13 minutes ago, Strider6003 said:

Yes have seen that though given our recent past of support for managers do you think he is likely to come?

With an eight million pay off after two years work, too right. 

Good post by DB above; I pretty much agree with all of that. 

I love Conte, and last season was an unreal achievement when you sit and reflect on it, but this season he has to be held accountable. The team is in a right mess, churning out some of the worst football of the Abramovich era, and he is the man in charge of that. 

I personal don't buy the negativity with regards to our squad. Ok, it's not the strongest in the league,  and we certainly should have sorted certain areas out before the start of the season (I'm thinking the centre forward department namely), but it's not that bad. It's good enough to fight for top 4 and a cup, and personally, I would consider that a decent season. 

As DB said, I do sympathise in the sense we haven't backed him to the hilt in the transfer market and fully matched his ambition. Jose & Pep have seemingly identified players, and their respective clubs have gone out and made sure they acquire those players at all costs. Conte hasn't had all of his primary targets- Bonnuci, Sandro, Lorrente a few examples of players he obviously wanted and we didn't get. I get that, but ultimately it's Conte's job to work with what he's got, and what he's got really isn't that bad. But whilst we might not 'run' the transfer market like we did in 2005, we are hardly only shopping in the bargain bucket. Morata cost cica £70M. Bakayoko was about £40M. Add up all the others and I think you will find only City have spent more over the last 2 years. 

You could argue the singings haven't been good. You could argue we are weaker than we were last season. Debatable on both fronts I think. Hindsight is great, but when you look at who has been available I don't think there were too many better options than what we went for in the summer. I do fully agree that selling Matic to United was barmy though, was never on board with that and never will be. But my issue was where he went rather than the fact he went, and that is largely irrelevant when assessing what is going on with our own squad. 

Anyway, the point is the squad is not the problem. The problems are essentially all of Conte's own doing. His attitude, and the negativity. 

Again agreeing with DB once again, Conte was foolish to engage with Mourinho in the petty war of words. Neither of them came out of it with any credit. They both looked childish and petty. Why engage? He would have looked 1000 times better had he refused to rise to it, and let Jose crack on and say whatever he wanted to say without biting. 

I would love Conte to turn this around, but I feel he is a few bad results away from the boot now.... and in my opinion he will have nobody to blame but himself. 

Edited February 3, 20188 yr by mclovin83

10 hours ago, TomCFC85 said:

That's odd. Did you shout at them really loud to make sure you were serious and that they understood you?

I did, I even tried to show them the news on the website but it appears to not be there anymore. 

Anyway, for me Eduardo should be our main keeper. Baka & Cahill are undroppable. Alonso plays every minute until he dies, then we can just prop his body up on the pitch. I’ve got a mate who’s 6ft 5, he’s about 38 and both his knees are shot but he’s English and the best option up front. Except we won’t play a striker or even a false 9. We can put a few extra defenders in to really shake things up. 

I'd love to ask Conte what really happened with Matic - did they fall out after the FA Cup final, did Matic simply want a new challenge, or was it a board decision? If it was the former I think it would be fair to add yet another f**k up to a growing list of f**k ups by Conte.

Edited February 3, 20188 yr by the special one

22 minutes ago, the special one said:

I'd love to ask Conte what really happened with Matic - did they fall out after the FA Cup final, did Matic simply want a new challenge, or was it a board decision? If it was the former I think it would be fair to add yet another f**k up to a growing list of f**k ups by Conte.

Can you list those f**k ups by Conte? Because I just don't get all this negative talk regarding our current coach (other than boredom and wanting to create a discussion out of anything the media makes up).

Edited February 3, 20188 yr by RMH

6 minutes ago, RMH said:

Can you list those f**k ups by Conte? Because I just don't get all this negative talk regarding our current coach (other than boredom and wanting to create a discussion out of anything the media makes up).

I think the biggest issue I have with Conte is that - with the exception of a few games here and there - the football we play under him is dire. It's acceptable when you're winning (last season) but when things aren't going as well it becomes harder to support his management. 

11 minutes ago, RMH said:

Can you list those f**k ups by Conte? Because I just don't get all this negative talk regarding our current coach (other than boredom and wanting to create a discussion out of anything the media makes up).

For me it's about tactics mostly... a rigid 3-5-2 v Leicester, the drop off in intensity after Barkley replaced Willian against Arsenal in the league cup semi, Arsenal's midfield dominance during the first 30 minutes of the FA Cup final, and I still can't understand why Conte doesn't go with 4 at the back against so called lesser opposition. Granted these are just my opinions but I don't think Conte is blameless.

