Antonio Conte - Now Officially Manager

[Nevamind]

From what i saw a three man midfield is essential espacially against the more top tier teams. 

 

iirc last season we got overrun by man city and spurs way to much.

[TheChelsRVA]

31 minutes ago, zinc alloy said:

The papers, commentators say we were outplayed yesterday.

if you have a game plan that works, stifles the other team, defend well and score goals, surely we've Outplayed' them?

Well played Antonio.

People are stuck in the old way of thinking.  When we start arguably 8 defensive minded players what on earth do people expect.  Defensively, we absolutely outplayed spurs.  Just because you don't have the ball a lot doesn't mean you aren't winning battles.  We scored all three goals in the game, ffs.  And it could have been more.  

[icecoolguy22]

He looked a lot more focused this game, and does what he's best at - managing the team from the touch line. The joy he showed for the match winning goal was just priceless. He's probably still disappointed he hasn't got the players he wanted, but he didn't let that distract him

[coco]

Football and the emotions it brings out in us, it's almost a science in itself. Last week we were backs against the wall in the media, everyone slagging us off, lose our first game, two ed cards, nobody loves us. And yet i was super confident we could go to Wembleeeeee and do the Spuds again.

Now we have that win under the belt, expectations amongst the media and fans has been raised. The same old Chelsea are back, things don't look rosy off the pitch, but we continue to surprise on the pitch.

I can only put it down to Conte being a thoroughly nice chap, and a bloody excellent football coach.

[enigma]

it will be interesting to see how conte goes about challenging for the CL. i think we have a solid team to get to the latter stages depending on kinder draws. we could draw psg in the group stages though, which wouldn't be ideal. 

[timetowaste]

Bild in Germany are claiming Conte is getting sacked after a fall out with the board and is being replaced by ex Dortmund boss Thomas Tuchel.

Funny.

[enigma]

yeah heard this too, but it's sport bild. i have no idea whether it's true, but hope it's not as it would be embarrassing. the only reason i can think of is because roman doesn't like our brand of football. 

[timetowaste]

6 minutes ago, enigma said:

yeah heard this too, but it's sport bild. i have no idea whether it's true, but hope it's not as it would be embarrassing. the only reason i can think of is because roman doesn't like our brand of football. 

Ironically the reason we played the way we did on Sunday is because the board is doing a terrible job in the transfer market.

[Deino]

58 minutes ago, timetowaste said:

Bild in Germany are claiming Conte is getting sacked after a fall out with the board and is being replaced by ex Dortmund boss Thomas Tuchel.

Funny.

If the problem was the football, then maybe do better in the transfer market lol. You can't turn every winger into Ronaldo or every No. 10 into a Messi. 

[Frankie8Lampard]

This story is obviously fake. Simply a German paper trying to take advantage of our start of the season to create a headline with one of their open managers.

[doctorblue]

IF it's true then it says it all...we're all assuming the board is busily getting new players when it's busy getting a new manager...doesn't look that an attractive club for new players when there's internal civil war going on...just hope this story is rubbish...but a bit of me can see some truth in it...

Edited August 23, 2017 by doctorblue

[ForeverCarefree]

 

[Brutos]

Saw that this morning its garbage

[doctorblue]

Daily Mirror 

Chelsea insist Antonio Conte staying put amid suggestions Thomas Tuchel lined up to take over at Stamford Bridge

 

[Brutos]

The media did this same sh*t last year and it only made the team more determined to win and I suspect after Burnley the media babies will suffer

[Drogbaholic]

Tuchel was sacked from Dortmund because he was constantly arguing with the board so wouldn't really make any sense to sack our current successful manager and appoint a less successful one who will end up clashing with the board.

anyway this story is rubbish.

[dansubrosa]

Why do they keep trying?

[bisright1]

On 8/21/2017 at 12:59, TheChelsRVA said:

People are stuck in the old way of thinking.  When we start arguably 8 defensive minded players what on earth do people expect.  Defensively, we absolutely outplayed spurs.  Just because you don't have the ball a lot doesn't mean you aren't winning battles.  We scored all three goals in the game, ffs.  And it could have been more.  

Remember how a few weeks ago the media kept reporting the expected goals stat? How it would accurately reflect the game? 

Try and find articles on the expected goals result for us against tottenham. It was essentially a draw (0.75 vs 0.76 to us). Essentially we matched Tottenham but were more clinical. But the narrative was that we were outplayed. Thankfully there are some smart people in the media (G Nev is a surprising example) who portrayed us positively.

I dont really buy into media anti Chelsea bias much but there is definitely a slight edge because Chelsea are generally a more unpopular club among neutrals (compared to Tottenham, Arsenal and Man United) and its hard to be negative on Liverpool as they are very anti-media. So anti Chelsea articles sell papers, get click views. Especially when we had Terry, Costa and Mourinho at the club.

Hopefully with a team this year that plays well, with good attitudes and a popular manager in Conte will change that tide a bit. With Terry and Mourinho we had no way of changing neutrals minds. If we keep this team together, come top 3, play decent clever football - who knows.

Bild story is nonsense. Most likely the agent of Tuchel angling for a new job for his client. Planting that story in the Bild works well for him. 

