Hope he dusts this loss off and pick the squad back up again. Today was a poor performance from him. Needs to be braver with his tactics against sides that play possession football. 

I'm sure he thought about the players' fatigue and such but having them come on to us is even more physically and mentally draining

47 minutes ago, Deino said:

Hope he dusts this loss off and pick the squad back up again. Today was a poor performance from him. Needs to be braver with his tactics against sides that play possession football. 

I'm sure he thought about the players' fatigue and such but having them come on to us is even more physically and mentally draining

Yes. I made a few harsh comments to this effect but he would have assessed the team's stamina levels and 'freshness' and probably thought the team will be run ragged unless they sit back and try to nick a win.

Still, I'm sure there's way to play very defensive tactics with a more potent counter threat than what was on show today. Two midget wingers, and Azpilicueta and Alonso expected to lead the charge. :|

I dont go to many matches nowadays but I went today and felt, probably for the first time in his spell as our boss, that Conte really got it wrong today. IMO Fabregas should not have started. Citeh played round him in midfield and he didnt have either the power or athleticism to do a thing about it. And when Morata went off playing a false 9 meant we lost all capability of holding the ball up. We were second best from that point on.

Two well deserved wins and a poor defeat. Shame to end the week that way. Still maintain unless we make another come back and win the league (or champions league lol) the board will sack conte.

Are you suggesting they should sack conte over that game? 

That would be utterly insane.

6 hours ago, just said:

I dont go to many matches nowadays but I went today and felt, probably for the first time in his spell as our boss, that Conte really got it wrong today. IMO Fabregas should not have started. Citeh played round him in midfield and he didnt have either the power or athleticism to do a thing about it. And when Morata went off playing a false 9 meant we lost all capability of holding the ball up. We were second best from that point on.

Was about to post exactly the same thing.

I love Cesc but there are certain games when he shouldnt be starting, against dynamic teams who play at a high tempo Cesc is more less stood in the middle of the park watching the game pass him by in a blur. He doesn't work back and I think with Hazard in the side Cesc's lack of work rate is exposed even further. He's a luxury item and some times its a luxury we cannot afford.

And yes once again Conte's lack of belief in Bats is shown. City at home is the last team we should playing the false 9 against (although I bloody hate it and wouldn't play it at all if I had my way). The floodgates opened when we didn't have a player as an outlet up front to retain possession. 

8 hours ago, just said:

I dont go to many matches nowadays but I went today and felt, probably for the first time in his spell as our boss, that Conte really got it wrong today. IMO Fabregas should not have started. Citeh played round him in midfield and he didnt have either the power or athleticism to do a thing about it. And when Morata went off playing a false 9 meant we lost all capability of holding the ball up. We were second best from that point on.

I think Michy should have come on straight away, Hazard has never worked in that role, if not michy then pedro who seems to have a better strikers instinct. 

I agree with Fabregas assessment but worth remembering he played in a central 2 against city last season and we picked up 6 points. The issue is the gap between Cesc's skill set and lets say, pedro, willian, Kante, Bakayako is massive, none of them are even close to him when it comes to being able to control the tempo of a game and pick the right option. Unfortunately when it comes to doing much else he's a bit of a passenger. I don't watch enough of other teams but from the bits iv'e seen it seems that spurs have it working some what with Errikson, prehaps he's more athletic. 

Can't blame Conte for Willian playing the way he did when brought on, but can blame Conte for bringing him on at all. Willian for all his pace and skill is a very unintelligent player. He receives the ball before thinking of and deciding on what to do with it. At that level you should know what you want to do and should do before you even receive the ball. If your game plan was reliant on cowardly defending (7 defensive personnel and 3 attacking ones is very cowardly at home, say what you like) at least do a like for like replacement when Morata came off injured. We will never have stopped City from scoring but they couldn't have stopped us from scoring either if we didn't surrender. When Pep saw the team list he and his boys must have been very happy and relaxed.

Pragmatism is not a bad thing but that was overly pragmatic. I will never see a team, mine or the opposition play that way and be in support. We are the fuc*** champions for crying out loud. That was a piss poor performance if i ever seen one and especially do not like the pattern we seem to be following when playing other members of the top six. A current return of 4 from 9 extrapolated means we will drop about 15 points from those games. Not good enough.

