good side, deserved winners. The history books won't recall how shite the expensively assembled opposition actually were.
Chelsea under Conte | Let's sign the next Hazard, literally.
- Thread starter Gandalf Greyhame
- Start date
Liverpool?
Probably meant the rest of the league that could actually win.
What about them? They also have had an advantage and finished in the top four..
This team is a machine. Their CB's and Wingback's alone have scored more then 20 goals.... Jesus Wept.
Over dippers too?
My point was that they didn't have that advantage over Liverpool. You said " with an advantage over all the rest". The rest includes Liverpool, no? Or am I barking mad with no grasp of the english language?
Okay..
Chelsea had an advantage over the rest of the big clubs... (apart from Liverpool who also had a strong season finishing in the top four).
Clear that up for you?
Great, thank you, so it is half the top four with the same advantage.
Of course they had an advantage over liverpool. Better team with a number of former league winners and a better coach
I guess Conte is finally ready to become Jose's assistant manager,eh ? 
If you get the reference lol
If you get the reference lolAVB is that you? How's China?I guess Conte is finally ready to become Jose's assistant manager,eh ?
yes well, that was exactly the same comments that were being aired after his first title at Juve when he won the last but one match with 4 points over Milan in a season without European cups. The following season got into CL quarter finals loosing to treble winning Bayern and won with 9 points over second team with 4 games to spare.
Next year Conte will have a stronger team with more self confidence and deeper understanding of his methods and if anything I suspect he will win the league more comfortably than this year. Granted the competition in EPL is higher than in Serie A, but the gap in terms of tactical ability between a Conte team and almost all the other teams bar 3 or 4 is bigger in EPL
Another year of them learning how conte wants to play.
1)Lukaku/morata
2)A good right wing back to rotate
3) ake/alonso left wing back
4) bakayoko to come
5) Christensen to come back in from Mgladbach
6) Sanchez type player to rotate in with hazard/William/pedro
1)Lukaku/morata
2)A good right wing back to rotate
3) ake/alonso left wing back
4) bakayoko to come
5) Christensen to come back in from Mgladbach
6) Sanchez type player to rotate in with hazard/William/pedro
Really. You think Sanchez (or a similar player say Reus) would come here to rotate with Willian and Pedro.
Also, Bakayoko is a bit crap. We should be aiming higher, much higher. Maybe we can land Verratti or someone on his level.
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I think if we buy an attack minded winger inside forward that can rotate either side and also offer the option up top with us playing in 4 competitions it should be enough yes. I agree on Bakayoko but I just don't see us landing someone like Veratti so I think in that respect I could agree with 2 physical workhorses (Bakayoko, Kante) to allow fabregas to thrive.Really. You think Sanchez (or a similar player say Reus) would come here to rotate with Willian and Pedro.
Also, Bakayoko is a bit crap. We should be aiming higher, much higher. Maybe we can land Verratti or someone on his level.
I think Conte will try again with Nainggolan, who is perfect fit for his system. The guy is a moron off the pitch but a very good player on it. Bakayoko is not good enough yet.
If Costa goes a very good CF will be needed, Belotti or Morata would be my first choice. Technically they are both better than Costa but they are not as "mean" as the brasilian
If Costa goes a very good CF will be needed, Belotti or Morata would be my first choice. Technically they are both better than Costa but they are not as "mean" as the brasilian
Belotti over Morata as an out and out striker
Belotti looks soft. He might struggle in this league and fail to adapt as numerous other Italian strikers have shown.
Quite intersting how this post has been ignored. Everyone seems convinced we will struggle without Europe but can't respond to a counter post saying otherwise.
We tend to ignore posts that make sense regarding our opponents. Its a Man Utd forum afterall!
On one side this is a United forum, on the other side my fellow Juve fan is clearly in awe of Conte. I am not, the man is a control freak and will find CL pretty daunting, there is no way to subdue elite teams if you do not have elite players and Chelsea are worth the QF at best as a team atm imho. In addition, going for the treble is a massacre and Conte proved at Juve he is more than ready to sacrifice cups to win the league. We will see.
