Antonio Conte - Now Officially Manager

[Slojo]

I have some big questions for Conte at the moment

-Why is he afraid of the Kante-Drinkwater pivot? The same central midfield that won Leicester the title 2 years ago

-Why on earth is Bakayoko still starting the majority of games? It's quite clear, from biased fans to commentators/pundits that Bakayoko is not having a good season, we get that he's young and he's 40 millions worth, but is that a valid reason to put this season in jeopardy? We can still win a good number of things this season but we can't when the team is incredibly out of place and we are fine with playing mediocrity for the sake of blind faith.

-What was even the point in signing Drinkwater? Him and Bakayoko were near enough the same price, yet Drinkwater is rarely playing, he wasn't even on the bench today. What's the point in the singing? Why did we sell Matic and loan out Loftus Cheek to replace them both with an untested disappointing signing like Bakayoko, and proven PL player who we never really seem to play? 

-Michy Batshuayi? It's quite clear he isn't rated, he's barely even a squad player, what's the point in him being here when Conte doesn't even trust him to deliver a majority of the time, why wasn't he replaced in the summer if so, we could have at least gotten a decent amount for him.

-3-5-2 formation, we've pretty much just gone 300 minutes without scoring a goal, 200 minutes before that, and yet we still persist playing this bad formation. It's clearly not working, we should revert to the 3-4-3 which won us the league last season. 

-Summer Transfer Window, Finally, just what was the point? We know Conte has already expressed dislike for our transfers, and the board interactions with transfers in general. But what on earth is going on? You don't need to be a football manager to know that our problems were pretty simple last season, we needed more rotation options on the width, and an upgrade on Matic & Cahill. Selling Matic didn't bother me, but why did we replace him with one player who Conte barely has any interest in and one player who was very unproven.. Anyway, that ship has sailed. Alonso looks shattered every game, Zappercosta was a good backup signing, Rudiger looks weaker defensively to Cahill but he suits the system a lot more than Cahill did, but other than that what have we done? We haven't upgraded the team and we still lack depth, this should have been addressed straight away and could have been with the players we sold. 

Last season it was clear our strength was having to play once a week, doubling up in depth was something we needed to address ASAP. I cringe whenever we play weekend games after playing midweek now, and that's almost every week, especially Champions League games. 

Edited January 13, 2018 by Slojo

[Sexyfootball]

Most odd that the man who got everything right last season is getting everything so spectacularly wrong this season.

Personally, I don't buy the summer/winter transfer activity and extra games as any kind of excuse for what we are seeing on the pitch at the moment.

 

[ducavis]

8 minutes ago, Sexyfootball said:

Most odd that the man who got everything right last season is getting everything so spectacularly wrong this season.

Personally, I don't buy the summer/winter transfer activity and extra games as any kind of excuse for what we are seeing on the pitch at the moment.

 

Thank you! It is not a personnel issue at this point.

[Fatty_Speeding]

Bizarre how much better we look with two busy attacking midfielders as opposed to Fabregas AND two defensive midfielders, and yet...

Conte's view must be obscured.

[Famous CFC]

Ross Barkley will be a breath of fresh air in this team. Conte probably still pick Bakayoko over him. 

[Fatty_Speeding]

5 minutes ago, Famous CFC said:

Ross Barkley will be a breath of fresh air in this team. Conte probably still pick Bakayoko over him. 

Don't think Barkley will be defensive midfield.

[Scott Harris]

One of my biggest issues with Conte at the moment is when he takes Hazard off. He seem's to take him off when we go more attacking but keeps him on when we are playing more defensive. If we want to see the best of the guy then he needs to be on the pitch when we are attacking. He's the best player at the club, he's the one who should be playing when we switch to an attacking mindset.

[Famous CFC]

4 minutes ago, Fatty_Speeding said:

Don't think Barkley will be defensive midfield.

Just jokingly referring to the fact that no matter where he'd play Barkley he'd still start Bakayoko over him. It's getting ridiculous how much game time they've given a guy who struggle to make the MK Dons starting XI

wherever they start Ross he'll give you a little bit of something more than what is been given by most starters at the minute. It's a hot mess at the minute. 