The end can sometimes justify the means and maybe if we had drawn or won could have been saying something else but i'd tell you right now I was raging with the performance against Arsenal. This was several times worse than that.

This Sunday Supplement show is a load of sh*te. They're saying that Conte will be gone before the end of the season. On top of that they're saying Bayern are struggling so bad that Pep will be over the moon that it proves it's not easy to win the league with them. Give over, they're two points off top or something 

I did not see many complains in the match thread, when the starting 11 comes up. After the game end it`s very easy to say Conte did this and that wrong. But why you not say it before the match ?

The board is the problem, not Conte. We lack class and it`s so obvious, both City and United are miles ahead of us in terms of quality and depth and quality on the bench.

How hard is to understand that Conte is not a fan of Batshuayi??? And i understand why. He is so lazy, he came in the 70min. in the match, he was just running lightly. Not once he made a sprint or press the defender ....

The guys that were 90 minutes on the pitch was running more then him ... Not once he step up and try to press the enemy defenders.

With such behaviour and laziness, you won`t be a starter in any top team.  That`s why Conte not like him and probably because it`s a Emanalo signing.

Let`s get back on the board. Why in the blue hell you sell Matic for 40m. to United and make them a real contender, cause he is perfect in their squad, and get an injured and totally average player like Drinkwater for 35m???

And Zapaccosta on a last minute and he is obviously not fit ready and not use to Conte tactics and to the team style.

When he will become ready and Drinkwater become available, the title fight will be long over.
Fabregas should have not started, but who could have Conte put in there, tell me ?

If Matic was there, Baka - Matic - Kante and it`s game over for City. We shut the midfielder and will destroy them on counter attack.

But in 3-5-2 you need solid wing-back, something that Conte wanted, but not get. He wanted Walker/Danilo and Mendy, he get a guy, who will be ready, when the PL season is over ....

Alonso is damn good but for wing-back you need decent speed, and he possess zero speed.

Conte wanted third different type of striker, he didn`t get us, o for god sake Liverpool, Totheman, City and United was stealing us player like nothing this summer.

If Conte leaves, no matter the reason, there will be dark times ahead with this board.

And i don`t see us attractive to top managers anymore.

@dkw found him

Edited October 1, 20178 yr by Stim

7 minutes ago, brakeit said:

I did not see many complains in the match thread, when the starting 11 comes up. After the game end it`s very easy to say Conte did this and that wrong. But why you not say it before the match ?

The board is the problem, not Conte. We lack class and it`s so obvious, both City and United are miles ahead of us in terms of quality and depth and quality on the bench.

How hard is to understand that Conte is not a fan of Batshuayi??? And i understand why. He is so lazy, he came in the 70min. in the match, he was just running lightly. Not once he made a sprint or press the defender ....

The guys that were 90 minutes on the pitch was running more then him ... Not once he step up and try to press the enemy defenders.

With such behaviour and laziness, you won`t be a starter in any top team.  That`s why Conte not like him and probably because it`s a Emanalo signing.

Let`s get back on the board. Why in the blue hell you sell Matic for 40m. to United and make them a real contender, cause he is perfect in their squad, and get an injured and totally average player like Drinkwater for 35m???

And Zapaccosta on a last minute and he is obviously not fit ready and not use to Conte tactics and to the team style.

When he will become ready and Drinkwater become available, the title fight will be long over.
Fabregas should have not started, but who could have Conte put in there, tell me ?

If Matic was there, Baka - Matic - Kante and it`s game over for City. We shut the midfielder and will destroy them on counter attack.

But in 3-5-2 you need solid wing-back, something that Conte wanted, but not get. He wanted Walker/Danilo and Mendy, he get a guy, who will be ready, when the PL season is over ....

Alonso is damn good but for wing-back you need decent speed, and he possess zero speed.

Conte wanted third different type of striker, he didn`t get us, o for god sake Liverpool, Totheman, City and United was stealing us player like nothing this summer.

If Conte leaves, no matter the reason, there will be dark times ahead with this board.

And i don`t see us attractive to top managers anymore.

Hmmmmm, current premier league champions, not attractive anymore ?, its a blip, he made errors, so we Re-galvanise and move on.

4 minutes ago, Stim said:

@dkw found him

Amazing isn't it, literally his first post since we went on a decent run of results is immediately after our first defeat, and it's just him repeating the same tripe. 

