Antonio Conte - Now Officially Manager

[JM7]

He sounds like Jose.

[timetowaste]

He sounds like Jose.

He is very much cut from the same cloth as Jose. He will get his players to buy into his philosophy, just look at what his old Juventus players say about him, they speak about him the same way Lampard, Terry, Drogba etc speak about Jose.

[enigma]

you have to respect what he did as a coach. he certainly come up the hard route as a coach, and most certainly didn't have world class players at his disposal to start off with. it seems he has adapted and learned from his failures, for sure. 

[evissy]

I think Conte will use 2 striker-system. Our material is really not suited for that as it is. We need more starting strikers and midfielders/wingers who are able to attack and defend just like Willian. Oscar might even be useful once more..

Not sure how the midfield is sorted but attacking options we need and good ones at that.

I think it is safe to say Remy follows Falcao and Pato out the door. Diego is the main man and if we can lure Morata and Lukaku we would have an able foursome with Traore.

[enigma]

Alciato relates an incident at the club’s training ground in May 2014, after Juventus had already been crowned champions. Conte had summoned his players for their regular video analysis session ahead of their weekend game.

With victory, Juventus would have finished the season with a mammoth 102 points. According to the book, with the session barely underway, captain Buffon entered the room with director general Giuseppe Marotta, with the intention of discussing the bonuses due to the squad for claiming the title.

 

Buffon is a World Cup winner with 154 caps and considered one of the best goalkeepers in history but this mattered little to Conte. Alciato quotes Conte as saying: “I’ve had it with the lot of you. Get out! I don’t want to see you any more.”

 

When Buffon tried to respond, Alciato writes that he was told to “Shut up. You’re the captain, Gigi, and you don’t understand a ******* thing.” As the squad trooped out of the room, Conte is said to have muttered: “Shame on you!”.

Interviewed for the book, Buffon describes these events as a motivational tactic to ensure Juventus did not take their eye off the ball. “It’s the kind of thing I might have done,” said Buffon. “If it served his purpose, it’s fine by me.”

 

Diet

 

Alciato reveals that, on strolling down for breakfast at their training camp before an early game of the Conte regime, Italy’s players found a note on the wall from Conte: “Diet can make the difference between victory and defeat”.

Looking around, they saw four tables. Table One contained protein; Table Two fats; Table Three carbohydrates; and Table Four tea, cappuccino and fruit juice.

 

On another sheet pinned to the wall, below the heading “FUNDAMENTAL”, Conte had typed: “Start the day with a good breakfast. If breakfast is inadequate, your glycogen reserves may run close to empty.”

Alciato mentions other food and drink favoured by Conte - rhodiola rosea, goji berries - and describes further explanatory notes attached nearby.

 

Analysis

 

Chelsea players be warned: You will be spending plenty of time in the Video Room. Alciato reveals that Conte has one of his assistants film every training session, and that he often sends brother Gianluca into the press box for a different perspective on competitive matches.

 

Conte uses video analysis for a simple reason: the camera does not lie. If a player denies having made a mistake, he can soon be put right by the evidence on the screen.

 

Alciato recalls for his coaching qualification, Conte wrote a 38-page study of video analysis and the 4-3-1-2 system. The text reads, “The video is a certainty for coaches, and means players cannot make excuses.”

According to Alciato, Conte does daily video sessions with Italy, which sometimes last longer than an hour. Standard practice in Italian football is 15-30 minutes.

 

Motivation

 

“One of the phrases Conte uses most regularly is, ‘I consider defeat to be a state of virtual death,” Alciato writes. Another he cites is that: “If you don’t run in football, you’re dead”.

 

On taking the Italy job, he gathered the players he called into his first squad and said: “I will call up only those players who deserve it. Remember that I don’t need to explain myself to anyone.”

 

Alciato’s belief is that Conte “prefers the stick to the carrot” - something that will interest a Chelsea dressing room not short of egos.

 

After Conte’s Juventus team drew with Verona in February 2014, the coach cancelled his players’ day off and ordered them to report to the training ground on the Monday after the game.

 

He asked his squad: “Raise your hand if you think we’ll win the title.” Every player did - and Juve went on to break the 100-point barrier that season.

 

Tactics

 

“I’ve heard people say that 3-5-2 is a defensive system but it’s not,” Alciato remembers Conte telling journalists in a rare briefing in the autumn of 2014.

