Antonio Conte - Now Officially Manager

[brakeit 261]

Did i post s*** after defeat ? Or 4-5 people jumping on Conte and speaking s****.

And you should be quiet, everyone can clearly see that i was right all summer.

And it`s shows now.

How stupid you have to be, to think that the top manager like Conte will lose his feeling, which is the best squad to play ? The manager who finish last season with 30 wins and break a lot of records. Yeahh sure it`s his fault ....

 

[Argo 2,491]

You have posted three times in the last month and a half, immediately after defeat's on every occasion. Before that we were on a decent run with good performance's and good results and you were nowhere to be seen.

It doesn't take Poirot to suss out what your game is.

[just 4,935]

On 02/10/2017 at 09:02, Elliott said:

I wouldn’t blame Conte for leaving, due to how poorly supported he was in the summer. He would’ve wanted at least 2-3 top signings to compliment the squad and instead we lost a whole host of players, and failed to bring in anyone really top drawer, apart from Morata, who is now the only recognised class centre forward we have.

When you get crowned Champions, you have to go for the jugular & reinforce further to remain ahead of the pack. We lost signings to both Manc clubs, and even Spurs for christ’s Sake! Not good enough. And now, as Gerarrd rightly said on the weekend, we will have to prioritise which trophy to fight for as we don’t have the squad to go for everything. I’m sure Conte expected better. 

Thought I'd bump this from Elliott. Pretty close IMO but I do feel Bakayoko is an upgrade on Matic. 

 

[Spiller86 2,397]

Bakayoko was great today but i still feel he has a level of tactical naivety that Matic didn't have. I think we all know we needed both players not one or the other. We still could have bought Drinkwater as well. 

I think our ambition needs to be CL qualification for next year and a good run into the later rounds this year. Our squad just isn't deep enough to compete on all fronts. 

[didierforever 1,551]

12 hours ago, Nibs said:

Poor selection from Conte today. With no Kante, we needed some pace in that defence and I honestly think Christensen and Rudiger would have negated the threat Zaha and Townsend caused us. That's where we lost it today. Gutted.

Not at all. The team was perfect according to some london based genius on here!!! 

[Barrettinator 1,552]

Please click on this tweet and read the thread of tweets underneath it. Couldn't have put my opinions into words better than this myself.

Conte needs to stop acting like Mourinho if he doesn't want to end up like Mourinho.

[abramovich 2,748]

2 hours ago, Barrettinator said:

Please click on this tweet and read the thread of tweets underneath it. Couldn't have put my opinions into words better than this myself.

Conte needs to stop acting like Mourinho if he doesn't want to end up like Mourinho.

In the same period of time we sold players for about the same amount of money. Also, apart from Morata, the club hasn't landed any of his first choice transfer targets in two summer windows now.

Man City squad cost close to £700m to assemble, United's around £640m. Ours - around £450m. That's what matters. When you can spend money, adding quality without having to lose any, at some point it'll make a difference on the pitch.

[Barrettinator 1,552]

33 minutes ago, abramovich said:

In the same period of time we sold players for about the same amount of money. Also, apart from Morata, the club hasn't landed any of his first choice transfer targets in two summer windows now.

Man City squad cost close to £700m to assemble, United's around £640m. Ours - around £450m. That's what matters. When you can spend money, adding quality without having to lose any, at some point it'll make a difference on the pitch.

You can add Bakayoko to that list. 

But when fans like myself complain in real time as the summer passes by, we get called spoilt, plastic, whingey, negative, etc. Any sort of name you can think of. 

The entire summer it was "It's only June", "It's only July", "There's still 4 weeks left in the window", "A lot of deals get done on deadline day", "We have the best executives in football", "You know nothing about what goes on behind closed doors".

We end up with average RWBs and no proper first choice LWB - in fact only one LWB period - and the narrative flipped to "well we had a pretty good window after all, you must feel pretty stupid now".

I get sick of fans that try to make you feel ungrateful for pointing out deficiences in the squad/club. Not everyone's got a bloody blindfold on!

That said, those questioning Conte's position are silly. He's not perfect obviously but he's definitely not the problem. If we had too top class wingbacks and a proper backup striker (like Conte wanted), we probably would be playing better. He needs to stop selecting Willian and needs to stop benching our best CB but that's by the way. We've spent the odd 300m but sold almost as much so really, we weren't exactly getting stronger. Does my head in. Every time we win the title, we get complacent and another team leapfrogs us. Like clockwork. 

