

This is the second summer in a row where the tactics of the Chelsea board have led to a baffling situation. Did they conclude the Kante deal and spend the next 23 days patting each other on the back? Chelsea have likely been trying for targets, but there is an alarming lack of movement. Sure they could go and buy all the remaining targets before West Ham or before the window closes, but that in itself brings its own set of problems. Just how quickly can one, two or three new signings come to terms with Conte’s demands? How does missing pre-season effect the chemistry of the team?

Chelsea fans are right to be wary at the lack of movement they are seeing. There appears to be a significant amount of faith in Conte and his ability as a coach. The extension of that trust does not go as far as those running the club. Maybe the scars of a season mired in mediocrity have not quite healed. Are Chelsea really going to make the same mistakes of last season? Will they panic buy another Nobodji? Only time will tell.

All credit goes to Joe Tweedie from umaxit.

http://www.umaxit.com/index.php/columns/in-chelseas-transfer-strategy-the-same-mistakes-as-last-year-are-apparent?

[Pizy 18,401]

14 minutes ago, Melanicus said:

With only a few days left until the start of the new season, Chelsea’s defensive situation looks less than ideal. It was a huge area of weakness in a season that many could not have predicted. A unit that has often been one of Chelsea’s strongest started to looks its age over the course of a troubling campaign. Branislav Ivanovic and Gary Cahill particularly struggled to add solidity to Chelsea’s right hand side after Kurt Zouma’s injury. John Terry’s renaissance waned and even the reliability of Cesar Azpilicueta disappeared.

Arguably the best defender Chelsea currently have available is Terry. At 35 years old that situation itself is baffling. As the disappointing Baha Rahman departs for Germany, Chelsea currently have six active defenders to select for the opening game against West Ham. Of those six players two have not played a single minute of Premier League football. With a week to go until the reign of Antonio Conte commences how are Chelsea in a position as bad as this? West Ham are weeks ahead in their pre-season schedule and will relish playing a Chelsea side who are regularly ceding goalscoring opportunities.

Watching the Werder Bremen game it is highly likely that Chelsea start the season with Ivanovic, Cahill, Terry and Azpilicueta. It has been 84 days since Chelsea ended their season and in that period not a single addition to the back four has been made. Of course there are still three weeks left until the transfer window closes, but as Gabriele Marcotti argues it is always best to get business done early. The pursuit of a centre half is entering the realms of John Stones absurdity. How long have the links persisted with Kalidou Koulibaly? If Napoli are insisting on playing hard ball, why not just look elsewhere?

Chelsea have spent nearly £70 million already with a reported £100 million necessary for the purchases of Koulibaly and Lukaku. Surely £100 million is enough to remedy a significant portion of Chelsea’s defensive issues. A back four comprising of Azpilicueta, Zouma and two new starters is actually pretty good. Obvious reservations about the condition Zouma returns in aside, the positive thought has to be that he comes back at a high level. It seems a straightforward assessment to make, but one that Chelsea are ignoring.

There are an abundance of good centre-backs playing in Europe at the moment. GOOD, at this point, would be an upgrade over what Chelsea are likely to start against West Ham. Jonathan Tah, for example, brings a perfect balance of having ability to immediately upgrade Chelsea, with an exceptionally high ceiling in the long-term. In an inflated market his fee is still likely to be less than that of Koulibaly, with a lot more upside. Tah is one of many players who are good enough to start for Chelsea now.

In many ways the success, or lack thereof, hinges upon the ability of Chelsea’s back four this season. N’Golo Kante will give a certain amount of protection, but pairing him with Fabregas, Oscar or Matic leaves many of last season’s issues at hand. Chelsea have a soft core that is compounded by the fact that their centre back pairing is now a major weakness. Can Chelsea get away with having a more progressive midfield if Gary Cahill and John Terry play the majority of the season?

Ultimately Chelsea are aiming to get back into the Champions League. People might say that lacks ambition but it reflects the nature of a side who finished 10th with an ageing back line. Chelsea have signed one player that improves the starting XI and likely needed another 4 or 5 to return to former power. Conte is under incredible pressure to deliver an immediate upturn in fortunes: the question remains have the club done enough to allow him to achieve this?

