On 21/09/2016 at 15:09, Kentonio said:

To be fair I still have happy/sad memories of how we looked in that first half season when we won the title last, and occasionally get giddy when we show flashes of that again. I still don't know where that went wrong.

It has all gone wrong when Tottenham beat us 5 - 3. 

8 hours ago, dansubrosa said:

It has all gone wrong when Tottenham beat us 5 - 3. 

1 defeat does not explain over 18 months of dreary football. There are far deeper issues. We're a long way from being the top dogs in England

First half of the title winning season we were playing with flair and most importantly confidence. It's the confidence which seems to have taken the big hit. The players are still capable of playing well, but they are either afraid to try things, or just second guessing themselves and afraid to make mistakes. I can only assume Jose drilled into them that fear of making mistakes, so that they didn't throw away the league that year, but it's really f**ked them up.

I do wonder if Conte's demands are also making the players scared to make mistakes?

1 hour ago, JM7 said:

I do wonder if Conte's demands are also making the players scared to make mistakes?

I don't think so ... they're making plenty LOL

Ruud Gullit provides an interesting insight on Don Antonio & his time @ CFC

Edited September 23, 20169 yr by robdog
just realized that @PloKoon13 the same article but on the Matchday Thread - Great Minds think alike :P

Seems to be going well so far barring the liverpool result, lets hope he really can get the best out of costa ALL season instead of just the first few games!

On 20/09/2016 at 22:42, ashwin said:

..

..

 

The way we've started the last 3 games have been the most tactically inept displays I've seen from Chelsea since Ranieri's trip to Monaco.

Next game will be the litmus test.

Does he have the balls to drop Iva?

For all the stick I and most fans give oscar, is hazard really any better? one day he is world class, the other he looks crap.

So far we have been lucky, we have been lucky with those late goals. remove them and its barely any better from last season.

Was hounded on this thread a couple of months back. When I pointed to the fact that Conte's big game record is poor.

Dippers last week and Arsenal today just go on to show as much. We will struggle to get top4 this season.

Edited September 24, 20169 yr by Orpington_Blue

I was told an analogy a while back. 

Making sausages you have three stages.

The ingredients. The process. The end product.

If you want better quality sausages stop concentrating on the end product because unless you improve the quality of the ingredients going in you're going to keep getting sh*t sausages. 

Basically giving Conte the same players that finished 10th and expecting him to cook up a better quality of football is stupid. 

We're too sentimental as a club, we don't evolve and progress. That's why Ivanovic hasn't been replaced. That's why we keep looking backwards and bringing people back to the club (Jose, Drogba, Luiz, Hiddink). We aren't ruthless enough to let go of long serving players and replacing them. Ferguson did it all the time with United, he had no sentiment about letting go of players like Beckham, Van Nistleroy, Cole, Stam. He constantly changed and evolved his squads and we're paying the price for not doing the same. 

Conte needs time but he also needs backing, big time. He needs to allowed to rebuild this club because there's some things that have been long overdue in addressing. 

3 minutes ago, ForeverCarefree said:

Conte needs time but he also needs backing, big time. He needs to allowed to rebuild this club because there's some things that have been long overdue in addressing. 

You'd thing he has enough backing to drop ivanovic and play Aina instead. Players have been sh*t but Conte can always drop them but he doesnt.

Edited September 24, 20169 yr by Orpington_Blue

One word - Chelseapoli. 

That's not a word.

First time he disappoints me, but that's okay, if we're going to see an improvement, then it's acceptable. I trust in Conte, I think he knows what he wants, he needs our backup and of course board's backup. He clearly has to look at Ivanovic and Cahill, I can't believe that we fans understand more than him, but putting them every game and losing because of their mistake doesn't sound legit to me. 

He still need time, trust him.

12 minutes ago, Orpington_Blue said:

You'd thing he has enough backing to drop ivanovic and play Aina instead. Players have been sh*t but Conte can always drop them but he doesnt.

Well to be fair before today the Liverpool result was the first loss and first bad performance over 90 minutes.

Coming off of back to back league losses it'll be interesting to see what, if anything, Conte changes. 

4 minutes ago, IliyaKrostin said:

I trust in Conte, I think he knows what he wants, he needs our backup and of course board's backup.

