Slojo

Mate, I've got absolutely no issues with you but you came across very condescending on the last page of our discussion. So I gave you some of it back, and I've still offered a reasonable argument I don't see how that translates to me to having nothing to say. The issue I have here is that once you make up your mind on something it doesn't change, you were saying Emerson is our best player of the season when he barely even played one game of football. Even if that turns out to be right (because you might be) that's not the type of mentality you respect, you judge by what you see. Now with Conte, it's constantly negatives, negatives, negatives. I haven't picked a side, I'm playing devil's advocate but I don't see how he got so many things wrong except for not playing two of our key players. Just now you're bringing up the 3 at the back? Come on.... Were you saying "please don't play 3 at the back, please don't play 3 at the back" with your fingers crossed before the match kicked off?

Ahh clutching straws are we? "It completely depends on the system, defensive teams don't play with 3 at the back they play with 4, your wingbacks can play much further in a formation with 3 at the back. " Full quote here, obviously I should have worded it better but why on earth would I say Conte is a defensive coach then go on to say the back 3 can't be a defensive lineup? That would be a whopping contradiction in itself, at least give me the benefit of the doubt despite my bad wording. However, you're actually claiming a back 3 is a defensive lineup, when that's not necessarily true at all, plenty of attacking oriented teams have played with 3 at the back, Roberto Martinez used to play that way all the time with Wigan & Everton, they used to concede a f**k load of goals but score a hefty amount.

A back 4 is traditionally not 2 defenders against 1 though is it. That's my point, the formation does not determine the system. We can go on and on, just agree to disagree at this point, for me the back 3 isn't the problem and hasn't been, I actually like the 3 at the back system. And I actually agree with that, we don't have the players to play 3 at the back, Azpi can adapt to anything, Rudiger can also play 3 at the back, but we lack that central ball playing defender. Luiz has gone missing all season and when he has played he has been terrible, we just can't play it out from the back anymore like we did last season. And a manager is definitely allowed to make mistakes, what you're saying is completely subjective, you don't know if the back 3 is a mistake or not. I don't think Conte made a bright decision at all and I seriously doubt his passion his for the club when he's dropping the likes of Giroud and Hazard in such an important game. But to say he's gotten so many things wrong is going overboard, people are just being overly negative against a man who wrapped up the title in his first season. I literally saw somebody 2 pages ago try to downplay the title win last season, apparently, Conte's title win was because Spurs bottled it.

So if Sarri finishes outside top 4 in his first season at Chelsea, do you think people on here will accept that? Conte has come here and got us into 2 FA cup finals and won the league, and he's getting called all names under the sun by members on this forum in the matchday thread. I highly doubt people will have the patience with any manager who finishes outside of the top 4.

Conte's setup is defensive, 3 at the back isn't. The 3 at the back isn't the issue, a formation of 5 at the back is obviously defensive. A 3 at the back is not 5 at the back, the wingbacks can play offensively, that leaves the way for 3 offensive players. When Conte first came the likes of Pedro, Hazard, Costa were just too much for the opposition to handle. Neither of those front 3 had any defensive duties. In the back 4 under Mourinho Willian & Hazard always had defensive issues. Kante would cover in any system.. that's his job. I can't believe you actually think it's an argument to say a back 3 is an automatic defensive formation, it simply isn't. The issue is that Conte plays the team too deep, he doesn't look the whole team going forward and being more fluid, he's very pragmatic in his approach. Only the front 3 get freedom and nobody else, he isn't restricted to that because of the back 3, that's just the system he's playing with. Look at how we change when we go 1-0 up, we attack then we defend for the rest of the game. Again, hindsight is a beautiful thing at play right now, I didn't see anyone complain about the back 3 before the match, now people are picking on anything Conte has done wrong this season like the Manager isn't allowed to make mistakes.

You've consistently downplayed the ability of Moses & Alonso, our two top picked fullbacks, so I'm surprised you have that opinion. I'm really not understanding how you think 3 at the back is an exclusive defensive formation, it most certainly isn't. You can still have two forwards in that system.

The back 3 wasn't the issue... We've played 3 at the back all season, you're complaining about so many changes yet you expect Conte to go to a back 4? That doesn't make any sense. Obviously, I haven't played Football Manager as much as you have so I lack the great knowledge, captain hindsight strikes again.

A formation doesn't fully determine if you're an attacking team or a defensive team. Pep Guardiola played 3 at the back with Bayern Munich most games, Barcelona often played 3 at the back under Enrique or the manager before him I can't remember. This is a really stupid argument.

That's 2 at the back, not 4 at the back. That's not fullbacks. DO you honestly believe we could go a full season playing like that? Definitely not.

I wouldn't gamble on Morata leading the starting lineup next season, he's really spineless up top. Giroud who is supposed to be a renowned bottler for Le Arse is practically the kid who takes Morata's lunch money at school. He just isn't clinical enough, whether or not it's a mental issue I'm not sure, but a lot of players seem to be suffering from it... The person who posted that Sky source earlier, it really doesn't surprise me we are in that position. Our finishing rates are ridiculous, we seem to create a lot of chances and we can't finish them, and Morata is mostly responsible for that, the guy could have had about 20 league goals this season at the very least, he's had chances on a plate. He's definitely got the movement but my god it's like a centreback in front of goal once he gets the ball in that position. I don't want him sold but I'm really not sure what we do next season, it really depends on what Conte does.

