Jonty

I don't think Cahill is any better on the ball than Zouma, Cahill's positioning is typically to keep jogging backwards until he's almost in the net, before attempting a last ditch block attempt on the shot. He's played well since changing to a back 3 but the fact remains that Zouma is a far more solid defender. There's probably no need to fix what ain't broken so long as we're winning games and keeping clean sheets, but eventually I think that will be the swap. Or Dave will go to RWB and Zouma will come in at Moses' expense. He's too good to keep out of the team for long, assuming he hasn't lost any of his physicality while injured.

Cannot wait to get BF1 next week, clocked up hundreds of hours on BF4 so I expect this to be a similar drain on all my available free time.

Clearly we are much improved with the 3-4-3, all I am saying is that it's not exactly a new formation, and it's curious that no other successful team has used it to great effect in the PL before. So either we have found a way to make a formation work when it never has before, or teams will eventually figure out a way to exploit it in a way that 4 at the back formations cannot be, leading us to eventually go back. Hopefully it's the former but only time will tell.

Fair enough, have a look in the Cahill/Luiz threads and you'll see similar things said about both of their defensive qualities, while Ibra very nearly showed us why playing a defender as small as Dave in a back 3 is dangerous early on yesterday. Teams attacking through Alonso/Cahill's side and launching balls to the back post for big strikers to go up against Dave is still my main fear with this formation, but we'll see.

Yeah I can't see where he would fit into this team, other than coming on for one of Kante/Matic if we're chasing a win and the other team has shut up shop. We seem to have found a great balance at the moment and Fabregas isn't a like for like inclusion for anyone there. As he has shown multiple times this season though, he is an excellent late option off the bench.

Could be a similar situation as to when Jose brought the 4-3-3 to the PL in 2004 and it (and its variant the 4-2-3-1) became common place ever since, usurping the 4-4-2 or 4-5-1. That being said, Rodgers' 3 at the back a few years ago was being lauded until every man and his dog started tearing it to shreds, the more it is used the more teams will become familiar with how to exploit it.

They aren't supposed to be the ones making the headlines, their job was to nullify an attack which included the most expensive player in football history. Not only did they do such a good job that our back 3 barely had to make a tackle all night, but their superb performance allowed Hazard and Pedro to roam free and stay in close proximity to Costa, which is what has been the cause of our much improved attack in recent games. The fact Matic set up a goal and Kante scored one shows they had at least some impact going forward too!

Love how happy they are all for him, can tell he's had no problem fitting in in the dressing room.

A tough choice but went with Kante, absolutely bossed Pogba and Mata to the point where it was easy to forget either were on the pitch at all.

Love what he's been doing since moving to wing back, seems to have the perfect combination of speed, strength and discipline to provide cover to the back 3 while still offering something going forward. Doesn't have the craft or guile in tight spots as the rest of our attacking players but wing back looks like the position he was born to play.

For the first time in ages, it feels like we actually have a plan on both ends of the field, rather than be solid defensively and hope our elite attacking players can somehow work it out for themselves up the other end. Back 3s don't have a very good track record in this league so i'm still waiting for someone to figure out how to exploit us, but for now i'm enjoying watching a team that seems to know what their roles are and what they need to be doing, and being pretty damn entertaining while doing it. Bravo Mr Conte, wonder if he feels the squad needs to be strengthened as much as he supposedly did a month ago. I suppose we'll find out more when we pick up an injury or two to our settled first team XI, although Pedro clearly put in a great shift while Willian was away, and JT seemingly can't even get back into the team

edit: Woops, just realised this isn't the proper Conte thread.

I think he can do the job needed of him. As I said a few pages back, I don't rate him on the same tier as Luis or even Bertrand, but so far he's been pretty capable, certainly going forward at least. Still worry about him against a crafty winger and nearly all of United's good play and crossing yesterday came through his side.

When you're up 4-0 and your youth player decides to nutmeg 66 million quid worth of talent.

Welcome! I went on a road trip around California earlier in the year and by far the highlight of my trip was SF. One night out we even managed to be invited by some girls we met out to a frat party at Berkley, had some crazy times in the Bay Area, would love to live there one day.

That is one way of looking at it, another way is that our league is tougher, and doesn't have a mid-season break, which causes our top teams to underperform in Europe as they can't trounce the rest of the league 6-0 with their reserve team, as Real or Barca or Bayern can.

I agree, although as i've also said, he has suffered by having to play with Ivanovic usually standing motionless on the touchline right next to him, attracting little to no defensive attention because they know he can't cross or offer anything remotely dangerous offensively. Having someone who can actually get around the outside and drill a good cross into the box will stop Willian continually being double teamed by the opposing full back and winger and should enable him to do a lot more.

Right you say that with absolutely nothing to back it up, the definition I provided is straight from Opta's glossary. Even if it does include "second assists", there still has to have been an attempt made or chance created as a result. Smashing a corner into the first man is not going to show up on there no matter how much you might want it to.

The stats in the article are provided by Opta. According to Opta's website, their definition of "chances created" is "assists plus key passes." Key passes are defined as "the final pass or pass-cum-shot leading to the recipient of the ball having an attempt at goal without scoring." So chances created do not include instances where a teammate does not touch the ball or useless set pieces, it is a pass that either results in a goal, or an attempt on goal. And Willian has created the second most in the PL thus far.

According to the Mail, he's created the second most chances in the PL this season (23), ahead of the likes of KDB and Payet (20), Sanchez (18) and Silva (17).

Conte should have Michy warming up from the 1st minute against Leicester, soon as Diego so much as frowns, take the man off.

We got it pretty good when Costa got Gabriel sent off last season, that was hilarious.

Except Zouma doesn't do that, he even played a few games in midfield shortly before his injury so he can clearly pass the ball around, even if he does look a bit wobbly doing it.

That might be relevant had Willian not been named our player of the season all of 3 months ago.

The Welsh Xavi strikes again.