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.

I think it's the only way to get two attackers on and protect the back 3 as what we are doing is clearly not working

Conte every bit to blame as the players.

It looks clear that this is some sort of nonsense he's been working on in training. These 'tactics' where the team sits deep and stands off. The players looked too scared to move out of position even a little. 

No wonder they looked confused and all over the shop.

But Cahill and Iva - no excuses there.

Hazard, too, especially, was garbage. 

Edited September 24, 20169 yr by Kante Conte

The bloke has not got a clue - we all know Ivanovic is awful why cannot managers see this ? From back to front it was terrible - only Costa seems interested .

after watching the last few matches the why conte wants to play needs two forward players. The amount of balls that went back to front against Leicester having one up top doesn't work. I can't understand why we are so deep all the time totally disgusted after watching that  

Conte: "We are not a great team on the pitch. The pitch speaks the truth. The pitch is the most important."

 

Conte, his voice rising in anger: "I must find the solution. We are conceding, in every game, two goals. I work a lot to find the solution."

 

Conte: "I think it's not good to talk about the defenders, because I think it's most important to talk the whole team."

 

 

Edited September 24, 20169 yr by DidierDrogbalala

 Don't really give a sh*t what he says, i want some solutions.

Yup easy to talk, we all do it on here. Conte is the one who can actually make changes. 

Actions speak louder than words. 

 Don't really give a sh*t what he says, i want some solutions.

He is neither a magician or a brain surgeon who can replace all the braindead moments Cahill and Ivan keep producing. He is trying his best, maybe the players can too. Bunch of overpaid prima donnas.

The board needs to realize it is not the manager who is the problem but more on the players and even some vermins in their own midst.

Just now, JoseBlues said:

 

He is neither a magician or a brain surgeon who can replace all the braindead moments Cahill and Ivan keep producing. He is trying his best, maybe the players can too. Bunch of overpaid prima donnas.

The board needs to realize it is not the manager who is the problem but more on the players and even some vermins in their own midst.

 

 

No, but surely he has eyes and at least a basic knowledge of football. He can see which players are not performing. He can see his tactics are not working. Will he change them though?

he's a quality manager and a quality coach. given time and the players he wants and we'll get a good team which plays good football. but there is no saying he'll get either.

poor guy, we have an amateur of a board that doesn't back him in transfers, bunch of primadonna players who showed up when they feel like it, but he's the one who probably get the sack in december if we continue to struggle

1 hour ago, Kante Conte said:

It looks clear that this is some sort of nonsense he's been working on in training. These 'tactics' where the team sits deep and stands off. The players looked too scared to move out of position even a little. . 

Yes absolutely. It looks as if Conte has set the team up to defend and sit back in the big games. When we do it, we look awful and completely lost. I don't understand why as they are pretty used to defending deep  

We look a lot better when we take the initiative and attack. 

As I said at half time, this is a massive moment now in the career of conte. he came with some equity from the juve and Italy stints but there are more big games in the prem then both those jobs put together (I understand that international football differed)

 

for me you cant continue with Ivan at right back. What's worrying is the worst player on the pitch today for me was Dave, the space on the flanks because he was caught inside was rediculace. In addition TBO has completely lost his confidence, he stands on his line and doesn't dominate his area like he used to. Conte has to make us hard to beat , should always be the first job of any manager IMO

 

 

Totally agree conte is a top manager, however 5 of his 6 team selections havnt been good enough to take 3 points. 

I think he needs to be more ruthless. 

I really think conte is a good manager but if we are brutally honest we haven't been great this season. We got one in the dying minutes against West Ham when we were the better team but again defended deep and didn't create much. Scored two late on against Watford which has really papered over the cracks. Played well against Swansea but mistakes cost us big time and I think has really effected the team. We really seem lacking in real leaders on the pitch when JT doesn't play. The last two games have been a shambles no pressing and too deep inviting teams onto us. playing 4 1 4 1 doesn't work when you don't press and drop really deep. Would really like us to play 4 4 1 1 with hazard in behind Costa two holding midfielders to help out the shambles of a defence for a few games and 2 wingers getting up and to inject some pace into the passing it's far to slow at the minute. 