Edited January 13, 2018 by Famous CFC

[big blue]

making a rod for his own back atm.

Wrong team selection, questionable subs, and controversial comments in the media. 

Not looking good for him I fear. 

[Nickcook26]

7 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

One of my biggest issues with Conte at the moment is when he takes Hazard off. He seem's to take him off when we go more attacking but keeps him on when we are playing more defensive. If we want to see the best of the guy then he needs to be on the pitch when we are attacking. He's the best player at the club, he's the one who should be playing when we switch to an attacking mindset.

Completely agree. He should be playing every minute of every league game.

He is our best player and we should make the most of him while we have him.

You never see Messi and Ronaldo subbed off. They play pretty much every minute and inspire their team just by being on the pitch.

It was a travesty he was subbed off on 57 minutes today with the score at 0-0

[The Liquidator]

20 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

One of my biggest issues with Conte at the moment is when he takes Hazard off. He seem's to take him off when we go more attacking but keeps him on when we are playing more defensive. If we want to see the best of the guy then he needs to be on the pitch when we are attacking. He's the best player at the club, he's the one who should be playing when we switch to an attacking mindset.

I'm not sure if even Conte realizes this which is mind-boggling and quite disturbing. Even Mourinho knew to never sub out Hazard 

[2211]

I found it a bit bit worrying when Conte called Leicester "the worst team we could play at this moment" in the pre match press conference.

I can think of at least 5 other teams in the league I would rather not play.

I think we showed them too much respect today and nearly paid the price.

[abramovich]

1 hour ago, Slojo said:

I have some big questions for Conte at the moment

-Why is he afraid of the Kante-Drinkwater pivot? The same central midfield that won Leicester the title 2 years ago

-Why on earth is Bakayoko still starting the majority of games? It's quite clear, from biased fans to commentators/pundits that Bakayoko is not having a good season, we get that he's young and he's 40 millions worth, but is that a valid reason to put this season in jeopardy? We can still win a good number of things this season but we can't when the team is incredibly out of place and we are fine with playing mediocrity for the sake of blind faith.

-What was even the point in signing Drinkwater? Him and Bakayoko were near enough the same price, yet Drinkwater is rarely playing, he wasn't even on the bench today. What's the point in the singing? Why did we sell Matic and loan out Loftus Cheek to replace them both with an untested disappointing signing like Bakayoko, and proven PL player who we never really seem to play? 

-Michy Batshuayi? It's quite clear he isn't rated, he's barely even a squad player, what's the point in him being here when Conte doesn't even trust him to deliver a majority of the time, why wasn't he replaced in the summer if so, we could have at least gotten a decent amount for him.

-3-5-2 formation, we've pretty much just gone 300 minutes without scoring a goal, 200 minutes before that, and yet we still persist playing this bad formation. It's clearly not working, we should revert to the 3-4-3 which won us the league last season. 

-Summer Transfer Window, Finally, just what was the point? We know Conte has already expressed dislike for our transfers, and the board interactions with transfers in general. But what on earth is going on? You don't need to be a football manager to know that our problems were pretty simple last season, we needed more rotation options on the width, and an upgrade on Matic & Cahill. Selling Matic didn't bother me, but why did we replace him with one player who Conte barely has any interest in and one player who was very unproven.. Anyway, that ship has sailed. Alonso looks shattered every game, Zappercosta was a good backup signing, Rudiger looks weaker defensively to Cahill but he suits the system a lot more than Cahill did, but other than that what have we done? We haven't upgraded the team and we still lack depth, this should have been addressed straight away and could have been with the players we sold. 

Last season it was clear our strength was having to play once a week, doubling up in depth was something we needed to address ASAP. I cringe whenever we play weekend games after playing midweek now, and that's almost every week, especially Champions League games. 

Agree about the Kante-Drinkwater pivot. I think DD is a limited player but he is more polished and experienced than Bakayoko and has good understanding with Kante.

Bakayoko is struggling big time, no doubt. Perhaps Conte sees something in training that doesn't transfer into the pitch, but clearly he doesn't deserve a starting place after a series of shocking displays.