Hopefully the backup board will be better than our current board. Our current support is top notch though so I dont think we need backup supporters. 

Well it is suddenly gone from being positive to negative in the space of 3 games. We had abit of a "new manager bounce" but It's obvious that Conte still does not know his best team and JT is a massive loss to the defence. 

What I don't get is that Conte's team are normally full of passion and commitment however this lot look confused and unhappy. Frustratingly we are playing the same team for the last 2/3 years - that really shows the lack of proper investment in first team players  

I think it's the last we see of Cahill for abit. that JT and Zouma are back. 

The only positive is that the switch to 3-5-2 did make look us abit more secure at back (albeit Arsenal did drop down a gear). Hopefully Conte can sort it out on the training ground. 

7 minutes ago, IliyaKrostin said:

First time he disappoints me, but that's okay, if we're going to see an improvement, then it's acceptable. I trust in Conte, I think he knows what he wants, he needs our backup and of course board's backup. He clearly has to look at Ivanovic and Cahill, I can't believe that we fans understand more than him, but putting them every game and losing because of their mistake doesn't sound legit to me. 

He still need time, trust him.

Nah. I am done blindly trusting multi-millionaires who cant drop other multi-millionaires. 

If I made such mistakes at my job, I would be castrated. 

Expect him to play the same 11 next week albeit change oscar for Cesc. 

40 minutes ago, Orpington_Blue said:

Was hounded on this thread a couple of months back. When I pointed to the fact that Conte's big game record is poor.

Dippers last week and Arsenal today just go on to show as much. We will struggle to get top4 this season.

 

What else is not poor?

 

The answer is it is the players who have no commitment and the board needs to stop blaming managers. Everyone bar Costa today. Credit to him going full pelt in this shower of sh*t.

He did a good job not blaming the players but I feel we will see changes also I honestly do believe now as Jose said its the players they are not giving 100% only 2 or 3 Costa, Azpi, Terry And Cesc when he plays seems to be the only ones trying to play with intensity the rest are pretty much useless at the moment slow lethargic no intensity that's what conte ask for intensity

10 minutes ago, JM7 said:

Well it is suddenly gone from being positive to negative in the space of 3 games. We had abit of a "new manager bounce" but It's obvious that Conte still does not know his best team and JT is a massive loss to the defence. 

What I don't get is that Conte's team are normally full of passion and commitment however this lot look confused and unhappy. Frustratingly we are playing the same team for the last 2/3 years - that really shows the lack of proper investment in first team players  

I think it's the last we see of Cahill for abit. that JT and Zouma are back. 

The only positive is that the switch to 3-5-2 did make look us abit more secure at back (albeit Arsenal did drop down a gear). Hopefully Conte can sort it out on the training ground. 

To be honest, even that formation looked too open for me. There was always an Arsenal player picked out in the full back positions because we had no full back's there for protection. It seemed like every time Arsenal were on the wings, Azpilicueta and Alonso would be too far up the field. It may just be a lack of practice but that formation looks as hopeless as our current one right now.

49 minutes ago, ForeverCarefree said:

I was told an analogy a while back. 

Making sausages you have three stages.

The ingredients. The process. The end product.

If you want better quality sausages stop concentrating on the end product because unless you improve the quality of the ingredients going in you're going to keep getting sh*t sausages. 

Basically giving Conte the same players that finished 10th and expecting him to cook up a better quality of football is stupid. 

We're too sentimental as a club, we don't evolve and progress. That's why Ivanovic hasn't been replaced. That's why we keep looking backwards and bringing people back to the club (Jose, Drogba, Luiz, Hiddink). We aren't ruthless enough to let go of long serving players and replacing them. Ferguson did it all the time with United, he had no sentiment about letting go of players like Beckham, Van Nistleroy, Cole, Stam. He constantly changed and evolved his squads and we're paying the price for not doing the same. 

Conte needs time but he also needs backing, big time. He needs to allowed to rebuild this club because there's some things that have been long overdue in addressing. 

To be fair, sausages don't train 4 days a week on a training ground or whatever it is. :]

 

Good point regarding Ferguson. Maybe this sentimentality comes from Roman being who he is...