Can't agree. I honestly think the team on the whole has been good apart from those two big games which appear largely to be the result of some bad tactical decisions 

11 minutes ago, Kante Conte said:

Can't agree. I honestly think the team on the whole has been good apart from those two big games which appear largely to be the result of some bad tactical decisions 

That may be one of the reasons but I don't think it is entirely that. In the Liverpool game, we gifted them a goal and we were undone by a wonderful strike. No amount of tactics can do anything about that. The only tactical problem there was the fact that we could not create enough challenges.

In the Arsenal game we gifted them a goal and the other 2 goals actually showed the gulf in class between the 2 teams. We could not defend to save our lives, we could not create chances to score and were pretty much clueless. We tried 4-4-2 and also tried a 3 CB with 2 wingback style and that too did not help. I just don't see any tactical changes that could have altered our fortune. Maybe you can enlighten me with what you think could have improved us when we were down 3 goals.

Reputations don't really matter. Conte came here on a wave of euphoria because we were getting somebody that wouldn't take any sh!t, would have no trouble cutting out the dead wood regardless of who they were, and would build a side to fit his style of play. His use of second string players in the Italian squad to build a solid unit gave us hope that he would do a similar job here. Whilst his Italian team wasn't ultimately as successful as everyone expected they still performed well and the team was greater than the sum of each of its parts. This worked for us because deep down we knew, or should have known, that we were not going to attract big name players when we had no European football to offer them.

The fact that we once again did pretty poorly in the transfer window could still have been overlooked as we were going to get an attacking formation full of fitter players and players that wanted to play for the club (even if these were kids).

Here we are now playing the same way with the same players that are patently either past their sell by dates or were never truly good enough in the fist place.

I expected this to happen, for Conte to see with his own eyes that Ivan is past it, that Cahill is hopelessly out of his depth, that Oscar just doesn't offer anything, that Matic is never going to rediscover his form. So where now are the fireworks, where is the surgery, where is the direction and the gradual change of the team into Conte's style. It's just groundhog day, going through the same sh!t game after game, and this will continue to happen to us.

We must cut out the dead wood and trust in the younger players around the squad. Ivan has been a great servant for this club and has been there through thick and thin, picking up League and CL winners medals. But he didn't come to us like that. We need to create our next team. Conte needs to put some of these kids out there together and perhaps a bond will develop and the next group will grow from that. Aina, Zouma, Chalobah, Batshuayi. None of these youngsters could be worse than the stool water that we have been served up recently.

 

This squad is tired and worn out. Look at them - fragile and in dire need of refreshing. Mourinho, Hiddink and Conte have all struggled to get anything out of them. 

Individually, there are some really good players but when you look at the squad collectively, they look as if they can't give anymore. 

Some massive changes over the next couple of transfer windows.  It shows that we've only changed Kante in our starting 11. The rest are all players that have been with us for a while. 

The club need to be brace and ship some players out and refresh the squad. A proper rebuild, not a quick fix. The club were hoping that Conte would come in and do a quick fix. Unfortunatly it's going to need more than that. 

