1 hour ago, brownindian said:

Absolutely. One thing about this game is that Watford as great as they are this season do not have the personals to punish us (missed sitters) or hold on to possession and waste time. Better teams do - and they can absolutely punish us. I really wish we get Kante and Drink water back. I would love to see Kante + Drinkwater and Bakayoko a bit forward. That is a very solid and physical midfield and Bakayokos instinct of running forward will be better suited to that setting. 

I'm really not convinced bakayoko has the vision or passing to play ahead of a drinkwater and kante midfield. I think he is best sitting in front of the back 4. 

Once kante is back, the midfield will be solid again even as a 2. 

Maybe that 3 you suggested would be good away in the tough games, but I think it lacks creativity to be our regular midfield. 

Loved his celebration at the end, no denying the passion he has for this club.

 

The board really need to f**king back this man in January and give him the players he wants.

6 hours ago, didierforever said:

20 mins left, it's 2-2 and can end up being any of the 3 results.

Dont want people to think it's knee jerk because of a defeat or a draw, so posting it right now.

anotjer pathetic performance from conte. Another game with cesc in mid and we get over run, another game with luiz and gc at the back, and it looks like we can't defend if our lives depended on it. All in all, absolutely sh*t from conte AGAIN.

the sack is coming, I can feel it. We are playing as bad as we did in 2015-16.

It's not even close to being as bad as 15/16, come on now.

Result very much papered over the cracks, we were lucky not to be 3/4-1 down.

It was good to see a bit of fire in Antonio though.

On 20/10/2017 at 23:18, PloKoon13 said:

Except AVB got his targets

Are you sure? That was the same season we chased Modric for 3 months until Harry Redknapp said "He's not for sale" on the transfer deadline. Leaving us with no other choice but Raul Meireles. 

41 minutes ago, startedwithglenn said:

Result very much papered over the cracks, we were lucky not to be 3/4-1 down.

It was good to see a bit of fire in Antonio though.

Very true but given the circumstance we are in at the moment, I take it. And it shows there is still fight in there, it isn't Jose Mourinho crises mode let's get the manager sacked antics. 

13 hours ago, Barrettinator said:

Time for a change, isn't it? Would 5 years be terrible to give a manager?

Would be wonderful I would be all for that with conte but I think you ask for too much. Is not how our board work.

Conte has two games to get us on track before Roma away and United at home. If our machine is still not firing all cylinders and we get no results from those two massive games Conte is very close getting the sack. This is Chelsea and we all know how it goes.

Hope Antonio can fix the problems. Amazing manager.

I think this is how he should be lining up the team from now on.

*Rotate Willian and Pedro

*Start Fab in games against poor opposition

*Rotate the fullback positions

3 hours ago, JT_<3 said:

I think this is how he should be lining up the team from now on.

*Rotate Willian and Pedro

*Start Fab in games against poor opposition

*Rotate the fullback positions

That midfield is far too defensive, we would fail centrally as Willian & Hazard would be pushed wider due to the 4 at the back. 

You can't play Luiz in a back four, too error prone IMO.

2 hours ago, Slojo said:

That midfield is far too defensive, we would fail centrally as Willian & Hazard would be pushed wider due to the 4 at the back. 

Whichever midfield combination we use with the material we have it will at least low key fail

So against teams like city or european teams,that midfield makes sense to me

There is something i would love Conte to get our players to stop doing, and that is stop overcommitting. Luiz and Bakayoko are the worst for it, but i have even seen Alonso and Azpilicueta of all people doing it this season. There is a difference between closing players down all over the field and overcommitting, and i think we are doing too much of the latter. You see it all of the time, it's no surprise that we are giving fouls away in stupid areas and the opposition are finding so many gaps when the players are doing this so often.

18 hours ago, JT_<3 said:

I think this is how he should be lining up the team from now on.

*Rotate Willian and Pedro

*Start Fab in games against poor opposition

*Rotate the fullback positions

Luiz in a back four is a disaster. Midfield is far too defensive. Zappacosta at LB? Got any proof he can play there? Pedro should be starting ahead of Willian all day.

Media has been trying up to cook up the players revolt against Conte story, I'm sure it will re-surface when we drop points next time. I don't think he has got much wrong in the last few weeks, we were handling City well in that game until Morata was kicked off the field, we all knew who ever came on wouldn't replace Morata.

Our midfield is rubbish currently. Bakayoko learning and adapting will make a big difference. Kante and Drinkwater in a 2 man midfield is our best option. Cesc should be subbed on with 20 minutes left to play. We need a new CAM in January or next summer. Hopefully Loftus-Cheek can fill that role. He is athletic and has good technique on the ball. I really, really, really want Bakayoko to be our Yaya Toure or something. Conte needs to drill him in and work his magic. 

Edited October 23, 20178 yr by zes

 

14 minutes ago, zes said:

Our midfield is rubbish currently. Bakayoko learning and adapting will make a big difference. Kante and Drinkwater in a 2 man midfield is our best option. Cesc should be subbed on with 20 minutes left to play. We need a new CAM in January or next summer. Hopefully Loftus-Cheek can fill that role. He is athletic and has good technique on the ball. I really, really, really want Bakayoko to be our Yaya Toure or something. Conte needs to drill him in and work his magic. 

I don't think we can judge our midfield yet due to injury problems since the beginning of the season.