Chelsea are deserved winners but don't kid yourself that they're a great team. Functional, yes, and with a couple of stand out match winners but they will more likely slip back into mediocrity next season. Nothing suggests they will dominate for a few seasons to come.
Mediocrity?
What are we Liverpool? Even with a few relatively poor seasons, we've vacuumed up honors. We've been proven winners for the good part of 20 years
I am actually with him. There is no way your squad is great. I have watched so many great teams who won the league in the past and this Chelsea team is nowhere near a level to be called ''great''. You aren't even near Real, Bayern and Barcelona. Nor Juventus and Atl Madrid and even Monaco this season. The standard of PL clubs has gone down drastically recently. Mourinho's Chelsea first three seasons are so much better than your current team.Mediocrity?
What are we Liverpool? Even with a few relatively poor seasons, we've vacuumed up honors. We've been proven winners for the good part of 20 years
You still need more new players and also with CL football next season, it won't be as easy as this season. Get ready with injury, tired and rotation. I'm sure Conte will struggle if he doesn't add more quality players into his squad next season unless if Conte will just sacrifice the CL football then that's different story.
Bet.
You call it first.
Ah I see the 'watch out for injuries/tiredness/League will be much better next year' brigade is out.
They a good team.
But it's worrying how one injury to a wingback and they don't look the same. They probably need to address that in the summer. As Azpulicueta is a good defender, but he's not a good wing back when moved there.
But it's worrying how one injury to a wingback and they don't look the same. They probably need to address that in the summer. As Azpulicueta is a good defender, but he's not a good wing back when moved there.
It's amazing how people are willing to give Jose the "It's not his team", "He'll buy new players and make the team better" excuse, while Conte doesn't get the same excuses that Jose gets. It's either "they will slip back into mediocrity next season" or "There is no way your squad is great" etc. It's Conte's first year too. We have a small team. We didn't invest heavily into the 3-4-3 philosophy. We bought a wingback in Alonso and brought back Luiz. But that was about it. It wasn't the original plan and we didn't buy players for it last summer. We didn't think it would be the success it turned out to be. So we didn't buy backup wingbacks. We were making it work with a make-shift wingback in Moses. In addition, we also sold Ivanovic, Oscar and Mikel, meaning our depth was paper thin by Winter. It was a deliberate decision not to panic buy in January. So we'll definitely invest on depth and maybe some upgrades in few positions. We should see how the transfer window goes before declaring whether we'll slip back into mediocrity. Ultimately a great manager makes a team better than sum of it's parts. You can look at individual pieces and say there isn't enough quality. But that's the whole job of a good manager.
In order to be successful in europe they are going to have to be tactically flexible. The juve players have spoken at length of how them moving to a back 4 has been very advantageous in europe. These variations of a 3 man defence(3-4-3 or 3-5-2) work well vs teams that arent all that great on the ball, but against those that are a team can really suffer as per what happened in europe laat time around for him.
I would not say I am in awe but I think he is one of the best managers in the world and the best currently in EPL. For the rest I do not disagree with your comments. With the current team Chelsea would not be among the top 5 favourites of CL, it is difficult to say if it is QF or SF or 1/8 because that depends on drawings, injuries etc. We will see after the transfer window and in any event they will not be an easy opponent in CL too.
My point though was different and it was relating to the many comments that discounted Chelsea performance because of the absence of european games and the advantage they got from this.
I am just saying that if people think that while it is true that more games might cost points next year, they might be surprised because there are also plenty of reasons why their performance can improve too and in the league I suspect it will.
It is exactly that obsessive nature of Antonio (control freak
) who hammers players day in and day out without allowing drop in concentration that makes a huge difference in long and tough tournaments like the EPL and it is the reason why so far he won a 6 out of 6 leagues (when he managed the team from the start).I would be shocked if Chelsea didn't win the PL next year.
It won't be simple as that. In Serie A Juventus was on the up turn once Conte won his first title while the rest were declining financially leading to the quality gap being widened. Chelsea can strengthen next season, but there would be still possibilities other challenging teams can make a greater improvement thus being able to catch up. With Chelsea having to play in CL (FA wouldn't be any helpful & pressure on Conte to prove himself, it can easily become much more difficult season for Chelsea.