 

“When my teams attack, we do so with five players,” he is quoted as saying. “It used to be four but now it is five. Attack with five, defend with five”. Conte has also deployed a 4-2-4 in his career, reviving the system occasionally with Italy, as well as experimenting with 3-3-4.

 

“When I arrived at Juventus, I wanted to use 4-2-4 but then we signed Arturo Vidal and I realised it would be better to have three central midfielders and two wide players.”

 

If Alciato’s account is a guide, these tactical briefings are unlikely to happen at Chelsea as Conte ditched them early in his reign after growing angry, Alciato speculates, at suggestions that he was giving information on selection to certain journalists.

 

The book provides an invaluable guide into the personality of the new Chelsea coach. A disciplinarian, a perfectionist, a tactical fanatic. Remind you of anyone?

If Chelsea’s players thought they’d seen the back of Jose Mourinho’s style of management, they might soon have to think again.

 

Metodo Conte, by Alessandro Alciato, was published in November 2015 by Vallardi. Copyright: Antonio Vallardi Editore, Milan. Alciato ghosted the autobiographies of former Chelsea boss Carlo Ancelotti and World Cup winner Andrea Pirlo, and has followed Serie A and Italy closely for a number of years.

Edited June 7, 2016 by enigma

[Guest Sindre]

Conte: "I do everything except counter-attacks. Do not play on the counter. Never even train counter-attacks. Not in my concept of football"

Hmmm...

[Amputechture]

Conte: "I do everything except counter-attacks. Do not play on the counter. Never even train counter-attacks. Not in my concept of football"

Hmmm...

 

Really?

[timetowaste]

From what I've seen in our games he's not lying, I can't recall us ever playing on the counter under Conte.

To enigma, what he did at juventus was good, of course, but im anxious to see what he does in an extremely competitive league like the Prem. It's going to be interesting to see how Italy actually get on in the euros

[Chelsbear]

You pretty much need to play the counter at times in the EPL.

He will have to learn that fast

[Zola]

Set in his ways before a ball has been kicked?

Oh dear

Hiya LVG!

[Guest Sindre]

Hiya LVG!

 

That was my first thought aswell..

If you wanna play slow and methodical possesion football in England you better be damn good at it and have a fantastic defence to succeed.

[Orpington_Blue]

Conte: "I do everything except counter-attacks. Do not play on the counter. Never even train counter-attacks. Not in my concept of football"

Hmmm...

 

So now we know why Galatasaray managed to knock him out at CL group stages.

 

Hope he learns that not every battle is there to be won and this is not italy.

[summer is coming]

No where has he said hes sticking to his guns and not willing to adapt. He's a flexible tactician, I have no worries pertaining to that.

[Michael440]

Conte: "I do everything except counter-attacks. Do not play on the counter. Never even train counter-attacks. Not in my concept of football"

Hmmm...

That's such a bs. He did counter attacks at Juventus.

[JM7]

I just hope he watched some of the AVB era with the "high block" otherwise he's in a for a rude awakening.

[TheChelseaBlues]

That was my first thought aswell..

If you wanna play slow and methodical possesion football in England you better be damn good at it and have a fantastic defence to succeed.

Lets nip this in the bud before that quote is misconstrued.

Theres a lot of room between slow methodical posession and Allardyce level counter attacking. By counter attacks he means the latter. Sitting deep and attacking quickly from our own half.

What he also said in that interview is he doesnt believe in sitting deep and attacking with pace. He wants to try and win the ball as high up the pitch as possible.

I for one am happy about this because it means no more sitting back and trying to knick a goal in big games, something we have predictably done for a while now.

Edited June 7, 2016 by TheChelseaBlues

[TheChelseaBlues]

"I do everything except counter-attacks. I do not play on the counter. I never even train counter-attacks. It is not in my concept of football. When we have the ball, we have our ideas. When we lose the ball, we try to be tight, press the opposition and try to win it back as soon as possible."

"Against Belgium we will have our say. Do not expect defence and counter in that game, because it is simply not part of how I view football. Counter-attacks are when you sit back and then propel yourself forward at pace. We've got players who can do that, like Ciro Immobile, Simone Zaza and others, but in my idea of football we want to play the game and use the ball. If we lose possession, we have to be aggressive and win it back in their half, as that'll make it easier for us to close on their goal."

Full quote

[timetowaste]

Immobile has been rubbish for about 2 years now and Zaza spent the season getting splinters in his arse.