Edited October 15, 2017 by Barrettinator

[abramovich 2,748]

I think injuries have become an issue for us this season as opposed to last when we were incredibly lucky in that respect. You could say it's a manager's job to deal with such things and rotate players, etc. but this requires serious squad depth and Conte's not the reason we don't have that at the moment. So the board will have to either lower their expectations when they don't give the manager what he wants or back him financially all the way and then demand top results/performances.

 

 

[coco 10,231]

I fear for Antonio.

This season is starting to feel like 2012 again.

Man City top of the league, went on to be champs.

Chelsea struggle to reach top 4, fail.

AVB fighting to keep his job, he lost.

Chelsea pull of some jaw dropping European performances, and go on to 19/05 and all that.....

 

 

The dream is back on i tell yee.

[abister1 260]

Most worrying thing for me is we seem not able to win games 90% of the time if we get put on the backfoot. Our plan A is impeccable most of the times but we don't have much to offer beyond it. 

The pattern is developing and once teams figure this out fully we will be in trouble. It isn't just Chelsea though. Was also a symptom of Juventus with Conte at the helm.

Just a weakness. Not deriding him in anyway. He is really good. 

[brakeit 261]

If we put Oscar, Bamford and Costa sale, we are in + from the winter till now.

The only solid player we really get is Morata and Bakayoko. And Conte wanted this player. Every other area, we miss our 1st and second choice.

Barrettinator is right for the most of the thing he said.

Conte wanted Walker, Sandro, Danilo, Mendy, Matic to stay and so on, and get nothing of that.

The board failed hard also with the average player like Oxlade and Barkley.

Conte is not going to be worst manager by night. It was his first year, if you really think closely, he should be better this year. The problem is, he was not supported, he is probably still mad because of that, there was obviously problems with the board, and this also reflect to the players. Cahill was telling in the interview about this things as well. It`s normal to reflect on the manager and on the players.

Also let`s not forget the rivaly bring their level up, and our board failed to do so.

I was arguing with a lot of people here. And i was right. You see now, how important is, to get your players early in the summer. They have time to get use with the team and vice versa. Zapachosta is still not ready, probably not fit or use with the team, tactics, strategy, formation, style and so on. Same for Bakayoko. For such reason it was important Matic to stay with us.

Also if we play against solid team like City, we can use three man there - Matic/Baka/Kante and we will dominate the midfielder with such strong players.

We have total 4midfielder, how can Conte play with 3-5-2? The players will fatigue very fast, and he simply doesn`t have player for that. Not midfielder, not striker. With 1 more midfielder and striker we could have easily change formation and be a lot more dangerous and Conte would have more options. Now he simply not have much option.

And wtf this idi*** board, brought Drinkwater? Tell me? When he came back from injury, he will need time to get use and so on, but that won`t matter much, cause the PL season is over before even 10 matches are played.

Even if he do great season, it won`t matter, cause its too late, cause the season in the PL will be over for us ....

Let`s not forget Conte has zero option also in our first match against Burnley and we lost there too.

How many times i said we need new right winger? Cause both Pedro and Willy are not good enough. Both are average players. Pedro was class, once in Barca, but they sold him with a reason.

He score important goals, but most of the time he is missing from the pitch or doing stup** things.

Last season Conte make some of our players to play above their levels. He bring their form up, but class is lack and now it`s shows.

It was obvious for Moses, Alonso, Cahill, Willy/Pedro, and so on. We needed better players on this position. They are good players, but not top class.
I don`t say you need top class everywhere, but it`s obvious we lack class. We should get such players on important position for our system, and the board failed to do so.

I feel for Conte. This is happening for the 3rd time and the fault is not in the manager for sure.

 

 

[bisright1 455]

19 hours ago, abramovich said:

I think injuries have become an issue for us this season as opposed to last when we were incredibly lucky in that respect. You could say it's a manager's job to deal with such things and rotate players, etc. but this requires serious squad depth and Conte's not the reason we don't have that at the moment. So the board will have to either lower their expectations when they don't give the manager what he wants or back him financially all the way and then demand top results/performances.

 

 

We’ve been incredibly unlucky with injuries as almost everyone of them has been when players are on international duty. 

I think our medical team is by far the best in the league and now that players won’t be playing important int games until next summer we should get our “luck” back.

Fact is though, our first team is the 4th best in the league. If we come above 4th, then that is a good result for the season. I’m confident we will come 4th at least, hopefully 3rd.

[Upsetter 826]

On 14/10/2017 at 20:51, brakeit said:

 ....

 

12 hours ago, brakeit said:

...

Honestly? Who gives a flying f**k.

[Elliott 218]

Really surprised to see so many people criticising Conte. He sees the players all week in training and starts people on merit. There's no way he'd play someone on reputation - he's made that pretty clear.