Edited February 3, 20188 yr by the special one

I don't agree that our football is dire when we dominated last season playing some good football. And the change to 343 that Conte brought has changed the PL and most teams are now playing like that, so he can't be that bad. This season we have had really bad games, but we are in no way producing on average the worst football in the PL, and we have had memorable nights like the match against Atletico Madrid (some of the best football I've seen in years). The 353 is not working but neither is the 343 in some matches. The players are looking knackered lately, but that is because Conte took us back to the CL. Some want to play 4 at the back, but we don't have proper FBs (except Azpilicueta who has played in that position and was never as good as he's been as a CB). Conte switched last season to 343 for a reason, and it changed the PL and gave us the PL. In my view we are playing accordingly to the team we have, and on average we are where we deserve to be, fighting for top 4. And, again in my opinion, we are not as bad as some paint us. You want to play like City this year? Get the check book out, and even so they were crap last season.

Edited February 3, 20188 yr by RMH

I didn't hit the quote for @Davey Baby cos of the length of the post, but i pretty much agreed with all of it. I'm not sure about Eddie Howe tbh, as i am not convinced he can cut it at a club that expects and demands success. He struggled at Burnley, for instance. I'm also not convinced that the club or any manager is interested in bringing our youth through to the first team. It's short termism but that is premier league football nowadays. However the whole post around Conte's change in demeanour and his current attitude and soundbites is sadly very accurate, i think.

Excellent points made by @RMH above. This article is also spot on. https://www.football.london/chelsea-fc/transfer-news/enrique-conte-chelsea-transfers-abramovich-14233277.amp?__twitter_impression=true

Our game is boring to be honest plus we play same against city or stoke.. we mainly play on counters and even then if not 1on1/2on2 we slow it down pass it back and then circle around their goal 

I still struggle with this idea that we are boring. We all waxed lyrical about Conte's Italy team. He played the same style. We knew what we were getting.

In any case Matt Law (no doubt thanks to a club leak) is reporting Barkley has reinjured his hamstring and is placing the blame at the feet of Conte and his training methods.

 

3 minutes ago, Spiller86 said:

I still struggle with this idea that we are boring. We all waxed lyrical about Conte's Italy team. He played the same style. We knew what we were getting.

In any case Matt Law (no doubt thanks to a club leak) is reporting Barkley has reinjured his hamstring and is placing the blame at the feet of Conte and his training methods.

 

Oh great, just what we needed.

19 minutes ago, Spiller86 said:

We all waxed lyrical about Conte's Italy team. He played the same style. We knew what we were getting.

Tbf that was only how many games, 5 or 6? Over a long season it does start to get a little dull. The issue I have with Conte isn't the formation or style per se, it's that he seems to utilise 3-4-3 when we could be 3-5-1-1 (i.e. when it seemed like we were being overrun by Bournemouth why not have an extra man in midfield?), or 3-5-2 when we could go with 4 at the back or 3-4-3 (i.e. Leicester at home). Easy for me to say in hindsight I know.

Edited February 3, 20188 yr by the special one

I'd agree there has perhaps been a lack of flexibility in his approach: rigid three at the back to circulate possesion, little to no press until the ball is in our half, but I can't help but feel this is linked to our very soft centre that was exposed under Jose and then in the first few weeks under Conte. He's very wary of that and sets up accordingly. 

I was encouraged by the shift to four at the back and a more mobile approach with less emphasis on holding possession in the back three when chasing the game against Bournemouth. Hopefully that gives us a platform to work on.

My view remains that we have a big Cesc related question/issue to solve. We need his creativity as he is perhaps the only one bar Hazard who can break teams down. But he is such a trainwreck without the ball that we need another midfielder to cover him. 

1 hour ago, RMH said:

Can you list those f**k ups by Conte? Because I just don't get all this negative talk regarding our current coach (other than boredom and wanting to create a discussion out of anything the media makes up).

Well, at the moment he's killing our squad in the training sessions. Some of our 1st team players are getting injured because of his overly-excessive drills. Hamstrings, Back injury etc.

Lately he's been tactically stubborn & one-dimensional . He makes pathetic claims such as "I'm trying to exploit my team to the maximum" which I'm assuming he means trying to learn their strengths and weaknesses.

Hello? Didn't you win the f**king league last year AND wouldn't you know by now what those strengths and weaknesses are ?

 

 

1 hour ago, RMH said:

I don't agree that our football is dire when we dominated last season playing some good football. And the change to 343 that Conte brought has changed the PL and most teams are now playing like that, so he can't be that bad. This season we have had really bad games, but we are in no way producing on average the worst football in the PL, and we have had memorable nights like the match against Atletico Madrid (some of the best football I've seen in years). The 353 is not working but neither is the 343 in some matches. The players are looking knackered lately, but that is because Conte took us back to the CL. Some want to play 4 at the back, but we don't have proper FBs (except Azpilicueta who has played in that position and was never as good as he's been as a CB). Conte switched last season to 343 for a reason, and it changed the PL and gave us the PL. In my view we are playing accordingly to the team we have, and on average we are where we deserve to be, fighting for top 4. And, again in my opinion, we are not as bad as some paint us. You want to play like City this year? Get the check book out, and even so they were crap last season.