I'm hoping that unlike with LVG he's young enough to learn to adapt.

[WhiteWall]

Still believe that Zaza would be good for us and could be a good foil for Costa or Pelle if the recent rumours are true

[TheChelseaBlues]

Immobile has been rubbish for about 2 years now and Zaza spent the season getting splinters in his arse.

I'm hoping that unlike with LVG he's young enough to learn to adapt.

I'd say he's already adpated to different styles a few times already in his career.

4-2-4, 4-3-3, 3-5-2

[Argo]

He was instructed to revamp the squad, which included making tough decisions about senior players. Unfortunately for him the squad at the time had strong personalities and leaders so he was at a great disadvantage from the get go.

AVB had the better team, no doubt, but Conte is coming in to take over a group of players who are willing to accept and do anything he will ask of them to get back to the top. He also seems to have more say on transfers than AVB did, which is always useful when trying to implement your style.

Sorry, I know this is a late response but only just signed up now.

I dont believe AVB inherited/had a better team than Conte, I know league positions suggest wildly otherwise, which is why I will say why....

Mentality wise, that team was better, they still had the serial winners of 04-10, but the whole squads in 10/11 and 11/12 had players that were either formally great/good and past it (like Lamps, Didier, Ash, Alex Flo, Paulo, Essien and at the time it looked Terry was in that category also), or players that were simply not good enough (Meireles, Kalou, Zhirkov, Cahill, Romeu, Ramires, Torres, even Mata isnt good enough for were we wanted/want to be as was shown when Jose kicked him out), not one player in that squad was at the standard needed to challenge for a league title, the CL was an amazing underdog story, but we were underdogs for a massive, massive reason.

I actually think we overachieved even finishing 2nd then 6th, and we did that because of the mindset of the old guard helped us get points we didn't deserve.

This team however has produced a horror season for a lot of combining factors, the major problems have been down the middle, the City game at The Bridge summed that up, put Radja, Kante, Christensen and Koulibaly in the team that day, and those three goals don't happen, three potential signings and a loan return to turn a 0-3 reverse Into a point or better, do that 10-15 more times in a season, and well you know were I'm going.

Unlike our team between 2010 and 2012 I do believe we have the quality there. Courtois, Azpi, Cesc, Hazard and Costa I would identify as title winning stars, Willian is a great support player as is Matic if we can coax him back to form, Zouma I'm hoping he can recover well, although ACL for an athletic player is always one to watch with caution, add qualyy down the middle, mix that with hopefully Eden, Tibo and Costa returning to form and we are away.

In 2011 when AVB came in I instantly ruled out the title unless we got 8 quality players in, our squad was deviod of quality, this year get Koulibaly, Kante and Naingolan or similar standard players and I genuinely believe we will be back fighting for the title again, whether we can beat Pep and Jose to it however is another question altogether.

Edited June 9, 2016 by Argo

[Hazard10]

That was my first thought aswell..

If you wanna play slow and methodical possesion football in England you better be damn good at it and have a fantastic defence to succeed.

That's not how Conte plays. His style is more direct then that. He likes his team to build from the back and have possession but his defenders will also frequently be playing long balls over the defence with his wide players looking to constantly get in behind the opponents fullbacks.

[jamie#8]

Lets nip this in the bud before that quote is misconstrued.

Theres a lot of room between slow methodical posession and Allardyce level counter attacking. By counter attacks he means the latter. Sitting deep and attacking quickly from our own half.

What he also said in that interview is he doesnt believe in sitting deep and attacking with pace. He wants to try and win the ball as high up the pitch as possible.

I for one am happy about this because it means no more sitting back and trying to knick a goal in big games, something we have predictably done for a while now.

 

Completely agree with this.

 

How small minded, and negative are some fans?! Im hearing comparisons to AVB. Unbelievable.

 

ALL TOP TEAMS (bar possibly Atleti) enforce this type of play. Its the type of football we have craved at Stamford Bridge. Not sitting back and hoping for mistakes, but enforcing our World Class players tot take control and push the other team back.

 

I for one was very pleased with the quotes.

Edited June 9, 2016 by jamie#8

[JoseBlues]

I believe we played the same style under Jose against lesser teams. Willian, hazard and pedro were all instructed to press high and win the ball. We changed our mentality only against big teams.

[g3.7]

Villas-boas. Pfft. That guy is responsible for one of the greatest peices of historical revisionism I've ever seen. If he was even half as good at management he would still be our manager.