23:38 - Ridley Sinclair: we have a mountain race
23:38 - Ridley Sinclair: between two cars
23:38 - Ridley Sinclair: from the top of the mountain
23:38 - Ridley Sinclair: to the finish line at the bottom
23:38 - Ridley Sinclair: very dangerous race, you can fall off the road
23:38 - Ridley Sinclair: anyway
23:38 - Ridley Sinclair: we have 2 cars
23:38 - Ridley Sinclair: one is a red car
23:38 - Ridley Sinclair: arsene's driving it
23:38 - Ridley Sinclair: you see
23:38 - Ridley Sinclair: arsene
23:38 - Ridley Sinclair: likes to make the sharp turns
23:39 - Ridley Sinclair: and drive nicely
23:39 - Ridley Sinclair: but he always runs out of gas near the end
23:39 - Ridley Sinclair: but he can always refill
23:39 - Ridley Sinclair: go back
23:39 - Ridley Sinclair: and try again
23:39 - Ridley Sinclair: right?
23:39 - Ridley Sinclair: his car is still intact
23:39 - Ridley Sinclair: now we have his opponent
23:39 - Ridley Sinclair: jose
23:39 - Ridley Sinclair: in a blue car
23:39 - Ridley Sinclair: jose really wants to win it
23:39 - Ridley Sinclair: he doesnt give a sh*t about the car
23:39 - Ridley Sinclair: so he drives it off the mountain
23:39 - Ridley Sinclair: straight into the finish line
23:39 - Ridley Sinclair: he wins
23:39 - Ridley Sinclair: but the car is f**king wrecked
23:39 - Ridley Sinclair: the next race
23:39 - Ridley Sinclair: arsene can try again and maybe win it
23:39 - Ridley Sinclair: but jose wrecked his car
23:39 - Ridley Sinclair: its f**king over
23:40 - Ridley Sinclair: do you understand now?
23:40 - Ridley Sinclair: he doesnt care about developing
23:40 - Ridley Sinclair: he doesnt care about cohesion
23:40 - Ridley Sinclair: no
23:40 - Ridley Sinclair: its all about
23:40 - Ridley Sinclair: doing everything
23:40 - Ridley Sinclair: to win
23:40 - Ridley Sinclair: grinding out, abusing referees
23:40 - Ridley Sinclair: do you finally understand?
23:41 - Ridley Sinclair: and you see
23:41 - Ridley Sinclair: after jose died crashing his car
23:41 - Ridley Sinclair: hiddink came to pick it up to take it to the repairman
23:41 - Ridley Sinclair: conte the mechanic
23:41 - Ridley Sinclair: but you see
23:41 - Ridley Sinclair: his boss
23:41 - Ridley Sinclair: gave him a good wrench
23:41 - Ridley Sinclair: a good hammer
23:41 - Ridley Sinclair: and 3 really sh*tty screwdrivers
23:41 - Ridley Sinclair: he cant do much can he

^ Yes lets all blame Mourinho.

The man who won us the last title for what is likely to be atleast 20 years.

5 minutes ago, Orpington_Blue said:

^ Yes lets all blame Mourinho.

The man who won us the last title for what is likely to be atleast 20 years.

Also the man whose decisions made sure that it would be atleast 20 years for which we wont win the title.

12 minutes ago, brownindian said:

That may be one of the reasons but I don't think it is entirely that. In the Liverpool game, we gifted them a goal and we were undone by a wonderful strike. No amount of tactics can do anything about that. The only tactical problem there was the fact that we could not create enough challenges.

In the Arsenal game we gifted them a goal and the other 2 goals actually showed the gulf in class between the 2 teams. We could not defend to save our lives, we could not create chances to score and were pretty much clueless. We tried 4-4-2 and also tried a 3 CB with 2 wingback style and that too did not help. I just don't see any tactical changes that could have altered our fortune. Maybe you can enlighten me with what you think could have improved us when we were down 3 goals.

I said largely down to... Invidual mistake and poor defending, but the team was set up wrong from the off. Anyone could see they were extremely deep and not pressing at all just like with Liverpool in the first half.

3 minutes ago, Kante Conte said:

I said largely down to... Invidual mistake and poor defending, but the team was set up wrong from the off. Anyone could see they were extremely deep and not pressing at all just like with Liverpool in the first half.

The pressing game also cannot be implemented in a whim, It took Liverpool half of last season, the off season and getting the right players (and younger players) to be able to learn the Gegenpress technique and implement it. Conte just walked into his job and he did not even have time to test out his 3 CB formation. We truly look terrible in all aspects of the game. If you want to try the Liverpool style, it is not going to happen with the likes of Pedro, Cesc, Hazard, Oscar in our midfield. We need a make over. 

 

I am theorizing here, but the only formation that I think may help us will be to play the 2 striker system which will give the oppositions defenders something to do than marching comfortably into our half. We need someone like Vidal who can effectively like the midfield with the attack.

Our CM positions seems to be a pick your poison options. Play the CMs closer to the defenders to shield them, but it blunts our attack. Or play them closer to the forwards to allow them to support the forwards but leave the defense exposed.

6 minutes ago, Kante Conte said:

I said largely down to... Invidual mistake and poor defending, but the team was set up wrong from the off. Anyone could see they were extremely deep and not pressing at all just like with Liverpool in the first half.

after watching contes Italy in the euros they also defended very deep making the most of the size of the pitch and playing out from the back. I can't understand why he didn't give Kennedy a run in pre season naturally left footed with a great engine. he could have played left midfield freeing hazard to play behind Costa