Zero options, utter bollocks. 

4 minutes ago, dkw said:

Zero options, utter bollocks. 

great argument you make there... Bullocks. Probably because you have nothing to contribute and completely unable to defend your position.

1 hour ago, Saaladin said:

great argument you make there... Bullocks. Probably because you have nothing to contribute and completely unable to defend your position.

NO, it's because I can't be arsed arguing with someone totally closed to seeing anything other than his own completely wrong opinion. You completely exonerating conte of any blame at all with incredibly ridiculous excuses is embarrassing 

8 minutes ago, dkw said:

NO, it's because I can't be arsed arguing with someone totally closed to seeing anything other than his own completely wrong opinion. You completely exonerating conte of any blame at all with incredibly ridiculous excuses is embarrassing 

If they are completely ridiculous excuses then they should be easy to debunk. You prefer to attack the opinion and the poster because it's easier for you.

My opinion was provided with coinciding evidence as to why it is valid. I didn't just throw out a claim.

So if you want to throw in your 2 cents go ahead, but just making a claim that my opinion is wrong and ridiculous is in itself ridiculous when presenting an argument of your own.

OK, how can you say he had zero options so when he has basically ignored 2 signings we made in January, ignored youth players who were available and had already demonstrated their readiness, ignored youth players who he had previously said were ready, and sidelined experienced professionals due to spite and a clash of egos. He had options, he chose to ignore them, then complained about a lack of depth. He doesn't want to be here and gas sabotaged the season, he can go f**k himself as far as I'm concerned. 

6 minutes ago, dkw said:

OK, how can you say he had zero options so when he has basically ignored 2 signings we made in January, ignored youth players who were available and had already demonstrated their readiness, ignored youth players who he had previously said were ready, and sidelined experienced professionals due to spite and a clash of egos. He had options, he chose to ignore them, then complained about a lack of depth. He doesn't want to be here and gas sabotaged the season, he can go f**k himself as far as I'm concerned. 

Name them. 

Don't just categorize.. Who are you referring to? Zappacosta? Drinkwater? Emerson?

Surely it wasn't them who were going to save our season. Conte tried them, they did nothing. As for Emerson, the club bought a player who was untested and completely based on potential for future years. If you are saying those are the options, that is the depth then there is nothing else to say. 

But I'll let you make your argument as to how they could have improved our team or given us a different skill we could have used...

It is outrageous for Conte to blame losses on tiredness or lack of squad. The reality is that Conte has not made use of the squad that we have available.

Only 13 players have played over 1300 minutes. Pedro and Zappa aside, not one other has played over 1000.

Conte made a  decision not to rotate and restrict game time for luiz, bats, Barkley, drinky, Hudson odoi, Emerson and ampadu.

For comparison , Liverpool have 16 players who played over 1300 minutes, utd 14, spurs 12. 

Our players have not been significantly overworked, and if they have, then the blame lays with 1 man.

 

 

3 minutes ago, Saaladin said:

Name them. 

Don't just categorize.. Who are you referring to? Zappacosta? Drinkwater? Emerson?

Surely it wasn't them who were going to save our season. Conte tried them, they did nothing. As for Emerson, the club bought a player who was untested and completely based on potential for future years. If you are saying those are the options, that is the depth then there is nothing else to say. 

But I'll let you make your argument as to how they could have improved our team or given us a different skill we could have used...

So he did have options then. 

38 minutes ago, Saaladin said:

If they are completely ridiculous excuses then they should be easy to debunk. 

They have been, then you up the anti with even worse excuses that make the one's made for Torres look somewhat plausible by comparison.

26 minutes ago, Saaladin said:

Name them. 

 

 

Ok. 

Conte has underutilised

1. Batsman. Playing a false rather than give a proven goalscorer the chance

2. Emerson. 12 mins (or thereabouts) of premier league football . Whike he may have been purchased for the future, this is a player who made 25 starts in serie A last season. Deserved a proper chance.

3. Ampadu. Hardly any EPL minutes. Great message to send to a player who a) was motm for us in some carabao games, b) looked assured whenever he has played 3) is a full international at this silly young age. Deserved more minutes.