Re RLC, I only see clips yet he looks promising in an attacking role for Palace.

https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/thibaut-courtois-chelsea-players-fighting-to-save-antonio-conte-from-jose-mourinho-fate-a3665066.html

If this is true hopefully it shows that this story about a "player revolt" that the media has been brewing is completely fabricated...

Like how Courtois also admits we've been training less this season. There's no logical reason why any player would suddenly detest Conte's training methods.

 

was no formation change on Saturday, the commentary team said there was but Conte conformed in his post presser he moved Dave to left w back and put Pedro in at right w back, those 2 changes along with an interested striker and a surprise Willy performance pushed Watford back and Pedro came up with the assist for the equalizer

how anybody can compare the managerial situation today with 2 years ago when the club is 4th in the prem and top of CL group mid way, is beyond me ?

 

1 hour ago, boomerdog said:

https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/thibaut-courtois-chelsea-players-fighting-to-save-antonio-conte-from-jose-mourinho-fate-a3665066.html

If this is true hopefully it shows that this story about a "player revolt" that the media has been brewing is completely fabricated...

Like how Courtois also admits we've been training less this season. There's no logical reason why any player would suddenly detest Conte's training methods.

 

Lol I was reading the article and the image half-way down the page had Emenalo in the background I think. Sure it's him. Sitting behind the bench. Does he attend matches often? Or you know.... for other reasons other than just watching footy

Edited October 23, 20178 yr by zes

11 hours ago, zes said:

Lol I was reading the article and the image half-way down the page had Emenalo in the background I think. Sure it's him. Sitting behind the bench. Does he attend matches often? Or you know.... for other reasons other than just watching footy

I was going to post about that a couple of weeks back and forgot. How unnerving, annoying...........plain f**king irritating, must it be for Conte to have that bloke sat a couple of seats behind him in the dug-out/ No wonder Conte is out of his seat 95% of the time. Last season, when everything went better than could be expected I guess he could stomach it, but with the not so great home form this season, to turn around and see Emanelo there - it must really grate. If I was Conte, I would instruct the powers that be that they find him another seat - preferably at Craven Cottage!!

5 hours ago, Nibs said:

I was going to post about that a couple of weeks back and forgot. How unnerving, annoying...........plain f**king irritating, must it be for Conte to have that bloke sat a couple of seats behind him in the dug-out/ No wonder Conte is out of his seat 95% of the time. Last season, when everything went better than could be expected I guess he could stomach it, but with the not so great home form this season, to turn around and see Emanelo there - it must really grate. If I was Conte, I would instruct the powers that be that they find him another seat - preferably at Craven Cottage!!

Or maybe, just maybe, the people who actually work at the club appreciate the hard work Emanelo actually does, and don't buy into some wierd theory about him being the devil.

On topic, it's hard not to feel worried at the moment when we're playing so much worse than we should be, but its worth remembering that we're dealing with an injury blitz the likes of which I don't remember us having for many years now. Eden just back from a broken leg, Morata getting injured, Drinkwater out, Luiz clearly struggling with injury and now Kante out. Hopefully Conte can keep us doing just enough to keep collecting the points while the injuries pass and we can get back to being the real Chels again.

11 minutes ago, Kentonio said:

Or maybe, just maybe, the people who actually work at the club appreciate the hard work Emanelo actually does, and don't buy into some wierd theory about him being the devil.

On topic, it's hard not to feel worried at the moment when we're playing so much worse than we should be, but its worth remembering that we're dealing with an injury blitz the likes of which I don't remember us having for many years now. Eden just back from a broken leg, Morata getting injured, Drinkwater out, Luiz clearly struggling with injury and now Kante out. Hopefully Conte can keep us doing just enough to keep collecting the points while the injuries pass and we can get back to being the real Chels again.

The hard work Emenalo actually does? Your guess is as good as mine.

As much as it might not come across in my posts, I don't really have a problem with Emenalo, as long as he does what he's supposed to and stays low profile as someone in his position should. What I'm not so keen on is seeing him sat right behind Conte on match days. Imagine being at work and having someone breathing down your neck whilst you're doing your job and that someone having been linked to being involved when your predecessors got axed.

 

 

Just now, Nibs said:

The hard work Emenalo actually does? Your guess is as good as mine.

As much as it might not come across in my posts, I don't really have a problem with Emenalo, as long as he does what he's supposed to and stays low profile as someone in his position should. What I'm not so keen on is seeing him sat right behind Conte on match days. Imagine being at work and having someone breathing down your neck whilst you're doing your job and that someone having been linked to being involved when your predecessors got axed.

Look at the guys career trajectory since he joined, its been absolutely astronomical. He's clearly working his ass off behind the scenes, which is why he's progressed so quickly and why he has such huge trust from Roman and the board. It never ceases to amaze me how much stick he gets, when he's never actually done anything wrong that we know about. Yet year after year people persist with attacking a long time Chelsea staff member for absolutely no good reason.

Think about the 'links' to him being involved in sackings. What do we actually know about any of it? What do we know about whats going on behind the scenes, what kind of relations our managers actually have with the players, how they act towards the board etc etc? Nothing basically, but rumours fly around and somehow when we need a convenient scapegoat Emenalo ends up being the one in the fans crosshairs, despite his tenure at Chelsea covering some of the best times this club has ever had. Hell the guy even offered to resign if it would help Mourinho integrate better, and was turned down. What else is he supposed to do exactly?

Oh and on the sitting behind the manager part, he did used to be assistant first team coach and is now sporting director. It's hardly weird for him to be down there.

Edited October 24, 20178 yr by Kentonio