This is the second summer in a row where the tactics of the Chelsea board have led to a baffling situation. Did they conclude the Kante deal and spend the next 23 days patting each other on the back? Chelsea have likely been trying for targets, but there is an alarming lack of movement. Sure they could go and buy all the remaining targets before West Ham or before the window closes, but that in itself brings its own set of problems. Just how quickly can one, two or three new signings come to terms with Conte’s demands? How does missing pre-season effect the chemistry of the team?

Chelsea fans are right to be wary at the lack of movement they are seeing. There appears to be a significant amount of faith in Conte and his ability as a coach. The extension of that trust does not go as far as those running the club. Maybe the scars of a season mired in mediocrity have not quite healed. Are Chelsea really going to make the same mistakes of last season? Will they panic buy another Nobodji? Only time will tell.

You at least gonna give the author credit after copy/pasting his article, mate? 

[ZanSnake 1,211]

Also don't we have to highlight the fault of both JT and GC being home-grown, or does that mean nothing anymore?

(Though never thought anyone did...)

[Melanicus 5,208]

5 minutes ago, Pizy said:

You at least gonna give the author credit after copy/pasting his article, mate? 

Damn, my bad. I edited the post by bolding and underlying and completely forgot to give a credit where its due. Thanks for reminding!

All credit goes to Joe Tweedie from umaxit.

http://www.umaxit.com/index.php/columns/in-chelseas-transfer-strategy-the-same-mistakes-as-last-year-are-apparent?

[xPetrCechx 13,563]

1 more day ends without a new defender... 

[Pizy 18,401]

1 minute ago, Melanicus said:

Damn, my bad. I edited the post by bolding and underlying and completely forgot to give a credit where its due. Thanks for reminding!

All credit goes to Joe Tweedie from umaxit.

http://www.umaxit.com/index.php/columns/in-chelseas-transfer-strategy-the-same-mistakes-as-last-year-are-apparent?

No problem! Just read that this morning when he posted it.

Echoes my sentiments exactly.

[Ryan Fong 2,776]

I dunno about CB but I'm pretty confident we have a new LB in the bag already and Baba's loan is the most obvious evidence. If, a big if, we don't end up signing a proper LB I will start cursing the board. But now I'm still calm and willing to trust the board.

[Unionjack 7,531]

20 minutes ago, Ryan Fong said:

I dunno about CB but I'm pretty confident we have a new LB in the bag already and Baba's loan is the most obvious evidence. If, a big if, we don't end up signing a proper LB I will start cursing the board. But now I'm still calm and willing to trust the board.

Just a LB would be like pluging a hole in a dam with yer finger. If Happy was fit I wouldnt panc but the problem would still be there.

A great point earlier about the HG problem too.

[Tomo 21,733]

5 hours ago, Peace. said:

Tomo, in normal times I would be agreed with you — yet we are not in normal times.

In our back four, out of four players, three have to be benched and one needs to be changed of position. Then we have Zouma but we do not even know what will happen when he comes back ; he suffered a serious injury. We are well placed to understand the implication of the injury he suffered : Essien had the same and it has ruined him. Moreover Zouma's playing style is based upon athleticism and he is not very good technically... Thus his future is a big question mark. Outside of these five players (for four positions !!!), we have an army of youngsters that will probably see little playing time.

The problem with our current back-four is that it is anti-modern and cannot cope with current football. All of them are not good with the ball at their feet, and the trio Terry-Cahill-Ivanovic are slow, unagile and immobile and they cannot defend on one on one situation nor exercise a pressing game. For these reasons they hinder both our defence and our attack.

And for me, the most alarming observation is that Terry-Cahill-Ivanovic are not average — they are bad. Not only they are bad and are anti-modern, but their dynamism is very bad as they are on the decline (and the three of them have had a very, very bad season last year). We are in a situation where even an average defender — as long as he is mobile, can pass the ball and defend on one on one — would be more valuable for our team as he would improve, even marginally, our defence and our attack.

