You don’t necessarily need world-beaters on the flanks in Conte’s system. But at the very least you need Lecce-beaters.
Candreva and Biraghi were both abysmal today, even though Biraghi picked up his second assist in consecutive games. Neither of them took on their man once the entire fucking match. Neither of them overlapped, got in behind the defence or attacked with any pace or purpose. It was slow, safe, passive and impotent - and I'm disgusted at both of them and Conte for this shitshow.
To me, Candreva was even more disappointing than Biraghi because we all know he actually possesses some degree of attacking capability. However, he's been slowly creeping back to Spalletti-Candreva and he's looking increasingly fuckheaded and arrogant in the way he plays these days. Seriously, in recent games he sometimes looks like he's barely trying. At times he looks as careless and casual as if he were fucking playing beach soccer while on holiday.
As vas said, we rely so heavily on our WB's in this system. When they fail to get things done, something needs to give. Conte either needs to replace them, or change other areas of the team setup. We know he'd rather die than do the latter. To Conte, having 3 CB's on the pitch at all times is as obvious and unquestionable as having a goalkeeper. I'm surprised and disappointed he didn't change either WB. Why the fuck even bring Lazaro and Dimarco on the bench if he treats them like the plague. May as well have fucked them off with Politano and Vecino.
Simply put, everything ran through Biraghi and Candreva today, and they were shit. Everything they touched turned to shit - and Conte did nothing to remedy that.
