Antonio Conte

[wera]

I'm sorry if I sounded mad, capslock is a funny thing. Not gonna edit it.

 

[brehme1989]

I'm sorry if I sounded mad, capslock is a funny thing. Not gonna edit it.

Stop shouting.


On your argument that we lack in quantity, that's the thing. We really are not. Last season everyone was praising Conte for using a lot more players than Spalletti (which was due to us having a very thin roster of at most 14 serviceable players).

We had 18-19 serviceable players last season at the beginning and something like 20 in the winter even after discarding Asamoah, and the number is pretty much similar now, even with fuck ups like Kolarov, not getting rid of Young etc. Do we need 22 or 25? Perhaps. But that's not what makes you qualify in the Champions League. There's not that many teams out there with more than 22 serviceable players.

At the moment I'd say we have 17-20 serviceable players, depending on your view on Kolarov, Sensi and perhaps Vecino. Whether we like it or not, Conte puts some trust on Ashley Young and Roberto Gagliardini and no trust on Andrea Pinamonti.

But we have Handanovic, Skriniar, De Vrij, Bastoni, D'Ambrosio, Perisic, Hakimi, Young, Darmian, Barella, Brozovic, Vidal, Eriksen, Gagliardini, Sanchez, Martinez, Lukaku. That is 17. Kolarov could be used as LWB as well, but has not apart from a few moments as left back in a short tenured back 4. Vecino will definitely be playing if he's available, so it will go to 18 and Sensi would definitely be playing if fit, but he's doing a very good Recoba impression.

Sure, we could use a couple of additions, but the roster is not thin.

The only difference is that the likes of Winks and Llorente were getting some minutes at Tottenham whereas ours do not.

 

[rockball]

The worst part about our CL exits was that in all 3 seasons, it was in our hands on the last matchday. And we were facing the weakest team in the group in each of those. That we did not win any of those 3 matches, was purely down to mentality. Hopefully by next season, the team has some winning mentality.

 

[CafeCordoba]

Yeah, I also think it's the mentality aspect. I also feel we are much more ready team now after this latest CL exit. The team really bonded and they are getting results week in week out. We go to win the Scudetto and the mentality of this team will be so much better, so much harder to beat when the new season starts.

 

[bubba zanetti]

Comparing us with Spurs roster,I would say 55-45 for Spurs. Our defence is way better than Spurs,midfield is so so,their attack is way better.But they have a better squad depth. Sissoko would be regular in our team,maybe Locelso also,no fkn way players like Gags or Vecino could play ever in Spurs,even fkn Winks is far far better player than them.Son and Kane are another level and we have no class player like that.Their biggest problem is tragicomedy of defence with utter shit players like Doherty,Sanchez,Dier,Davies.Imagine them having Hakimi,DeVrij and Skriniar with this current squad.They would be biggest threat to City this year. Mourinho cant play his style of football without top quality defenders,and his defence is travesty.Only Reguilon and Alderweireld are decent players there.

 

[Glass box]

We played only two good games like a proper CL team out of 6 - Real and Borussia M. away. Even though we lost in Madrid, we showed the intensity needed for those kind of games. But two good games are not enough, in other games we needed just ONE WIN out of 4. Could be at least one against Shakhtar and that would've been enough.

Last season we played better yet failed.

In 2018/2019 we choked after having 6 points from first 2 games, and approached both Barca games like cowards. In the last game against PSV we were so complacent and believed Barca will win against Tottenham. We equalized against PSV and I thought fuck we are through- and then I saw on livescore that Tottenham equalized against Barca away too. We were enablers for that Tottenham flukiest ever ride to the final, I was happy they lost to Liverpool for nothing other than that.

Seriously we need to get our shit together in CL. I don't care if we have the weakest opponents possible to do that, just pass through that group, we are reaching some Marseille levels there if we fail again next year.

 

[brehme1989]

Comparing us with Spurs roster,I would say 55-45 for Spurs. Our defence is way better than Spurs,midfield is so so,their attack is way better.But they have a better squad depth. Sissoko would be regular in our team,maybe Locelso also,no fkn way players like Gags or Vecino could play ever in Spurs,even fkn Winks is far far better player than them.Son and Kane are another level and we have no class player like that.Their biggest problem is tragicomedy of defence with utter shit players like Doherty,Sanchez,Dier,Davies.Imagine them having Hakimi,DeVrij and Skriniar with this current squad.They would be biggest threat to City this year. Mourinho cant play his style of football without top quality defenders,and his defence is travesty.Only Reguilon and Alderweireld are decent players there.

Wrong season Spurs.

 

[.h.]

I think we shouldnt under estimate the experience element, though.

Handanovic has 18 career games in the CL.
De Vrij 17. Skriniar 15. Bastoni 6. Barella obviously only the ones at Inter. Even Lukaku has a total of only 27 CL games, and Eriksen is our most experienced at 49.

Dont get me wrong, this is a shitty excuse, but its something we should consider as well. I think if you put that together with the mentality aspect, it does explain a fair bit.

Next season needs to be better. No dispute there. R16 is the acceptable target, but I would like to see us win the league before I write that into stone.

 

[brehme1989]

You're talking about futbol eritej there.