4. Drinkwater. Seriously underutilised. Has been better than Baka all season, and should have been rotated far more regularly with cesc. I actually believe there is  an argument than in a 2 man middle he he should be starting ahead of fabregas. Steady, picks a pass, eye for goal. Conte seems to be making a point by using so rarely.

5. CHO. Brightest young player we have. With our attackers struggling for fitness or form, the lad should have been given a chance. But no way. Not on Contes watch. Instead just keep selecting the same old established players over and over.

 

Edit...wtf has happened to Luiz? Is he injured? Really injured? Or a Diego Costa back problem injured?

Edited April 17, 20188 yr by nonotnowjim

15 minutes ago, nonotnowjim said:

Ok. 

Conte has underutilised

1. Batsman. Playing a false rather than give a proven goalscorer the chance

2. Emerson. 12 mins (or thereabouts) of premier league football . Whike he may have been purchased for the future, this is a player who made 25 starts in serie A last season. Deserved a proper chance.

3. Ampadu. Hardly any EPL minutes. Great message to send to a player who a) was motm for us in some carabao games, b) looked assured whenever he has played 3) is a full international at this silly young age. Deserved more minutes.

4. Drinkwater. Seriously underutilised. Has been better than Baka all season, and should have been rotated far more regularly with cesc. I actually believe there is  an argument than in a 2 man middle he he should be starting ahead of fabregas. Steady, picks a pass, eye for goal. Conte seems to be making a point by using so rarely.

5. CHO. Brightest young player we have. With our attackers struggling for fitness or form, the lad should have been given a chance. But no way. Not on Contes watch. Instead just keep selecting the same old established players over and over.

 

Edit...wtf has happened to Luiz? Is he injured? Really injured? Or a Diego Costa back problem injured?

Drinkwater has never been given the chance this season not like Baka, Moses, Alonso or Fab who have been awful most of the time or have patches of bad form. Players need trust and believe from their manager and Drinkwater has never had this, Baka got played for half a season when it was like playing with 10men, Moses has been awful all year but still got picked. Players need a good amount of games to feel settled. If they are going to play 1 or 2 games then get dropped even if they play well then there's going to be no rhythm.

 

On 4/16/2018 at 15:20, evissy said:

Would be excellent and most surprising if Conte stayed on after this term. Some continuity would do good. Just need a good summer.

That doesn't necessarily mean success though, what happened to Man City when they let Pellegrini stay another season after a disappointing 2nd season? More or less the same crap. 

Continuity for the sake of continuity is not going to create inevitable success. Let me reference a fictional badass character from Game Of Thrones "A good deed does not cross out the bad, nor the bad the good" Conte had a great first season, but still had a sh*t second season, we can't forget either. We can't forget his actions in either of those two seasons, so I would think wisely before thinking this is a good idea.

I think if we want stability then we should be looking at a man who wants to stay, not just stay another season while desperately looking like he doesn't want to. If we are going to get more of the same crap, crying for not getting his targets, no account for responsibility, sh*t substitutions and tactics then forget it, I don't want Conte here anymore. He needs to change his attitude and set up next season, I really don't want to see this horror show again. 

7 hours ago, nonotnowjim said:

Ok. 

Conte has underutilised

1. Batsman. Playing a false rather than give a proven goalscorer the chance

2. Emerson. 12 mins (or thereabouts) of premier league football . Whike he may have been purchased for the future, this is a player who made 25 starts in serie A last season. Deserved a proper chance.

3. Ampadu. Hardly any EPL minutes. Great message to send to a player who a) was motm for us in some carabao games, b) looked assured whenever he has played 3) is a full international at this silly young age. Deserved more minutes.

4. Drinkwater. Seriously underutilised. Has been better than Baka all season, and should have been rotated far more regularly with cesc. I actually believe there is  an argument than in a 2 man middle he he should be starting ahead of fabregas. Steady, picks a pass, eye for goal. Conte seems to be making a point by using so rarely.

5. CHO. Brightest young player we have. With our attackers struggling for fitness or form, the lad should have been given a chance. But no way. Not on Contes watch. Instead just keep selecting the same old established players over and over.

