8 minutes ago, Kentonio said:

No Pep wannabe please, I despise his style of football.

I didn't say we need Pep, but a manager who shares similar ideas in terms of going forward and attacking. Dynamic teams like City and Liverpool are doing well as they play with much more intensity than we do. 

5 minutes ago, zes said:

I didn't say we need Pep, but a manager who shares similar ideas in terms of going forward and attacking. Dynamic teams like City and Liverpool are doing well as they play with much more intensity than we do. 

Either team would have had that game won at half time.

26 minutes ago, Kentonio said:

No Pep wannabe please, I despise his style of football.

What type of football do you want at Chelsea then? And which manager do you think will deliver it?

 

Because the football played by Conte is boring as sh*t and the football played by Mourinho is just as bad.

Bring in Sarri 

11 minutes ago, Ernie_blue said:

Either team would have had that game won at half time.

Defensive football is outdated now sadly.

I can give more examples. Atletico Madrid have failed twice in champions league finals. Why? Because they failed to score more than one goal on both occasions and never took the initiative. Juventus failed last year in the final vs Real Madrid and vs Barca a few years ago. Why? They only managed to score once on both occasions too. You need to be more proactive and score goals or else no matter how good your defence is (Atletico and Juve have great defenders), you are never guaranteed to keep a clean sheet because one mistake can make you fall apart. 

Can't wait for the 'Conte won the league last season so he's allowed to be sh*t now and can't criticise him' crowd to share their opinion on here. Getting difficult to defend this poor standard of football. 

46 minutes ago, JM7 said:

I love Conte but he has spent far too much of this season up his own backside complaining and moaning. It will cost us while he walk away. 

I think if he fails to get us top 4, the club should ask him to do one more season and get us back into CL. Unlikely but it’s the least he should do. This squad is good enough for top 4 easily. 

Ask him to do one more season when we are likely to have the Europa league..................

I'd rather not be in Europe at all than having EL.

At least you could focus entirely on the league campaign as we did last season in the first instance. EL is just poison to your league campaign if you take it seriously.

Such a disappointing season. I have grown to hate this. Up and down. I wish the season was over. I really hope for a positive end to it.

I don't blame Conte the least bit. Wish we could tie him down for 5 more years. Some consistency would be great. I think the biggest problem is the board doesn't work well with the coach.

Win the fa cup and/or finish top 4. Or is bye bye Antonio for me.

10 games left I don't see Liverpool or Tottenham losing many More game's so I think top 4 is definitely very very difficult now we basically lost it

3 hours ago, Kentonio said:

I am so f**king angry right now. Taking Hazard off was utterly and completely stupid and just handed control of the match to United. What the hell was he thinking?!

This is my only criticism of Conte, you've hit the nail on the head here Ken, it drives me insane why he keeps subbing him off. 

Other than that I think there are a lot of overreactions in this thread, if anything the form has gotten better, not so much the results, but if we keep playing like we have been I'm confident on finishing top 4. 

I'm going to list some of the recurring problems in points and it has everything to do with the board and manager. 

1) Why aren't we signing players early and getting them settled? The last time we did this we signed Fabregas & Diego Costa in June and we settled them in the squad instantly, Costa scored on his debut, Fabregas grabbed 2 assists and we ended up winning the league. The last 3 transfer windows we've messed around and messed around only to get plan C to G alternatives at the last minute. Pep did his business very quickly and early and I have no doubt at all in my mind that's been crucial to him winning the league, he already had all his new signings settled and he made a lot of them. 

2) Why haven't we been spending money? I know it sounds silly, we've spent over 200 million this season, but that's just my point! Why is it we haven't been spending before? I've heard FFP this new stadium that whenever I complain about the lack of transfer spending but now we've splashed out 200 million and that's shown it was never an issue. Why is it when we won the league under Mourinho we didn't go out and strengthen the squad? Instead, we got Pedro last minute on a panic buy and we loaned a very very bad striker who was having a very very bad season before we got him. Our penny-pinching ways were bound to catch up to us and they already have, Tottenham & Liverpool are surpassing us in the market, I daresay even Arsenal had a better January transfer window than we did despite selling their best player.