The fact is that teams play us and mirror our system and we really struggle against it. Conte as a manager is clearly struggling to adapt to this problem. I also agree that player recruitment has been poor. But for example lets look at Napoli (whose manager we have been linked to today in the media). The majority of people would say that there squad is worse than ours, yet the football they play is some of the most exciting in Europe. We do have the players to play a more progressive style of football yet we don't.

Four at the back could be a good starting place. Lets not try and brush over the fact that Azpilicueta under Mourinho at left back was by far and away the best defender in the league. We have the defensive players for it and the extra numbers in midfield would mean that we could actually press up the pitch and keep the ball better. 

3 minutes ago, ChelseaFanBoy said:

Well, at the moment he's killing our squad in the training sessions. Some of our 1st team players are getting injured because of his overly-excessive drills. Hamstrings, Back injury etc.

Lately he's been tactically stubborn & one-dimensional . He makes pathetic claims such as "I'm trying to exploit my team to the maximum" which I'm assuming he means trying to learn their strengths and weaknesses.

Hello? Didn't you win the f**king league last year AND wouldn't you know by now what those strengths and weaknesses are ?

 

First you're making a very big assumption with the injuries and swallowing the Tele's line as if it is true. We've also played 18 games since the start of December. That's a match every three days with a very small squad to start with. Perhaps that might have contributed?

Secondly if we are tactically one dimensional, how else do you fix that other than on the training ground? Again we were a team that finished tenth two seasons ago with a better squad. Last year he implemented three at the back and solved that challenge. Now teams have worked that out. He's trying again to find new solutions. Same as he did after Burnley, same as he did after Roma. 

There is perhaps only one other manager in football more capable as a tactician to solve these issues. If we were to cut Antonio I think we'll likely find that out very rapidly. 

 

Why are we getting so much hamstring injuries

31 minutes ago, Spiller86 said:

First you're making a very big assumption with the injuries and swallowing the Tele's line as if it is true. We've also played 18 games since the start of December. That's a match every three days with a very small squad to start with. Perhaps that might have contributed?

Secondly if we are tactically one dimensional, how else do you fix that other than on the training ground? Again we were a team that finished tenth two seasons ago with a better squad. Last year he implemented three at the back and solved that challenge. Now teams have worked that out. He's trying again to find new solutions. Same as he did after Burnley, same as he did after Roma. 

There is perhaps only one other manager in football more capable as a tactician to solve these issues. If we were to cut Antonio I think we'll likely find that out very rapidly. 

 

Seen a different season to me, last month has seen a real tactician at work, Wenger who doesn't know tactics if they slap him in the face has even out done Conte 

2 hours ago, RMH said:

I don't agree that our football is dire when we dominated last season playing some good football. And the change to 343 that Conte brought has changed the PL and most teams are now playing like that, so he can't be that bad. This season we have had really bad games, but we are in no way producing on average the worst football in the PL, and we have had memorable nights like the match against Atletico Madrid (some of the best football I've seen in years). The 353 is not working but neither is the 343 in some matches. The players are looking knackered lately, but that is because Conte took us back to the CL. Some want to play 4 at the back, but we don't have proper FBs (except Azpilicueta who has played in that position and was never as good as he's been as a CB). Conte switched last season to 343 for a reason, and it changed the PL and gave us the PL. In my view we are playing accordingly to the team we have, and on average we are where we deserve to be, fighting for top 4. And, again in my opinion, we are not as bad as some paint us. You want to play like City this year? Get the check book out, and even so they were crap last season.

No top team consistently plays 3 at the back, Utd, City, Spurs and Arsenal have adapted to playing 4 and 3 but now mainly play 4. 

CL group stage finished ages ago.

2 hours ago, the special one said:

For me it's about tactics mostly... a rigid 3-5-2 v Leicester, the drop off in intensity after Barkley replaced Willian against Arsenal in the league cup semi, Arsenal's midfield dominance during the first 30 minutes of the FA Cup final, and I still can't understand why Conte doesn't go with 4 at the back against so called lesser opposition. Granted these are just my opinions but I don't think Conte is blameless.

352 against a depleted Arsenal team at home, Costa txt message, Luiz situation, keep playing or not subbing Baka even though it's like playing with 10 men. 

He has changed so much this year, to the point where I don’t even like him anymore. I think he’s abit of a d**khead.

25 minutes ago, dansubrosa said:

He has changed so much this year, to the point where I don’t even like him anymore. I think he’s abit of a d**khead.

In coming, take cover.