 

Edit...wtf has happened to Luiz? Is he injured? Really injured? Or a Diego Costa back problem injured?

14

Couldn't agree more with that, it's criminal how Bakayoko started over 20 Premier League games and Drinkwater rarely played despite looking good. Don't forget Drinkwater also played in all the hard games and still performed. Compare Bakayoko to Drinkwater in the Liverpool away game and you'll see the difference in class between both of those players. One could barely keep control of the ball, one was covering and causing Liverpool problems whenever he passed the ball forward, (shame he missed that one on one though)

Also, you have a partnership in Kante-Drinkwater (I've mentioned this about 1000000 times already on the forum) who won the league and Conte had no interest at all in it. I even remember when Conte first came he wanted both players but we could only get one or the other as Leicester refused to sell both of their main midfielders just after winning the league. So he finally gets Drinkwater (who by the way is definitely a player Conte wanted, saying it's the board is bollocks, search Conte's comments about Drinkwater before we signed him) and he decides to rarely ever play him. But he keeps playing a player who was gradually getting worse and worse every game costing us points and embarrassing losses like the 4-1 against Watford. I don't think I ever once saw the Kante-Drinkwater midfield pairing in any Premier League game this season, that's ridiculous, they both won the EPL together 3 years ago.

This adds more evidence for people to believe in the theory that Conte sabotaged the season, it's certainly feasible, and this is coming from somebody who is in the middle and hasn't made their mind up of Conte in or out.  

3 hours ago, Slojo said:

This adds more evidence for people to believe in the theory that Conte sabotaged the season, it's certainly feasible, and this is coming from somebody who is in the middle and hasn't made their mind up of Conte in or out.  

But why would he do that. It makes no sense. His contract payoff isnt big enough to risk his reputation and career over.

But then again people said this about Jose. And how no one big club would take him either. Oops.

This forum seems to go in weird cycles. During the season we crucify our manager, and during the off season we crucify our board. 

Anyone who honestly thinks that a Top Coach like Conte would deliberately try and sabotage our season must be crazy. I can only imagine that they also subscribe to all the crazy conspiracy theories down the years.

I will concede that he has been stubborn. Like many coaches, he clearly has players he trusts and has been guilty of over-playing them, but I have to agree with Saaladin, the options to bring in are very underwhelming. Drinkwater, Barkley, Bakayoko, Pedro, Zappercosta.............these are not players who would be getting into our rivals starting 11. Too many of our good youngsters are out on loan although I do think Ampadu would have got more minutes if he hadn't got injured. 

13 hours ago, dkw said:

NO, it's because I can't be arsed arguing with someone totally closed to seeing anything other than his own completely wrong opinion. You completely exonerating conte of any blame at all with incredibly ridiculous excuses is embarrassing 

Aren't you not being arsed to argue with a top top football coach?  From Canada?  Specialising in teenage girls?  I knew the name, but he hasn't been around for some time, so it took a while for my old brain to make the connections again.

28 minutes ago, Nibs said:

Drinkwater, Barkley, Bakayoko, Pedro, Zappercosta.............these are not players who would be getting into our rivals starting 11.

And there is the point.   Spot on @Nibs.  AND, before we get too many whingey ripostes, hasn't Danny D also been injured for most of the season?  The bloke has a sickness record that makes Robben look robust and Darren Anderton look like Frank Lampard.

Any chance of a straw poll amongst forum users. Conte to remain or Conte to go?

Personally speaking I'd pack his bags for him and drive him Heathrow at breakneck speed.

42 minutes ago, Nibs said:

Anyone who honestly thinks that a Top Coach like Conte would deliberately try and sabotage our season must be crazy. I can only imagine that they also subscribe to all the crazy conspiracy theories down the years.

I will concede that he has been stubborn. Like many coaches, he clearly has players he trusts and has been guilty of over-playing them, but I have to agree with Saaladin, the options to bring in are very underwhelming. Drinkwater, Barkley, Bakayoko, Pedro, Zappercosta.............these are not players who would be getting into our rivals starting 11. Too many of our good youngsters are out on loan although I do think Ampadu would have got more minutes if he hadn't got injured. 

