There's a thread on redcafe citing an article saying that Roman's relationship with Conte isn't great. The article doesn't seem to have much meat to it thankfully. 
http://www.redcafe.net/threads/sportwitness-conte-and-abramovich-relationship-is-strained.427587/

Redcafe really.... Really....

LOL Redcafe trying to be relevant.

I miss league games. Why international break has to be this long? 

I don't think this is true but what do you think of this?

Alvaro Morata wants to join us.

 

http://talksport.com/football/transfer-alert-real-madrid-striker-alvaro-morata-wants-join-former-boss-antonio-conte

On 3/23/2017 at 08:08, Beerqueen said:

David Luiz and Gazza describing Conte's training.  Had to laugh at David - "Focus, everyday he says that, focus"

 

 

 

I love Luiz, seems like the life of the party every time he's in front of the camera.

On 23/03/2017 at 22:38, DonAntonio said:

England adopting our 3-4-3 against Germany, if you want to gauge who has had the biggest impact on English football, Conte, Klopp, Pep it's not hard to pick a winner

Never liked statements like this. What makes it our 3-4-3? I believe the manager was also a member of a back 3 in a 3-4-3 formation back in his playing days. Formations evolve, go through active and dormant stages but to say "our 3-4-3" is a bit of a stretch. How about he's just trying a formation out, maybe one he has played in as well before?

I don't think this is true but what do you think of this?

Alvaro Morata wants to join us.

 

http://talksport.com/football/transfer-alert-real-madrid-striker-alvaro-morata-wants-join-former-boss-antonio-conte

 

Is this our version of Draxler to Arsenal? We seem to be constantly linked with him without anything ever actually happening

 

2 hours ago, Lampsy said:

I love Luiz, seems like the life of the party every time he's in front of the camera.

Yeah me too. Loved his dance to Blue is the colour after the Champions League. And his singing on the bus afterwards. 

10 hours ago, abister1 said:

Never liked statements like this. What makes it our 3-4-3? I believe the manager was also a member of a back 3 in a 3-4-3 formation back in his playing days. Formations evolve, go through active and dormant stages but to say "our 3-4-3" is a bit of a stretch. How about he's just trying a formation out, maybe one he has played in as well before?

Hardly "our" 3-4-3 as Conte didn't invent the formation of course. But it's fair to say he has broken the myth of "3 at the back can't work in England" for good. Also, Steve Holland, who's Conte's assistant, is also Southgate's assistant, so it's not a stretch to point out a Chelsea influence on that change there. Plus the team already had the personnel with players like Walker and Dier in the side as well as Cahill.

On a slightly different note, seeing Bertrand do well for England and Southampton really crushes me. In my opinion, an even dumber decision to sell him than Lukaku or De Bruyne. Jose really made some transfer blunders in his 2 and half years back. It's especially frustrating because we sold him off for Felipe Luis who we then sold back to Atletico the following season. Bertrand is a lot better than Alonso imo. Would have been a very quick and energetic LWB for us right now and a Chelsea boy too.

Edited March 28, 20179 yr by Barrettinator

Bertrand doesn't have close to enough going forward in his game to be a wing back, his best shot in a back 3 system would be LCB.

13 hours ago, adineen98 said:

 

Is this our version of Draxler to Arsenal? We seem to be constantly linked with him without anything ever actually happening

 

Hulk to Chelsea was our equivalent to Draxler to Arsenal. 

15 hours ago, abister1 said:

Never liked statements like this. What makes it our 3-4-3? I believe the manager was also a member of a back 3 in a 3-4-3 formation back in his playing days. Formations evolve, go through active and dormant stages but to say "our 3-4-3" is a bit of a stretch. How about he's just trying a formation out, maybe one he has played in as well before?

Never liked statement that contradicted my statements  it's not hard to see a trend in 3-4-3 since conte came to England, other than playing it against us teams have been using it who never used it before, football is trends, playing 1 up top became the standard if you look back someone will have done it and it caught in like all trends, this trend started with conte, did he invent it no, did he bring it back into style yes and I don't think your argument of it being a coincidence holds water. 

4 hours ago, Argo said:

Bertrand doesn't have close to enough going forward in his game to be a wing back, his best shot in a back 3 system would be LCB.

Didn't he play as a winger when we won the CL? I'm not disputing what you said I haven't watched him enough just thought the irony was nice 

1 hour ago, Huttsey said:

Hulk to Chelsea was our equivalent to Draxler to Arsenal. 

What do you mean was......

8 minutes ago, dkw said:

What do you mean was......

You're right, there's still time!

27 minutes ago, DonAntonio said:

Never liked statement that contradicted my statements  it's not hard to see a trend in 3-4-3 since conte came to England, other than playing it against us teams have been using it who never used it before, football is trends, playing 1 up top became the standard if you look back someone will have done it and it caught in like all trends, this trend started with conte, did he invent it no, did he bring it back into style yes and I don't think your argument of it being a coincidence holds water. 

Conte and Juve weren't even the first in Italy  to popularise Three-at-the-back formations. Walter Mazzari's Napoli made it fashionable again, including against us in the Champions League in 2012. Brendan Rodgers used it to great success with Liverpool in 2013/14.

3-4-3 will probably supplant 4-2-3-1 as the formation of choice come next World Cup, and no doubt we will see more boring "analysis" on the trend. With most teams opting for a lone striker and overlapping fullbacks, it gives you a good chance of a numerical advantage on the counter.