I think Batshuayi is a fine example of Conte being at odds with the club about their transfer policy. He never rated him and probably wanted him gone the moment he took over, this is the only logical explanation as to why he got so little playing time given our struggles upfront.  I don't blame the manager, from what I've seen Michy at the moment isn't ready to play for a top club.

Conte makes mistakes, like any manager does, so part of the blame should be attributed to him. But he did voice his displeasure on a number of occasions, he did overachieve in his first season with a small and limited squad and he clearly wasn't given what he asked for, not even close. There's no doubt in my mind he's a goner in the summer and his constant reminders during Q&As on how the club failed to back him with signings is just his way of saying f**k you, I know I'm not here next season so you'll have to endure what I have to say, just like I've had to endure your penny pinching strategies instead of backing the title winner like you should have.

 

Edited January 13, 2018 by abramovich

[The Liquidator]

1) Hazard off after 60 mins. Rightly or wrongly, even Mourinho knew to never sub him off. 

(2) No more 3-4-3 despite this system bringing us so much sucess last season. Conte seems more concerned in shoehorning Bakayoko into the team! Despite he offers nothing different to what we already have. He looks like a poor signing now but Conte is persisting with a 3-5-2 to justify his major summer signing? Another thing is Bakayako so far has been exposed in a 3-4-3 with Kante. He seemingly doesn't have the legs or is too lazy (urgh, hate to call our guys that) to show mobility around the pitch.  

(3) Pedro underutilized despite having a fantastic last season. He offers us something different with his longrange shooting, ability to make runs in behind and is a goal threat (unlike Fab/Willian)

(4) Bakayoko keeps on playing Bakayoko+Kante (or Kante+Drinkwater) and 5 defenders behind them. This is insanely negative. Think of it this way. When Leicester won the league with basically counter-attacking football, they played Kante + Drinkwater in a midfield 2 in a 4-4-2. Conte's set up is even more negative than Leicesters. Why not do like Leicester and play a 3-4-3 with a Drinkwater + Kante pivot with Hazard - Morata - Pedro as the attacking trident?

(5) What is Conte afraid of? Play 7 defensive minded players at home to Leicester and complain about attacking play lol.. What attacking play can you produce with Rudiger, Cahill, Azpilicueta, Moses, Alonso, Kante and Bakayoko? Teams who play attacking football and open up the opposition with their movement and fluidity don't play 7 defensive minded players. Sorry that makes no sense. Spurs, Liverpool and City don't play with 7 defensive minded players. 

(6) 3-5-2 is isolating Hazard. This is blatantly obvious. Initially Hazard got some joy in this 3-5-2 (away from home) where he was offered more space on the counter. Initially I wanted to only see a 3-5-2 away from home or in big games but right now I don't want to see it anymore. It just doesn't get the best out of our players and limits us too much in attack. Conte is taking it one step further and playing it as our main formation now. Our best performances have come with a 3-4-3. Especially at home. Teams are just packing the midfield now and Hazard has nowhere to go. Then he subs Hazard off like it's entirely his fault. Strange.

(7) And Hazard has no one to play with since Fabregas can't dribble past players and use his pace to make runs behind and stretch a defense like a Pedro Can. Everything Fab does is infront of the opponents midfield and defense. 

(8) Conte gets paid millions of pounds to figure this things out. But he's being stubborn, doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results is the definiton of insanity. I'm not saying he's insane but he needs to show more creativity in his coaching. Right now he's looking like the negative manager Mourinho branded him last season.

I just fear that if he continues down this path we are going to drop out of the top 4. 

Edited January 13, 2018 by The Liquidator

[Mod]

One thing alarms me after watching today's game (and the few beyond) is that the players are playing like Conte has lost the dressing room. It's the same sort of thing we saw in the later Jose days (AVB, Scorlari, 'add another manager here') in those tiresome no-passion performances, where we barely scrape out a draw.

I'm not being a drama Llama and saying that's the case, it's just our play is reminiscent of when it happens. Great players look mediocre and no hunger.