These are depth players. Integrate them into the squad throughout the season to give key players a rest, they aren't really meant to be starting 11 players. Alonso looks absolutely useless at the minute, give Emerson a run and Alonso will likely play better when he returns. Cesc hasn't had legs for a while, why not start DD to wear down a team and bring Cesc on in the 65th against tired legs. Zappa must be one of our fastest players in the team, why not bring him on in the 70th against tired legs to run at a full back. These players certainly aren't as useless as people make out. Conte just hasn't used them.

9 minutes ago, RIP Mourinho said:

These are depth players. Integrate them into the squad throughout the season to give key players a rest, they aren't really meant to be starting 11 players. Alonso looks absolutely useless at the minute, give Emerson a run and Alonso will likely play better when he returns. Cesc hasn't had legs for a while, why not start DD to wear down a team and bring Cesc on in the 65th against tired legs. Zappa must be one of our fastest players in the team, why not bring him on in the 70th against tired legs to run at a full back. These players certainly aren't as useless as people make out. Conte just hasn't used them.

Makes sense. He does seem wedded to certain personnel and a rigid style of play.

Not much imagination. He probably sticks to the same tried and tested couple of positions when making love to his old lady!

Edited April 18, 20188 yr by Ewell CFC

"couple"?????  There is more than one??????

3 minutes ago, yorkleyblue said:

"couple"?????  There is more than one??????

I'll PM you 

 

Back on topic: I believe we will see the same line-up for the remainder of the season.

Edited April 18, 20188 yr by Valerie

9 minutes ago, RIP Mourinho said:

These are depth players. Integrate them into the squad throughout the season to give key players a rest, they aren't really meant to be starting 11 players. Alonso looks absolutely useless at the minute, give Emerson a run and Alonso will likely play better when he returns. Cesc hasn't had legs for a while, why not start DD to wear down a team and bring Cesc on in the 65th against tired legs. Zappa must be one of our fastest players in the team, why not bring him on in the 70th against tired legs to run at a full back. These players certainly aren't as useless as people make out. Conte just hasn't used them.

I kind of agree. To be fair, he often has brought Zappercosta on for Moses and they are pretty like for like - neither are brilliant - both will do a job.

Fabregas for me we have kept him a season past his expiry date. Sure he can still play the killer pass but he has become more of a luxury and his weaknesses now outweigh his positives. I just don't rate Drinkwater - he's another unremarkable player who won't bring fear to the likes of Spurs , Liverpool, City when they see his name on the team-sheet.

All just comes back to having a squad that isn't strong enough or has enough depth to compete in four competitions and I totally understand Conte's frustration. I can also understand supporters view in that the team he's selecting every week needs changing but those changes will bring fresher legs but very little in terms of quality.

 

I do not subscribe to the notion that Conte selects a team to deliberately lose because he wants the sack. That is far fetched bollocks.

I do think however that he has (as did Jose with brana and the like) selected the same players over and over again to the detriment of the team, and for that,  Conte has no right to blame tiredness

The argument that some of the  players who have  not had much  of a look in ( Zappa, CHO, Bats, Luiz ) would not  improve the team quality is missing the point. They are squad players, they don't need to improve. But by integrating them, using them (not necessarily all at once ) , making them feel appreciated and valued both a) aides with team spirit, getting players on your side and willing to fight for you and b) gives valuable rest to the players who are deemed good enough, ie those that won us the league last season.

3 hours ago, Stim said:

But why would he do that. It makes no sense. His contract payoff isnt big enough to risk his reputation and career over.

But then again people said this about Jose. And how no one big club would take him either. Oops.

This forum seems to go in weird cycles. During the season we crucify our manager, and during the off season we crucify our board. 

It's probably not over 20 million like the media is claiming but it'll definitely be over 10 million which is still a lot of money.

I don't think it's comparable to the Mourinho situation really, I do remember Mourinho taking some responsibility, Conte has taken 0 and he has gone to war with the board. He's taken it public all season that he's not getting the players he wanted but he's barely even using his squad depth or his options. 

Financially I think it makes perfect sense, the board can be scapegoated, he's still won the league, he gets a big payoff. Any club would still take him as manager due to his first season succession. I don't think that's hard to believe actually.