 

[Puma]

Destroying Man-orientation: Antonio Conte Style – Breaking The Lines:
https://breakingthelines.com/tactical-analysis/destroying-man-orientation-antonio-conte-style/

 

[qb4ever_2k]

I think we shouldnt under estimate the experience element, though.

Handanovic has 18 career games in the CL.
De Vrij 17. Skriniar 15. Bastoni 6. Barella obviously only the ones at Inter. Even Lukaku has a total of only 27 CL games, and Eriksen is our most experienced at 49.

Dont get me wrong, this is a shitty excuse, but its something we should consider as well. I think if you put that together with the mentality aspect, it does explain a fair bit.

Next season needs to be better. No dispute there. R16 is the acceptable target, but I would like to see us win the league before I write that into stone.

I feel this post is completely uneccesary. Yes, experience is always welcome, but it wasnt the lack of experience when Conte was forcing 3412 and making mind boggling team selections. And Conte had a working formula too, which was 352 from last season.

Overall, the elimination was 15% bad luck (shit finishing, injuries,...) and the rest was on Conte, experience never came into play

 

[brehme1989]

Overall, the elimination was 15% bad luck (shit finishing, injuries,...) and the rest was on Conte, experience never came into play

It was an issue in our first outing with the Tottenham away and PSV home games. Agreed that it was not an issue in the last 2 CL appearances, but I'd argue that even the Slavia home game was some sort of complacent behavior mixed between arrogance and inexperience.

 

[Il Drago]

It was an issue in our first outing with the Tottenham away and PSV home games. Agreed that it was not an issue in the last 2 CL appearances, but I'd argue that even the Slavia home game was some sort of complacent behavior mixed between arrogance and inexperience.

Experience wasn't the issue in our game against PSV. The issue was Spalletti choking nature. Instead of going for the win he decided to bring in Vrsaljko after 1-1 in order to protect the draw hoping Barcelona would beat Tottenham.

In any case, i don't think experience plays such a big role. What experience did Atalanta and Leipzig have last season? Gladbach this season? Experience may be a factor late in the tournament but certainly not in the groups stage.

 

[CafeCordoba]

Of course experience plays a role in every match. Group matches are important as well (as we know full well) and experienced team handles the group matches, just like Real did this season. Experienced, good team finds a way to win. Of course it doesn't GUARANTEE a win but that no one ever claimed it would. Atalanta and Leipzig are showcases of good system and bravery. If someone does well without experience, it doesn't mean experience doesn't play a big role in grand scheme of things.

 

[.h.]

Of course experience plays a role in every match. Group matches are important as well (as we know full well) and experienced team handles the group matches, just like Real did this season. Experienced, good team finds a way to win. Of course it doesn't GUARANTEE a win but that no one ever claimed it would. Atalanta and Leipzig are showcases of good system and bravery. If someone does well without experience, it doesn't mean experience doesn't play a big role in grand scheme of things.

yeah, I'd agree with this. For me as a football fan the 'experience' element can be kinda hard to understand - after all, if you're playing top flight football, non-latter stages of the CL cant be that far removed?

But when you listen to the ex-pro commentators, for example talking about International football or CL, they always talk about the importance of 'experience at this level'. I'm happy to take their word for it.

Talent only goes so far, especially as football gets 'more professional'.

 

[wera]

Nice steering of the ship towards another win. We might not be playing nice football, but other clubs fared far worse today.

 

[_OC_]

Whatever else you want to say about how we’re playing right now, we’re grinding out wins, and the last time we won nine matches in a row was back in 2007 when we obliterated the Serie A record for most consecutive victories.

That’s impressive, and he’s built an impressive squad.

 

[CafeCordoba]

Yeah this is vintage Scudetto-grinding. So delicious.

I think this was rustiness because this team hadn't played together for 3 weeks. Sassuolo match will hopefully be better even if we miss some guys. Bastoni is harder to replace than Brozovic these days. 3 days to prepare.

 

[TheNetworkZ]

We've become really stagnant on the pitch but I think we can chalk these up to a few points.

1. The bench quality is really bad. We have to play our same starting 11 every game because it's really clear that no one on the bench offers anything of quality or can impact the game as a super-sub. We can make a claim that Sanchez is a player like that but I think it's inappropriate to rely on him as such. He's still got some gas in the tank but we definitely need more quality up front and just in general. International duties prove that we need a solid bench so we don't tire our own players anymore. Even Barella looked like he needed a rest today.

2. I'm going to put this one on Conte. We play exactly the same every game almost to the tee. It's obviously worked thus far but there have been times throughout the season where we know something new needs to come into place. The 3-4-1-2 formation failed but it shouldn't mean that we can't switch to another formation or try a new gameplan when things are getting a bit ugly. There's nothing wrong with winning ugly at times but this Bologna game wasn't an "ugly win", it was an atrocious one. Any other day and we would've tied or even lost. We can't afford to win like this again imo.

3. The set-pieces are laughable, especially without Eriksen. I already know what we're going to do before we do it and so do our opponents. It makes me cringe watching it because it never works.

The scudetto is in our hands so I'm not trying to push anything overly negative, as I am definitely happy about where we are, but thought I'd point some things out. I just want to see this team push on next season and become even better than it already is.

 

[kurt0411]

LGI earned