Edited August 23, 2017 by benjsross

[Scott Harris]

6 hours ago, dansubrosa said:

Why do they keep trying?

Easy money.

[TheSage]

Not giving any credence to the rumors, but I wonder why these rumors persist. Surely not all of the stories are made up? Call me naive, but I don't buy into the notion that the media are trying to destabilize Chelsea. I will be very shocked if the club let Conte go. You would expect both parties to be reasonable enough to find a way forward on any disagreements, but you never know with Chelsea. 

[Deino]

4 hours ago, TheSage said:

Not giving any credence to the rumors, but I wonder why these rumors persist. Surely not all of the stories are made up? Call me naive, but I don't buy into the notion that the media are trying to destabilize Chelsea. I will be very shocked if the club let Conte go. You would expect both parties to be reasonable enough to find a way forward on any disagreements, but you never know with Chelsea. 

It's bias+sensationalism. Most pundits out there used to play and support Liverpool, Utd or Arsenal essentially old money clubs and Chelsea is always viewed as having a trigger happy owner and have the stigma of buying the league for some reason.

Chelsea's only problem at the minute is that we are 4 players short to mount a challenge on all fronts and that some of our players are injured and even then they are recovering at a nice pace, the Costa fiasco for me is overblown in the media. Whereas Arsenal (if you can consider them as rivals) just played a LB and LWB at CB, a RB at LWB and a CM as RWB and benches their CB or leaving them out whilst having approx. 7 players at the last year of their contracts namely Ox, Ozil, Sanchez etc. and so far they've recruited 2 players that doesn't address their issues. Liverpool still has practically the same squad and is having issues bringing anyone in and Coutinho is in a standstill. City has 1 RB atm, playing Sane as LWB and a shaky defence despite the fact they've spent approx. 200m if not more on the transfer market.

Every club has their own issues and problems but the media says we're the ones in a crisis after 1 game against Burnley in which we were reduced to 9 men through red cards that were questionable, that being said Cahill and Fabregas is partly to blame for that.

[evissy]

Conte left Juve at the same time so that is why they do this story. And on top of that they are complete idiots.

[axman2526]

Apparently said today he would be very happy if there are no further arrivals and this is the squad he works with this season, according to sky sports. 

[abister1]

On 24/08/2017 at 04:39, Deino said:

It's bias+sensationalism. Most pundits out there used to play and support Liverpool, Utd or Arsenal essentially old money clubs and Chelsea is always viewed as having a trigger happy owner and have the stigma of buying the league for some reason.

Chelsea's only problem at the minute is that we are 4 players short to mount a challenge on all fronts and that some of our players are injured and even then they are recovering at a nice pace, the Costa fiasco for me is overblown in the media. Whereas Arsenal (if you can consider them as rivals) just played a LB and LWB at CB, a RB at LWB and a CM as RWB and benches their CB or leaving them out whilst having approx. 7 players at the last year of their contracts namely Ox, Ozil, Sanchez etc. and so far they've recruited 2 players that doesn't address their issues. Liverpool still has practically the same squad and is having issues bringing anyone in and Coutinho is in a standstill. City has 1 RB atm, playing Sane as LWB and a shaky defence despite the fact they've spent approx. 200m if not more on the transfer market.

Every club has their own issues and problems but the media says we're the ones in a crisis after 1 game against Burnley in which we were reduced to 9 men through red cards that were questionable, that being said Cahill and Fabregas is partly to blame for that.

This.

I said somewhere else if not for the fact that we let a lot of players go and some on loan which makes squad look threadbare we actually have had a good transfer window. Replaced Begovic with similar standard, Rudiger an addition and better than JT as didn't play much last season and in terms of what he has to offer in future as has age on his side, Bakayoko for Matic similar argument as with the age and might be the proper box to box mid we have been looking for. Morata arguably not as good as Costa but for all the baggage Costa comes with we are probably better off. It would have been a seasonal theme with Costa, the trouble on and off the pitch and angling for a move. Let's face it he has never been settled in London for whatever reason even with the happy Spanish and Brazilian contingent we have around him. Apart from Costa and Matic (who was in rotation and from Match day threads I read apparently the popular opinion was he was not good enough or in decline- and that's me putting some of the things said about him politely) we have our first 11 from last season. And a couple others on the bench plus youngsters. I thought we always wanted to see our youth. Well maybe this is the way we can get to see them. I think its an opportunity for Conte to work on them as we have seen what he does with others. He may want more players but he's still got the ability to work well with youngsters.

[WhiteWall]

I do kind of think that the media speculation this close season is somewhat self perpetuating when there really is nothing to report.

When Conte came in, he had just finished an international tournament with most of pre season already gone. He signed very few players, most of which were unfancied and brought back a loan signing that most of us had given up on. He then created a system and a team with an unbreakable spirit, that outclassed all around them. Created. Didn't spend millions on the top marque players. Created the system and put the players in there to fit it.

Yes it would great for us to sign a Lewandoski (spelling!)or an Aubemeyang before the window closes. But to be honest i would probably be just as stoked if he went and signed Llorente from Swansea because i have faith that this guy can get the best out the players that he chooses for the system he wants to play.