Conte's 3-5-2

[werty]

Conte only played 3-5-2 15 times in 59 games in his second season at Chelsea and he had a higher win percentage with 343.

How often did he use it in his first season?

 

[Gbspurs]

Last season we famously played 3-4-3 and to great effect. It's direct, works very well on the counter and we had the personel to do it. Just.

It's a very demanding formation, especially on the midfield who have to do a lot of running to make it work.

This isn't Conte's only formation thoughand you could well argue that he prefers a 3-5-2. His Inter Milan side and his Juventus side were mainly playing this way. This analysis (which is excellent) shows how it works.

Antonio Conte – Inter Milan – Tactical Analysis (2020-21 Edition)

Since Antonio Conte’s arrival at Inter Milan, the Italian giants have transformed into the most effective side in all of Serie A. Other than disappointments in the UEFA Champions League and l…

themastermindsite.com

In some ways it's a mouth watering prospect. Kane Son and Richarlison vying for the 2 striker roles will be excellent but the midfield is less obvious and suggests to me that we're still short of a midfielder.

My starting 11 looks like this.

Lloris

Romero Dier Lenglet

Doherty (currently) Perisic

Bissouma Bentancur Skipp
Kane Son

Ideally I'd have Bissouma in Skipp's place and bring in a more attacking central option like Paqueta to play the 'Barella' role. Sarr looks like he could do it but is very green.

I'm really looking forward to the pre season to see of we change formation. It might give us more of a steer as to who our remaining targets would be.

How would you line them up?

Disrespect on Hojbjerg, he's played more games than anyone and won't be displaced from the starting XI so easily in my view.

 

[kremlyn]

Disrespect on Hojbjerg, he's played more games than anyone and won't be displaced from the starting XI so easily in my view.

Conte's 352 has one DM and two CMs. I think of PEH as a DM so it's a choice of him or Bentancur and I went for the latter.

We've yet to see how they'll do. I could well be wrong.

 

[Gbspurs]

Conte's 352 has one DM and two CMs. I think of PEH as a DM so it's a choice of him or Bentancur and I went for the latter.

We've yet to see how they'll do. I could well be wrong.

Denmark use him further forward and to good effect. I think he would be decent in the middle.

 

[kremlyn]

Denmark use him further forward and to good effect. I think he would be decent in the middle.

One of the CMs is more withdrawn than the other typically so he could easily settle in there.

Again, I'd prefer Skipp there though.

 

[blankom]

PEH as the Ball winner
Bentancur as the B-to-B
Biss as the creator

 

[SUIYHA]

Any team with serious ambitions will have more than one system that they've prepared and can play well with - either to change games, surprise the opposition or have a tried and tested backup when key players are injured.

3-4-3 may well be Conte's first choice - should also be prepping to use 3-5-2 and 4-3-3 at different moments of the season IMO

 

[werty]

Skipp and Hojbjerg were great against Leicester when they were box to box and Winks was sitting, and I think that's the kind of approach he'd use if we use it next season. I don't think we have the deep lying player maker to make it work yet though.

 

[C0YS]

He isn't an idiot but while he's had success with 3-4-3 he's had far more success with 3-5-2.

You know more than most about our transfer plans but I'd be very surprised if there aren't plans afoot to bring in an AM like Barella or to figure out who can already do it.

He played 352 with Winks as the dm and it worked (albeit against Leicester) so it's definitely an option for him. I'd imagine it's something he'd prefer to do if he can but he'll need the personel to do it.

Barella is not an AM. This has always annoyed me, he is an attacking focused box to box player. But he's a workhorse, up and down up and down.

As has been mentioned, its pretty clear that we are focusing on a 3-4-3 otherwise we would have never bothered with Richardson, and we would have probably been looking for a more attacking midfield player than Bissouma. The looking for an AM has always been fan wish fulfilment and not really ever been backed by what we have done in the transfer market or by anything to suggest Conte wants an AM.


Well, he played 3-4-3 at Chelsea so he may feel its well suited to the PL and 3-5-2 is not as well suited. But also we have Kane, we have Son and ultimately you try and create the best something that gets the most out of them. Maybe Conte thinks that's a 3. But whatever his original reasons, the synergy between Son, Kane and Kulu means you'd be very stupid to break that front 3 down.

 

[C0YS]

Conte's 352 has one DM and two CMs. I think of PEH as a DM so it's a choice of him or Bentancur and I went for the latter.

We've yet to see how they'll do. I could well be wrong.

That's a simplification. Both wide midfielders are grafters players with a good engine. His eventual acceptance of eriksen in that role was a compromise but not his normal way of operating.