Well, you think our fullbacks/wingbacks are relegation level anyway, so what good would that do? With 3-4-3 you still have two players wide either side, two players next to the striker, two players playing as wingbacks. It completely depends on the system, defensive teams don't play with 3 at the back they play with 4, your wingbacks can play much further in a formation with 3 at the back.

Very debatable, I don't think a back 3 is a back 5, it completely depends what system you play with. Conte is a defensive coach but our wingbacks aren't playing at fullback, they're usually with the midfielders. We've often had defensive issues because of our back 3, and left vulnerable to counter attacks when we've given the ball away, a back 4 is obviously a lot more sound. 3 at the back wasn't an issue, the issue is all season we haven't been good enough, we've got nobody to play next to Kante, we've got poor distribution from the back, and we have no striker who's able to score goals. What's funny is that last season we had all those things, this season we don't... Weird that eh? I also think not playing Hazard was a ridiculous decision.

Giroud hasn't played many games this season, if the bloke can't play two times a week then we shouldn't have signed him. That's a poor excuse, he did look tired, Conte didn't take him off, but you would expect a professional footballer who hasn't really had a lot of games time to be fresh 3 days later. And it wasn't actually Giroud that annoyed people, it was the benching of Hazard which was the ridiculous decision. Without Hazard we struggle, we can't break down teams without Hazard.

How's that bad? Surely 4 at the back is more defensive than 3 at the back. It wasn't the 3 at the back which was the problem.

I don't think he's deliberately trying to sabotage the team, but he definitely doesn't care that much about top 4, hence why he played the team he did.

These are the same people who are begging for people like Sarri to come and join and win the league in his first season. And if he doesn't do we expect those same people to have the patience? People on here are already calling Conte a bald c**t and all sorts of other personal insults, I guess we'll have to go for the best looking manager possible.

I think Will from the Inbetweeners needs to calm down a bit.

That's not the point, Conte won the league then he finished 5th. If Sarri comes here and in his first season he finishes outside the top 4, I can bet my house a lot of the people who want Conte gone now will not be standing by him then, they'll be sick of him. Other than that I kind of agree with you, but you're just talking about all the positives of the other teams and the negatives of our team. It's no inevitability that Spurs will improve next season. If anything they could lose Kane or Eriksen, even their manager. United aren't clicking, Jose has disastrous 3rd seasons, he's already alienated a lot of players and Martial looks like he'll be out the door in the summer. Liverpool could also lose players, I don't think they'll lose Salah just yet but it's definitely a possibility. And Arsenal will need time with their new manager and have a long way to go before they can be in the discussion of top 4 nevermind the title. Maybe stability is exactly what we need, give Conte breathing space, give him some more money to spend, let the players know he's not budging. Why does he need a plan b or c when he's already won the league with plan a.

The same people who are saying this are also the same impatient posters that want managers/players gone after one glimpse of underperforming. If Sarri came here, finished 6th in his first season, do you really think the same people who are screaming for Conte out now will want Sarri around? I bet not.

I'll take most responsibility as I kept going on and on while starting it. But it's hard to put up with such sheer stupidity on every f**king major thread in the forum, why I argue with him I have no idea... I can only assume the reason he gets away with posting so much bull sh*t is that a majority of the posters can't be bothered arguing with him.

I just cannot subscribe to the first bit, Bakayoko has been abysmal and I think it's very unfair to compare that to Morata. And I'm not against giving Bakayoko another chance here, I have even said the confidence isn't there, but I won't pretend that he's going to become good just because. If I were to bet who would become good and who wouldn't out of the two I would definitely put my money on Morata and I think 99% of the forum would. It would actually be more logical to sell Morata if we were getting a replacement, instead of selling him if we don't get one, so we'll be stuck with Giroud on his own for a full season. Let's face it Michy isn't coming back. So I don't know where the f**k DF is getting that idea from but it's nuts. I have faith Morata can come good because I've seen him play well, but confidence and mentality is a big factor, I definitely don't think we should put all of our eggs in one basket here. If Conte stays, get rid of Michy, he's not going to play here, but get another striker and try to play more with two up front than just the one. Let Morata play with Giroud and put Morata on the wing now and then, he was actually quite reasonable on the flank when he played with Giroud.

If we don't get a new goalkeeper in the summer I want Courtois sold, so we can have even less depth. LOGIC LEVEL: 100000000000

LOL what!? So if we don't get another striker you want Morata sold? Right just stop please

I'm mostly just confused about it, I don't see how Morata has been worse than Bakayoko, yet Morata is the main scapegoat and Bakayoko comes under 0 criticism from the same poster. Especially when a lot of the insults are childlike and silly repetitive arguments. The fanboyism is pretty silly, I have criticised Morata all season, I wanted Chelsea to sign him and he has been underwhelming but I was very impressed with him in 2017 despite some flaws, he had a good start. I don't know what he has done to warrant the same abuse from members who also want him sold because of one bad season. Aren't we just repeating the same mistakes here? Why should we be so trigger happy with wanting players sold when we've already got 3 ex-players performing at 3 of our rivals.

Apparently, this doesn't mean we should sell Morata. "What is hypocritical about that" Easy, one has actually played well for quite some time when the other hasn't, and has been utterly disastrous to put it politely. And are you actually telling me Diego was a better footballer? Right, you clearly didn't watch him for 3 seasons then.