3) What the f**k is going on with our title retaining seasons? The last 3 times we won a title we've had a horror show of a followup, this comes right under the first 2 points I made. Why aren't we learning from our mistakes? We sold a midfielder and instead of upgrading him we signed arguably one of the worst players I've ever seen in a Chelsea shirt and a player who the manager has no interest in playing, both of them cost around 80 million in total. So not only did we fail to upgrade this player who was a weak link in the squad last season we didn't even replace him at the very least, we've had this big hole in midfield next to Kante that has cost us so many points and might just be the reason why we won't make top 4 this season. It's now getting to a point where if we win the league I know the manager won't be here for very long the next season, why is this the case? 

43 minutes ago, Slojo said:

This is my only criticism of Conte, you've hit the nail on the head here Ken, it drives me insane why he keeps subbing him off. 

Other than that I think there are a lot of overreactions in this thread, if anything the form has gotten better, not so much the results, but if we keep playing like we have been I'm confident on finishing top 4. 

If we keep on playing the way we are im not confident at all. The Barca game can't really be taken in account, that was just 11 men sat behind the ball counter attacking, Conte at his best. How many times can we do that till the end of the season?

I feel the manager has made numerous and consistent errors this season. The use of subs and being able to change games has been a problem for a while now, it seems to take so long for Conte to make a sub its goes way past the moment you can sense changes in the game. I would love to know what was said at halftime of today's game, when Hazard goes off that's the moment Utd are laughing and know for sure Chelsea are settling for a point, which was obvious at half time anyway but that just confirmed it. 

His been obsessed with 352 too often, false 9 sh*t and he played Baka for way to long before thankfully he got suspended. Moses has been painful to watch for over a month now going forward, Zappa has actually worked his way into form. 2 games in a week and Zappa plays 0 mins, i thought we had a squad now?

Both Arsenal games was a disaster, sets up too defensively for the first game and then brings on an unfit Barkley in the second and we create nothing after with the team looking completely different in the second half.

Liverpool, Spurs or City would have had a good lead at halftime with the amount of possession Chelsea had, people will point to the Morata chance but those teams would have created alot more chances without the reliance of having a 100% conversion rate. Chelsea are just not very good at being the team on the initiative.

Blame goes to the board but there's also blame on the manager aswell. Like i said there's been alot of mistakes which have been from a stubborn manager. His had a terrible 2 months and we now need an outstanding 3 months to make up for it.

 

for me there's only carlo who can come in and do a job if we want to go for trophies and play good football. we need to forget trying to emulate pep, he is an anomaly and he's had the choice of a club where the financial backing is endless. very few coaches out there with experience of winning trophies and playing good football. i feel sarri is a risk and he would need the technical players to play his way.

tuchel is a young manager, but hasn't won anything meaningful. luis enrique has won the big trophies with barcelona, so maybe he could be a good choice although his experience of winning trophies hasn't been long. allegri is similar to conte in that he is fairly rigid and can win league trophies, but is an impressive cup manager to boot. juve fans say allegri is in fact the better tactician of the two. it is all well and good that poch and klopp can play good football, but their trophy collection is non-existent. 

Edited February 25, 20188 yr by enigma

59 minutes ago, enigma said:

for me there's only carlo who can come in and do a job if we want to go for trophies and play good football. we need to forget trying to emulate pep, he is an anomaly and he's had the choice of a club where the financial backing is endless. very few coaches out there with experience of winning trophies and playing good football. i feel sarri is a risk and he would need the technical players to play his way.

tuchel is a young manager, but hasn't won anything meaningful. luis enrique has won the big trophies with barcelona, so maybe he could be a good choice although his experience of winning trophies hasn't been long. allegri is similar to conte in that he is fairly rigid and can win league trophies, but is an impressive cup manager to boot. juve fans say allegri is in fact the better tactician of the two. it is all well and good that poch and klopp can play good football, but their trophy collection is non-existent. 

This is my sentiment. Attractive football played by everyone in this league besides Wenger and Pep has got them 0 trophies and top 4 plus an FA Cup every other year is clearly not enough for everyone so we wouldn't take Wenger. City play great but that's the most expensive team in the history of football so you'd have to expect them to win and be sexy. 

We're two frame widths away, or an offside call, from beating Barca and getting a point out of today. I have no qualms about the way we play. Conte sets the team up to win IF chances are taken which is the same as everyone else. City also lose or draw when they don't take theirs. 