11 hours ago, just said:

I dont go to many matches nowadays but I went today and felt, probably for the first time in his spell as our boss, that Conte really got it wrong today. IMO Fabregas should not have started. Citeh played round him in midfield and he didnt have either the power or athleticism to do a thing about it. And when Morata went off playing a false 9 meant we lost all capability of holding the ball up. We were second best from that point on.

Spot on. Conte got the tactics wrong today and Guardiola outclassed hin for sure. Not many days ago Conte took Simeone to school so Im not really worried. Its the nature of the beast. 

Worrying to see rumours that Conte wants out at the end of the season. Hopefully it’s just nonsense and negativity after a poor performance. 

When you take this week as a whole, I think most of us would have take a 4-0 win away at Stoke, a superb 2-1 win at AM and may have accepted a loss to City. 

We shouldn’t be getting too worked up by the loss, this team has shown that it work beat big teams and perform in big moments. The timing of the AM game had a major impact and we have been on the other side when other teams have played mid week (see Everton). 

Keep your chin up. 

I think yesterday was a very harmful defeat for Conte. We played like a small team, City were a big team, with big ambitions, ambitions to play, to impose themselves on title rivals away from home, ambitions to express themselves. We were meek by comparison. We showed no ambition at all.

 

Tactically, the substitution was horrible, it was clearly not working but he didn't change it. If you want to play without a striker, bring Pedro and Hazard on and take off Morata and Fabregas, and go 343, or just swap Morata with Michy. Swapping Morata for Willian was defensive beyond belief and more or less surrendered all the initiative to City. At half-time he had a chance to change it. He refused.

 

Atletico was as good as I've seen from Conte but that was against a team who like to play counter themselves. City was as bad as I've seen from Conte. It was embarrassing. We were humiliated. Forget the score, that flattered us, the way we played, the way they played, the contrast in mindsets. It was embarrassing. 

 

Worse than that it was harmful. Harmful for our chances this season and not just because we dropped points to a rival. Harmful psychologically. Champions can lose. Champions can play badly. Champions don't play like a small team. We will feel smaller after that defeat and all our rivals will feel bigger. We exposed a weakness.

 

Yes we had a day less to recover, which played its part. I also think Conte was badly let down in the window and he will know that. Morata went off and he didn't have another striker he trusted. We haven't upgraded the crucial WB positions. The shame of it is City's defence is their weak spot. We never even tested them. Stones and Otamendi, they can be got at. We barely touched the ball, let alone offered anything going forward. If Hazard's not on the ball you have find a way of getting it to him, because we are so reliant on him, but we couldn't, and that's the manager's doing. By contrast City aren't reliant on any one individual. Unlike us they have invested in attacking players, in creative players, in players with that bit of spark. That's their philosophy and it paid off yesterday. They were as good as any league team I can remember at the Bridge. I don't think any English side has come to the Bridge in the Roman era and outplayed us so comprehensively. People say Arsenal play good football, well Arsenal have never played us off the park in the Roman era. City did.

 

Going forward Antonio needs to pick the team on merit. Christensen in the team. If you play well you keep your spot. Rudiger in the team. Fabregas out. Fabregas is a massive problem for Conte. He wants to play him more partly I suspect because he senses Cesc isn't happy with a bit-part role but the bit-part role Cesc played for us last season was perfect. Stick to that blueprint Antonio. You know it makes sense.

^ there's a lot to agree with there but it has a silver lining & like the early part of last year it is a wake up call to those who make the decisions & that 's a good thing. Overall & for the future. And should it be the case that we don't "overachieve" in the league like last year, the fact is that we're back in Europe. That's important as far as the sums go. If some of you have to get used to the fact that we may, and probably won't, win the league this year, so be it. The League this year is not as important as our overall progression financially: ie being back in Europe & making a fair fist of it & being in the top 3 with the 'stadium' re-build to come. That's all that matters atm.

I think after this game Conte can draw some conclusions:

1.We need improvement in the RWB position

2.Cesc is a liability

3.He must find new tactics against high pressing teams

1 hour ago, JM7 said:

Worrying to see rumours that Conte wants out at the end of the season. Hopefully it’s just nonsense and negativity after a poor performance. 