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No team has defended the title in 8 years so I don't understand why you think so.
They've been the best team but I don't see what so special about them theatre they're sure bankers for next season.
They've been the best team but I don't see what so special about them theatre they're sure bankers for next season.
Style wise, going from LVG's team to Mourinho's is much further than Mourinho's to Conte's. There is only 1 season between Chelsea's 2 titles. That disastrous season is misleading that suddenly people thought Chelsea players are all shite, but in fact their spine is still very strong. It's easier to recover than having Moyes destroyed a team inside out then 2 years under LVG working with a foreign philosophy. Chelsea's core players get in good form is already a strong team. You conveniently forgot Kante (!?) & that Belgium forward in your post for some weird reasons. Why panic buy in January when your team were comfortable & without availability of decent options. Even teams in more desperate condition didn't get that involved in January window.
Your thin squad, or your starting players raked up more minutes are all valid points until you remember that you don't compete in Europe & didn't go that far in League Cup. It's no coincidence that your hiccups during this season were around times you had to play in more than one competition (when you're still League Cup & around FA Cup games).
On top of that when comparing to L'pool, Chelsea even got a better schedule between games during crucial period: Christmas & New Year: well paced schedule. L'pool was not excepted in those congested schedule. It happened that L'pool's terrible run of form coincided with that period (!!!) beside losing Mane (Losing Mane at the end of the season ain't as costly).
What some of the doubters and Chelsea haters don't realise is that you are actually playing into our hands with this no Europe excuse.
Chelsea had one off season. We've won multiple trophies being in Europe. It really won't be a shock to us Chelsea fans. However, we have a good chance of winning the league next season and if that happens, the excuses being brought up now will be revisited which will just make Conte look even more of a great manager.
Pretty sure LVG with his Van Galacticos finished 4th with no Europe all season and Liverpool the same this season.
I'm pretty confident we can retain it but it will be close with Utd and City.
Chelsea had one off season. We've won multiple trophies being in Europe. It really won't be a shock to us Chelsea fans. However, we have a good chance of winning the league next season and if that happens, the excuses being brought up now will be revisited which will just make Conte look even more of a great manager.
Pretty sure LVG with his Van Galacticos finished 4th with no Europe all season and Liverpool the same this season.
I'm pretty confident we can retain it but it will be close with Utd and City.
This is a United forum & United is pretty shite these days as a team so insularity is both nature and necessity. That said, Antonio is not used to games as open as the likes of Chelsea FA semifinal vs Spurs (you can clearly see how rattled he was) and resources are more widespread in the PL than Serie A. If United win tonight and get the CL spot, they may well invest £300m without a blink. Same for City. That's why being the smartest coach in town may not be enough. However, Chelsea did extremely well this year so very well done and congrats, the road is on the up again.
so we are not shit and overachieving like so many people have been saying above?
I was specifically speaking about players we bought to move to 3-4-3 and the new philosophy.
I'm not sure whether you are trying to agree with me here or if it's a generic rant. This is why I said we'll bring in depth and some upgrades, because our depth is paper thin. We'll bring in players to rotate in the increased number of games. There is room to improve. We haven't plateaued.
No. I was sole believer Chelsea would have strong season at this point last season, when the infamous Tottenham fan was wanking over Chelsea's bad season.
Conte didn't go into the season with 3 or 5 at the back as original plan. He tried to evolve, but revert to his familiar tactic when thing went against him.
You said " Chelsea didn't heavily invest for this season" which is not true. You made as many signings as us. Your squad is thin but you wasn't often required to stretch over different competitions at the same time. As I pointed out, Chelsea's few hiccups were closer to the busier schedule. Having no European & quite supportive schedule at crucial period was a blessing for Chelsea this season.
Sure there is room for improvement & you would go into the market for that options, thing is there is no stopping other teams to compete for same players. You didn't invest much this season doesn't guarantee you would can easily get your targets thus improve. I am not talking about PL teams. Bayern, Barcelona, PSG, Inter, Milan... all seem to want to be big players in this coming transfer window.
Mourinho's disastrous season at Chelsea was triggered with not getting the top target but settled with lower choice by the sound of it...