My biggest gripe with Antonio is his sub patterns and the occasional choice of players

Edited February 25, 20188 yr by TheChelseaBlues

35 minutes ago, TheChelseaBlues said:

This is my sentiment. Attractive football played by everyone in this league besides Wenger and Pep has got them 0 trophies and top 4 plus an FA Cup every other year is clearly not enough for everyone so we wouldn't take Wenger. City play great but that's the most expensive team in the history of football so you'd have to expect them to win and be sexy. 

We're two frame widths away, or an offside call, from beating Barca and getting a point out of today. I have no qualms about the way we play. Conte sets the team up to win IF chances are taken which is the same as everyone else. City also lose or draw when they don't take theirs. 

My biggest gripe with Antonio is his sub patterns and the occasional choice of players

people may compare conte to mourinho, but i think conte is a bit more expansive in the way he gets the team to play football. he has also been the first manager since forever who has actually integrated some youth into the first team. okay, maybe that was just coincidence that a couple of those youth players happen to be top drawer youth players and have a lot of quality. there are many positives to conte, but his stubborness to change formation this season or make changes sooner during the game can be extremely frustrating. this is one issue which juve fans had a problem with him for. when we watch moses doing very little down that right flank when he has another option on the bench is annoying, and also with alonso/palmieri. you can't talk about squad depth and end up limiting the bench players usage.

That's what bothered me. Dont complain about depth if you're not going to use the players you have. I get that this season has been a perfect storm of injuries and availability. He didn't have a backup at LB for months, injury timing issues at CM and what I can only guess at, a war over whether or not Bats needed to be in the squad. If he's in the right the club have lied to him about how much and who they could spend money on. It only makes sense he knew ahead of time but maybe it didn't play out that way. 

He had to know we were never going to be like City and have 2 class players at each position. Pep has the expense of playing th way he wants. Conte needs to be more flexible when someone isn't available. 

As for style compared to Jose, it's laughable. Conte is head and shoulders ahead in terms of plan A when attacking

 

8 hours ago, Slojo said:

This is my only criticism of Conte, you've hit the nail on the head here Ken, it drives me insane why he keeps subbing him off. 

Other than that I think there are a lot of overreactions in this thread, if anything the form has gotten better, not so much the results, but if we keep playing like we have been I'm confident on finishing top 4. 

Really? Only? Morata was on the bloody pitch, doing his lamp-post bit. or falling over his own heels. And we take off hazard. 

I like Conte and personally thought some of the football we played first half was excellent , really took the game to Man Utd and kept the home crowd quiet and nervous , 2nd half was very poor , we ran out of ideas and steam.

Someone at Cobham needs to take over the PA system and hijack Conte's car so that it only plays at full volume Ill Manors , Love Goes Down , She Said .........................then he might discover what Plan B is .........regrettably not is his set up or mind set ..........................very frustrating.

 

I'm far from happy with Conte right now and I think he deserves the bulk of the blame if we lose out on top four, but to say things like we didn't attack until we were behind is ridiculously inaccurate. 

The first half was the most comfortable we have been at Old Trafford in years and we could and should have been 3 up. 

Edited February 26, 20188 yr by Argo

What is weird for me is we had a brilliant plan and all the players in 110% focus level against Barcelona and a couple of days later in a league where we have lost the chance to win players are 98%. I know it is the coach who says be 110% but you cant really put all the blame to him.

3 hours ago, didierforever said:

Really? Only? Morata was on the bloody pitch, doing his lamp-post bit. or falling over his own heels. And we take off hazard. 

Usually when we’re losing everyone was crying out for two strikers on the pitch at the same time. We’re losing so Conte leaves two strikers on the pitch and oh look, people are still moaning about it.

3 minutes ago, EdinburghBlue said:

Usually when we’re losing everyone was crying out for two strikers on the pitch at the same time. We’re losing so Conte leaves two strikers on the pitch and oh look, people are still moaning about it.

Hmmm. so let me get this straight. People want a plan B and an acceptable Plan B "can" be 2 strikers on the pitch.

Now lets take the circumstances of the game:

1. Morata was abysmal.

2. Conte took off Hazard before Morata

And somehow you are putting a spin to it that the fans are at fault? Well, thats completely fair.