Secondly, it's not like he has many options. We have a few injuries, plus players suffering dips in form, so choices are going to be limited.

Thirdly, the champions league is in the back of his mind. It's his first outing with Chelsea in the competition, and he'll be desperate to make a good impression, despite the lack of resources.

I hate to continue banging the 'squad depth drum' but it's plainly obvious to everyone how short we are. Roman and his minions must be in cloud cuckoo land, if they thought, come the end of the window, we had enough quality to compete on all fronts this season. Cahill mentions it at every opportunity, so it's not lost on the players, either.

Losing Kante is a major blow and a bit unfortunate as he's one of those players that can't truly be replaced - he's unique. As for the other positions, we only have ourselves to blame as, either players were let go stupidly, or we failed to recruit properly. Presuming Morata is available, a bench containing Michy, Tomori, Scott, Musonda etc is clearly not strong enough.

Debating whether Christensen or Rudiger should've started against Palace is irrelavent, as it hides the real issue. (Though for the record, a) Christensen not playing was strange, b) for me, the jury remains firmly out on Rudiger, and c) any combination of first team defenders should have dealt with Palace). My point is, with this squad (or lack of), we will get found out from time to time.

Other than Jose's first spell, the club seems to do a great job of making a mess of things immeadiately after winning the title. There's obviously a major problem. Everyone knew both City and Utd would spend big again, yet we didn't press on.

We did well in the end to get Morata, and although he's not there yet, I think Bakayoko will be a great addition, but with all due respect, we shouldn't be in a situatuon where we are having to fight for Fernando Llorente, let alone miss out on him. It's a pretty trivial point, but it highlights larger issues at the club. It's not the right mentality.

Anyway, happy Monday, everyone.

[enigma 5,602]

moses could be out for up to a month with a hammy injury. all these hammy injuries makes me question whether conte is pushing them too much. what do you guys think? or is it just the added fixtures of cl, cup and internationals which is the issue? 

[Sindre 1,444]

1 hour ago, enigma said:

moses could be out for up to a month with a hammy injury. all these hammy injuries makes me question whether conte is pushing them too much. what do you guys think? or is it just the added fixtures of cl, cup and internationals which is the issue? 

He doesn't exactly have much of a choice. Point in case with Morata, for us to have any chance of a challenge in the league or Europe he pretty much needs to play every single game. We know Bats is a poor excuse of a striker so whenever he plays the risk of losing is much higher. No surprise we have lost every game he's started for us this season.

[JPH 78]

1 hour ago, enigma said:

moses could be out for up to a month with a hammy injury. all these hammy injuries makes me question whether conte is pushing them too much. what do you guys think? or is it just the added fixtures of cl, cup and internationals which is the issue? 

This is obviously due to the lack of quality players as almost all have stated here. We should have added quantity into our squad last summer. Now some key players just simply have to play too much.

[enigma 5,602]

6 minutes ago, JPH said:

This is obviously due to the lack of quality players as almost all have stated here. We should have added quantity into our squad last summer. Now some key players just simply have to play too much.

But you can also argue that its impossible to have a top quality back up players as they would get fed up of being a bench player. 

[abramovich 2,748]

19 minutes ago, enigma said:

But you can also argue that its impossible to have a top quality back up players as they would get fed up of being a bench player. 

True. But ask any manager what they'd rather have, too many top class players or not enough.

[enigma 5,602]

6 minutes ago, abramovich said:

True. But ask any manager what they'd rather have, too many top class players or not enough.

Problem is, who is top class? it's so hard to know because so few players have consistently brilliant seasons. last season willian was praised, this season he's being sh*t on constantly. alonso has even been criticised this season. i myself have criticised alonso in recent games, but he's still a player who is capable of pulling out very good performances.

[Strider6003 1,891]

A huge week for Conte, Roma at home in the CL and then Watford at home.

Watford is now massive as they have just climbed above us, make no mistake if we do not win against Watford Conte's job will be on the line.

[JM7 2,276]

Conte definitely doesn’t seem right and appears to be down. Doesn’t seem his usual self on the touch line. Personally I think he needs to just get on with it, he’s made his point about squad depth. The negativity seeps into the squad and only brings people down. 

[JoseBlues 531]

Conte definitely doesn’t seem right and appears to be down. Doesn’t seem his usual self on the touch line. Personally I think he needs to just get on with it, he’s made his point about squad depth. The negativity seeps into the squad and only brings people down. 

What rubbish. He seems fine.

[JM7 2,276]

Well how do you explain so many limp performances so far this season? The matches we’ve lost we have been second best in every way. It’s not a tactical issue, it’s a motivational issue.