 

[Locotoro]

The other point to consider is that both our current RWB are both attack inverted so adding a 3rd CM clogs up the central areas and closes up passing lanes into the forwards if your opposition is marking properly.

Playing a 3rd FW, especially one that likes to start wide, in Kulusevski, ensures that you keep width across the pitch and give space to the other two FWs when your RWB comes infield the way Emerson and Doherty have done.

I don't see us playing 352 unless we start telling Kulusevski to play as a central #10 instead of one that drifts wide and even so we'd still need to sign an overlapping RWB

 

[WiganSpur]

Not rocket science is it.

Tactically for the odd game I could see it, but the biggest strength we have is our world class front 3. You'd have to be a idiot to move away from that, and Conte is not a idiot.

Yeah, and I think all of our current CMs (even Sarr) are well rounded enough to play in double pivots. I do think though in the odd game it will be used as a secondary formation, and it's a shape we can change to during a game providing we round out the squad this window with a creative player. Occasionally the 3-4-3 will get found out so i'm sure Conte will still be drilling this as a backup.

 

[Qualsonic]

343, 352 there's not really a lot of difference.
Just by Kane dropping a bit deeper we can flip between the two formations at any point, or, vice versa, with a Pacqueta/ Eriksen in midfield.

 

[kremlyn]

That's a simplification. Both wide midfielders are grafters players with a good engine. His eventual acceptance of eriksen in that role was a compromise but not his normal way of operating

I was surprised that Eriksen played as a CM but he weirdly wasn't as advanced as Barella. The article makes is clear how it worked and why.

 

[djhotspur]

Yeah, and I think all of our current CMs (even Sarr) are well rounded enough to play in double pivots. I do think though in the odd game it will be used as a secondary formation, and it's a shape we can change to during a game providing we round out the squad this window with a creative player. Occasionally the 3-4-3 will get found out so i'm sure Conte will still be drilling this as a backup.

I could see us moving maybe to a 3 5 2 with 3 battling midfielders against Liverpool away or something, whilst playing perisic and spence so we can break quickly when our midfield bully their midfield to win the ball. Have Kane dropping in to feed 3 runners off him and someone like Benta or hojberg supporting the attack.
We’d be very powerful in midfield with biss sitting, Benta and Hojberg pressing etc.

 

[double0]

Skipp and Hojbjerg were great against Leicester when they were box to box and Winks was sitting, and I think that's the kind of approach he'd use if we use it next season. I don't think we have the deep lying player maker to make it work yet though.

Bentancur?

 

[Vedi]

343, 352 there's not really a lot of difference.
Just by Kane dropping a bit deeper we can flip between the two formations at any point, or, vice versa, with a Pacqueta/ Eriksen in midfield.

That's what I was expecting as well. If Conte wants to switch from 3-4-3 to 3-5-2 for/during a game he would most likely move Kane behind the forwards to a deep lying position (which he played anyway a lot last season) with Son and Rich in front and sacrificing Dejan/Lucas.

But an additional cover for that system would probably be preferred by Conte. I am also a little hopeful that given his call up to the Korea tour Bryan might also cover that spot, would not be the first wide player who would flourish in a more central position. But honestly not sure about his creativity, haven't followed any of his games last season.

 

[werty]

Bentancur?

Maybe ?‍. I haven't seen him in that role so don't know if he'd be good at it.

 

[kremlyn]

Last 5 minutes of the game against wolves we switched to a 3-5-2. It looked like PEH central with yves 9n the left and rodrigo on the right.

The problem is that we lose Kulu in that system and rodrigo isn't attacking enough to bring a threat to the game.

The benefit is we get kane and Richarlison up front together which looks very tasty and our midfield looks unbelievably solid.

Maybe, given how slow we're starting games, we set up as a 3-5-2? Wait till the game settles down and bring kulu on in the second half to break the oppo?

 

[Cochise]

Last 5 minutes of the game against wolves we switched to a 3-5-2. It looked like PEH central with yves 9n the left and rodrigo on the right.

The problem is that we lose Kulu in that system and rodrigo isn't attacking enough to bring a threat to the game.

The benefit is we get kane and Richarlison up front together which looks very tasty and our midfield looks unbelievably solid.

Maybe, given how slow we're starting games, we set up as a 3-5-2? Wait till the game settles down and bring kulu on in the second half to break the oppo?

Could be an option and I think if we get this Malinovskyi chap in we will do something like that. Imagine the thought of us gaing a goal or two and then bringing on Son and Kulusevski to go 343 and play on the counter.