39 minutes ago, DonAntonio said:

Didn't he play as a winger when we won the CL? I'm not disputing what you said I haven't watched him enough just thought the irony was nice 

Not really irony, Munich was a fantastic underdogs story but let's just say there won't be an hour long documentary on sky sports if we win it next year. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't have had it any other way, especially after the cruel eliminations when we were one of the best teams in the world, but I honestly wouldn't have a single player (at the ability they were at the time) from that team that started in Munich in the current one (Luiz and Cahill now are better than what they were then, in my opinion).

To further the point I made initially however, if the Bakayoko rumours are anything to go by, we are basing our solidarity through the 5 in the middle, meaning the wingbacks need to be strong going forward more so than good defenders. Like our current ones, the thought of Alonso or Moses in a flat back four makes me feel queasy, but as wing backs the balance is just right.

20 minutes ago, SydneyChelsea said:

Conte and Juve weren't even the first in Italy  to popularise Three-at-the-back formations. Walter Mazzari's Napoli made it fashionable again, including against us in the Champions League in 2012. Brendan Rodgers used it to great success with Liverpool in 2013/14.

3-4-3 will probably supplant 4-2-3-1 as the formation of choice come next World Cup, and no doubt we will see more boring "analysis" on the trend. With most teams opting for a lone striker and overlapping fullbacks, it gives you a good chance of a numerical advantage on the counter.

Exactly. Even in this country and league Brenda used it a lot and several teams last season used it randomly. Yeh we may be more associated with it as our main formation but to say trend started with Conte and brought into style by him......well l'll just leave it at have some salt handy people.

One thing we can say for sure is that it transformed our season.

Hulk to Chelsea was our equivalent to Draxler to Arsenal. 

Forgot about that one actually

2 hours ago, Argo said:

Not really irony, Munich was a fantastic underdogs story but let's just say there won't be an hour long documentary on sky sports if we win it next year. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't have had it any other way, especially after the cruel eliminations when we were one of the best teams in the world, but I honestly wouldn't have a single player (at the ability they were at the time) from that team that started in Munich in the current one (Luiz and Cahill now are better than what they were then, in my opinion).

To further the point I made initially however, if the Bakayoko rumours are anything to go by, we are basing our solidarity through the 5 in the middle, meaning the wingbacks need to be strong going forward more so than good defenders. Like our current ones, the thought of Alonso or Moses in a flat back four makes me feel queasy, but as wing backs the balance is just right.

Luiz better Cahill worse in my opinion, agree with everything else you said and I was of the opinion alonso and Moses as a stop gap were fine but not long term need better wingback options, however alonso won me over to my surprise I think he is developing well under conte 

7 minutes ago, DonAntonio said:

Luiz better Cahill worse in my opinion

Since the Champions League final win Cahill has won the league once and is on his way to captaining the side to a second within the space of 3 years. Also voted part of the PFA team of the year for the 2013/14 and 2014/15 seasons. 

Not sure I can agree with him as being a worse player personally. 

7 hours ago, ForeverCarefree said:

Since the Champions League final win Cahill has won the league once and is on his way to captaining the side to a second within the space of 3 years. Also voted part of the PFA team of the year for the 2013/14 and 2014/15 seasons. 

Not sure I can agree with him as being a worse player personally. 

Did you watch him last season and early this season couldn't get anything right, conte resurgence, benefiting from Kante in front of him and 3 cb's garry wouldn't be able to play in a 4 at the back in the absence of perfect fm cover anymore without getting badly exposed, he has adapted well but I do t think he is the player he was in 12/13 at all 

18 hours ago, SydneyChelsea said:

Conte and Juve weren't even the first in Italy  to popularise Three-at-the-back formations. Walter Mazzari's Napoli made it fashionable again, including against us in the Champions League in 2012. Brendan Rodgers used it to great success with Liverpool in 2013/14.

3-4-3 will probably supplant 4-2-3-1 as the formation of choice come next World Cup, and no doubt we will see more boring "analysis" on the trend. With most teams opting for a lone striker and overlapping fullbacks, it gives you a good chance of a numerical advantage on the counter.

It's strange that the popularity of the three/five-man defence in the 1990s seems to have been completely forgotten. I think it was Jonathan Wilson who made the argument that there are very rarely actual paradigm-shifting innovations in football, merely trends.

Anyway I found this list pretty amusing. Mainly because of Tim Sherwood's placing (should give the Mourinho-bashers some real ammunition), but also because it confirms what we all knew, that Alan Curbishley is (was?) the hero of our time:

Edited March 29, 20179 yr by PloKoon13

I don't think it's been completely forgotten, as this trend tends to be talked about as a "revival" of the 90s as opposed to an innovation.

It's all a bit rock-paper-scissors anyway. The reason why the 3-5-2 died off is because the world panicked when Barcelona were flogged by AC Milan's 4-4-2. Mourinho's 4-3-3 shocked the Premier League and evolved into the 4-2-3-1 which killed off the 4-4-2. Now 3-4-3 is back to kill off the 4-2-3-1 because the three central defenders suffocate typical lone strikers and inside forwards. Maybe we'll go full circle and see a return to traditional 4-4-2 with orthodox wingers to exploit the space in the corners of 3-man defenses