When you take this week as a whole, I think most of us would have take a 4-0 win away at Stoke, a superb 2-1 win at AM and may have accepted a loss to City. 

We shouldn’t be getting too worked up by the loss, this team has shown that it work beat big teams and perform in big moments. The timing of the AM game had a major impact and we have been on the other side when other teams have played mid week (see Everton). 

Keep your chin up. 

The media have been saying this since he joined the club. One day they will be right and then they will say "we told you so". Anybody who makes 1000 guesses is eventually going to be right at least once.

The only thing I'm worried atm with him, is that he show stubbornness early into the season, like last year.

It took a couple of bad results for him to change things up, so I hope this time around he'll react faster.

 

 

5 hours ago, Davey Baby said:

I think yesterday was a very harmful defeat for Conte. We played like a small team, City were a big team, with big ambitions, ambitions to play, to impose themselves on title rivals away from home, ambitions to express themselves. We were meek by comparison. We showed no ambition at all.

 

Tactically, the substitution was horrible, it was clearly not working but he didn't change it. If you want to play without a striker, bring Pedro and Hazard on and take off Morata and Fabregas, and go 343, or just swap Morata with Michy. Swapping Morata for Willian was defensive beyond belief and more or less surrendered all the initiative to City. At half-time he had a chance to change it. He refused.

 

Atletico was as good as I've seen from Conte but that was against a team who like to play counter themselves. City was as bad as I've seen from Conte. It was embarrassing. We were humiliated. Forget the score, that flattered us, the way we played, the way they played, the contrast in mindsets. It was embarrassing. 

 

Worse than that it was harmful. Harmful for our chances this season and not just because we dropped points to a rival. Harmful psychologically. Champions can lose. Champions can play badly. Champions don't play like a small team. We will feel smaller after that defeat and all our rivals will feel bigger. We exposed a weakness.

 

Yes we had a day less to recover, which played its part. I also think Conte was badly let down in the window and he will know that. Morata went off and he didn't have another striker he trusted. We haven't upgraded the crucial WB positions. The shame of it is City's defence is their weak spot. We never even tested them. Stones and Otamendi, they can be got at. We barely touched the ball, let alone offered anything going forward. If Hazard's not on the ball you have find a way of getting it to him, because we are so reliant on him, but we couldn't, and that's the manager's doing. By contrast City aren't reliant on any one individual. Unlike us they have invested in attacking players, in creative players, in players with that bit of spark. That's their philosophy and it paid off yesterday. They were as good as any league team I can remember at the Bridge. I don't think any English side has come to the Bridge in the Roman era and outplayed us so comprehensively. People say Arsenal play good football, well Arsenal have never played us off the park in the Roman era. City did.

 

Going forward Antonio needs to pick the team on merit. Christensen in the team. If you play well you keep your spot. Rudiger in the team. Fabregas out. Fabregas is a massive problem for Conte. He wants to play him more partly I suspect because he senses Cesc isn't happy with a bit-part role but the bit-part role Cesc played for us last season was perfect. Stick to that blueprint Antonio. You know it makes sense.

Davey, that City squad cost £700m to assemble, ours around £460m. Conte deserves criticism and he was outclassed against City, but I'm sure if he was given an extra £240m to spend to even the odds, we would have every right to demand more from him.

The midweek big game fatigue and Morata's early substitution really were big factors. Conte wasn't perfect but think there is quite a bit of overreaction here.

i am surprised at the criticisms about the performance especially with morata going off..

and playing with small team mentality vs good teams isnt very new.. just remember the times under jose..

I really don't think Conte made any bad decisions this game whatsoever, his gameplan was the correct method, just because we lose a game doesn't automatically mean the manager got the tactics wrong, even if we were outplayed. 

The blame has to go elsewhere, twice we've seen whenever we have played in Europe the players have looked like 80 year old men on the weekends, they were very sluggish against Arsenal, not themselves. Worrying signs, but not the manager's tactics (except for the Arsenal game he was naive in that) 

1 hour ago, abramovich said:

Davey, that City squad cost £700m to assemble, ours around £460m. Conte deserves criticism and he was outclassed against City, but I'm sure if he was given an extra £240m to spend to even the odds, we would have every right to demand more from him.

 

True enough but let's not forget they had three very big players out. I don't think the money quite mitigates the fact we were outplayed so comprehensively at home.