closed Watford 1-2 Chelsea

[Chelsea Legend 11 4,062]

On 8/20/2016 at 0:16 PM, CHOULO19 said:

I would like to add that, yes, Conte is making influential changes and subs in games (agree with Barbara that he's mostly correcting his own mistakes) but another factor that is helping us late in games so far is that we're in a better physical condition than most teams. We can't rely on that forever as teams will gradually catch up. 

I don't really agree. I think what Conte is doing is building a solid foundation first the other stuff will come later. He said it in his post game too, the 70min mark is when teams get tired and make mistakes. We injected pace, inventiveness and some power into the game when a hard working opposition were at their most vulnerable point. That to me is smart game planning not a mistake.

You guys have a real habit of discrediting the opposition. Watford have a hard working team that play with 10 men behind the ball, they are well disciplined and were playing in their first home game of the season. Of course they're gonna come out and put in a shift. Had we started with Cesc and Moses say, we wouldn't have had the ability to make the changes once they Watford fatigued. 

I get the argument that had they started we might've been more industrious and perhaps scored earlier but its hard to say... Watford did well taking away the gaps to exploit and perhaps Cesc would've played a part in unlocking it but I prefer we build a solid base first with the philosophy of the new manager in mind.

[CHOULO19 24,332]

15 minutes ago, Chelsea Legend 11 said:

I don't really agree. I think what Conte is doing is building a solid foundation first the other stuff will come later. He said it in his post game too, the 70min mark is when teams get tired and make mistakes. We injected pace, inventiveness and some power into the game when a hard working opposition were at their most vulnerable point. That to me is smart game planning not a mistake.

You guys have a real habit of discrediting the opposition. Watford have a hard working team that play with 10 men behind the ball, they are well disciplined and were playing in their first home game of the season. Of course they're gonna come out and put in a shift. Had we started with Cesc and Moses say, we wouldn't have had the ability to make the changes once they Watford fatigued. 

I get the argument that had they started we might've been more industrious and perhaps scored earlier but its hard to say... Watford did well taking away the gaps to exploit and perhaps Cesc would've played a part in unlocking it but I prefer we build a solid base first with the philosophy of the new manager in mind.

How is subbing Moses and Cesc on for Matic and Pedro 'injecting pace'?

Anyway, pace certainly wasn't what turned the match around. By far the biggest factor was getting an extra striker on and changing the formation. We could have played another 90 minutes with 4-1-4-1 and would not have scored except from a big mistake like the penalty vs West Ham or a moment of personal brilliance, most likely from Hazard.

I actually thought Watford were average at best. They played high , certainly much higher than we were playing off the ball, but their pressing wasn't very effective. I think we'll probably face a tougher test in almost every game we play this season.

No disrespect to Conte, but he's still some way from building that strong foundation. Aside from the obvious lack of numbers in defense, we don't seem to have the players who suit any of the formations. In 4-1-4-1 we look relatively solid in defense (though still conceding) but can't create anything on offense; we switch to 4-4-2 and we create chances but our weak back four seems to get exposed in every opposition attack.

We're REALLY late in the market to start dealing with those issues. 

[Chelsea Legend 11 4,062]

Each player offered something different. Moses provided pace, cesc provided invention, michy power.

So what are you saying? We can only be effective in 4-1-4-1 if cesc and Moses are playing? We were higher up the pitch with more bodies forward and yes having michy on made a huge difference, the shape change mainly but I don't think we can effectively play that way for an entire game in the prem. We just don't have the proper midfielders to pull it off for 90 mins week after week. I guess I agree with you in that regard...

And yes conte is far from building a strong foundation but this is still the beginning of his reign and the foundation starts when players know what is expected first. The next step is perhaps finding a cohesiveness and this is still in its infancy, remember this is new to pretty much every player we have and conte know this. It is this precise reason why I don't like the gung Ho approach of attack mindedness first. Defense is the foundation upon which titles are won and right now we need to defend as a unit until we get the proper players who can hold down their position.

Conte has done a fantastic job of changing the flow of the game at the right moment and its won us two games. That's not a mistake it's good management.