[Slojo]

9 minutes ago, Mod Stark said:

One thing alarms me after watching today's game (and the few beyond) is that the players are playing like Conte has lost the dressing room. It's the same sort of thing we saw in the later Jose days (AVB, Scorlari, 'add another manager here') in those tiresome no-passion performances, where we barely scrape out a draw.

I'm not being a drama Llama and saying that's the case, it's just our play is reminiscent of when it happens. Great players look mediocre and no hunger.

You're not Stark, it's sadly a common occurrence that happens here at Chelsea. 

We go in this cycle all the time, look in the Jose Mourinho thread just after he was sacked, 99% of the forum was angry and blamed player power, now most people have forgotten that. I still think we have an issue with player power, however, I think Conte is actually getting to grips with it more than Mourinho could, Conte is much more outspoken and with Emenalo leaving I think it showed something. 

[coco]

On the bright side, still 3rd in the league, 6 clean sheets from last 7 games, no injuries at all, new player with potential to come in hopefully next game.

[Ernie_blue]

Was Hazard injured? You never take Hazard off let alone that early, even if he is having a sh*t game he is the only Chelsea player who can turn a game within a second. It backfired with Leicester going down to 10men, Hazard must be pissed off.

[Ernie_blue]

17 minutes ago, Slojo said:

You're not Stark, it's sadly a common occurrence that happens here at Chelsea. 

We go in this cycle all the time, look in the Jose Mourinho thread just after he was sacked, 99% of the forum was angry and blamed player power, now most people have forgotten that. I still think we have an issue with player power, however, I think Conte is actually getting to grips with it more than Mourinho could, Conte is much more outspoken and with Emenalo leaving I think it showed something. 

How do you feel Conte is getting to grips with it? Most people think he is leaving in the summer, won't be surprised if the players think that so I can imagine it's even harder to get the respect of the players in that situation. They can do what they like knowing the manager will be off in the summer.

[enigma]

 

[Nibs]

I'm always disappointed to see Hazard subbed, but lets face it, he has been well off the pace last couple of games and looks like he may be carrying a knock, so I wouldn't criticise Conte for that. No player is too good to be subbed (and maybe being protected from further injury / fatigue).

We are seriously lacking options right now. A very out of form main striker with the back up striker even worse. Two possible replacements for Hazard, neither of which are consistently good enough (Pedro and Willain). Two midfielders who are very underwhelming - Bakayoko and Drinkwater. Moses blowing hot & cold, Zappercosta not looking top 4 side quality.

Lets hope that Barkley can hit the ground running and make an immediate impact and we can somehow sign 1 or 2 more quality players in the window. otherwise I fear our season will ebb away.

[enigma]

conte mentioned about the players needing to shoot more from outside the box. i agree with that sentiment. too often the players are reluctant to shoot from distance when they can. i have noticed our players starting to do it more often than previously. city have won games where kdb has scored the winning goal from outside the box. we don't have that threat, and that's what we were crying out for. hopefully barkley is the man do help us with this.  

[Ernie_blue]

41 minutes ago, Nibs said:

I'm always disappointed to see Hazard subbed, but lets face it, he has been well off the pace last couple of games and looks like he may be carrying a knock, so I wouldn't criticise Conte for that. No player is too good to be subbed (and maybe being protected from further injury / fatigue).

We are seriously lacking options right now. A very out of form main striker with the back up striker even worse. Two possible replacements for Hazard, neither of which are consistently good enough (Pedro and Willain). Two midfielders who are very underwhelming - Bakayoko and Drinkwater. Moses blowing hot & cold, Zappercosta not looking top 4 side quality.

Lets hope that Barkley can hit the ground running and make an immediate impact and we can somehow sign 1 or 2 more quality players in the window. otherwise I fear our season will ebb away.

Bakayoko is good enough to stay on the pitch though?

[JoseBlues]

Bakayoko is good enough to stay on the pitch though?

Bakayoko was fresher seeing that he hardly jogged around. I do believe Eden is carrying some kind of knock as he was terrible today.

[Andy2461]

Think conte wants out tbh

some of his decisions are baffling to say the least