If were in 2012 and we were thinking of renewing our defence, okay we could be nitpicking as we still would have a "few years" in front of us. But we are not in a situation where we can allow ourselves to be demanding like a Sissi. We have three position to renew for Christ's sake ; so while we are trying to get a great defender, we should buy one who is average/good and that can be expandable when we will get better defenders. You gave us example where we waited till the end of the transfer window to get good players — but do you remember Modric ? There too we were nitpicking and we eventually ended buying in panic, on the deadline day, Meireles... Thus, should we eventually buy an average player, at least we should buy him in the right time so he can be introduced in the team before the season starts, and more importantly, before the possibilities are narrowed down to panic purchases.

Hi Peace, don't get me wrong I 100% agree with you're assessment on our defenders, however they were part of the problem that led to us shipping 53 goals last season, I mean, look at Zouma as the example, assuming he recovers well I think he is a unanimous choice to start, yet he played over half the season last season and with him our defence was margianly better at best. In the long run is it worth just signing someone who will make us marginally better? Would be a sticky plaster solution at best.

The three main reasons we were such a defensive shambles was our defenders, the protection and the shit tactics by Jose then Hiddink (Guus did well to restore some sort of order,but he was a world away from 2009 from a tactical point of view), the protection has been fixed (will get on to that in a minute) and I can't see Conte allowing us to be so exposed tactically again.

To the protection, vs AC Milan we were a lot better defensively when Kante come on, even with France in the Euro's, Kante doesn't play vs Iceland and they cut them open at will, Germany were getting in between easily and should never have lost, Leicester last season started shit defensive while Kante was getting introduced from the bench and getting up to speed, as soon as he was in, the defense record shot up, the protection to defend was just as vital as getting some defenders in, and we have got the best in the business on that score, N Golo alone chalks of 20 of them 53 goals.

Now, I want a new defense as much as anyone, I'm sick of the Cahill, 36 year old Terry and Ivan triology as much as anyone, but I'm sorry but I just can't subscribe to us doing a Spurs 2013 and just signing anyone, initially it may be fun simply because their is no Ivan or Cahill in the team, but as soon as that novelty wears off and we start judging them on the standard we set not compared to Cahill, that's when the problems kick in, like with Meireles when he came, I remember he was considered a breathe of fresh air at first, purely because he wasn't one of the midfielders that went stale under Carlo, but then that particular novelty wore off and we realised he was just an average player.

[The Skipper 20,593]

I'm with @Tomo. We really shouldn't be signing for the sake of signing. We need big players in the back, and they're difficult to sign. 

[Miki-Liki 405]

4 minutes ago, The Skipper said:

I'm with @Tomo. We really shouldn't be signing for the sake of signing. We need big players in the back, and they're difficult to sign. 

 

People saying "just sign anyone, he can't be worse than what we already have", but if we sign someone who's no better than Rahman for example, the same people will be moaning and demanding Big Mike's head.

[Gilvorak 3,734]

I'm personally delighted our board is going for the best possible targets available this year. Settling for mediocrity last year was our downfall.

[Unionjack 7,531]

1 hour ago, The Skipper said:

I'm with @Tomo. We really shouldn't be signing for the sake of signing. We need big players in the back, and they're difficult to sign. 

I do agree with both you lads but you know whats going to happen IF we dont get the replacements.

We are going to get scored past in every game. Yes there will be some where we score more than we let in but clean sheets will be a rarity.

That is going to lead to the fans that love Conte right now screaming at him for not changing the defenders. Whether its his proble or not.

With no Europe again at end of year and no silverware Roman will be looking for another set of bollox to hang on his wall and we shall be looking for another manager.

Which is a shame cause I think this lad could do OK given the right materias.

Might be stretching it but you get the drift

[Tomo 21,733]

4 minutes ago, Unionjack said:

I do agree with both you lads but you know whats going to happen IF we dont get the replacements.

We are going to get scored past in every game. Yes there will be some where we score more than we let in but clean sheets will be a rarity.

That is going to lead to the fans that love Conte right now screaming at him for not changing the defenders. Whether its his proble or not.

With no Europe again at end of year and no silverware Roman will be looking for another set of bollox to hang on his wall and we shall be looking for another manager.

Which is a shame cause I think this lad could do OK given the right materias.

Might be stretching it but you get the drift

The defense will have its problems but with better tactics and Kante protecting them no way will we concede 53 goals, my prediction would be early to mid 30s, which was our tally in the last two title wins.

That's preparing for the worst however, I don't believe we will start our first game after the international break with that back four.