Ex-Manager watch: Antonio Conte

[-Afri-Coy-]

If you mean we need to freshen up some of the old guard, yeah I can get on board with that. I like Dier. I think he's a good player, at times 'triffic, but has mistakes in him. Could we freshen his position up. Sure. Davies likewise. Sanchez has been a massive disappointment for me. GK we are looking for Hugo's long term successor.

Other than Kane and Son I can't think of any more old guard that are playing regularly?

Hugo
Dier
Davies
Sanchez


And I would add Doherty, Emerson and Sess (young so could stay) to the list based on performances alone and not necessarily old guard.

Main point for me is that these players are the back bone of our defence, basically the entirety of it in terms of being 1st team regulars.

That’s the scary part and one of the main problems we have, up until the last two games we were the 3rd highest scoring team in the league but also the 4th worst for conceding goals.

 

[Dunc2610]

Regardless of what Conte is doing on the pitch, what Arsenal are doing on, off or around the pitch, what he IS doing is pointing out to all in and outside the club that there needs to be a change in how we work off pitch to keep moving forward on the pitch. Because at the moment we're in a never ending cycle of new manager, slight improvement, no real significant (based on ability, not spend) backing, start to falter, head downwards, get new manger in, rinse and repeat.

Also, he's clearly saying, he wants to continue in this process, and he either gets it to a point where he leaves and someone else can carry on, or he himself carries on. But what really matters is he wants to change the culture help the club improve throughout its processes. He's not saying give me £1b worth of talent so he can win now.

 

[-Afri-Coy-]

Levy in

 

[$hoguN]

If you have limited defenders you don't set them up to play out from the back and you need to shield them better. For example.

With who? Bentacur is out injured. Hojbjerg and Bissouma are playing. If we play Skipp we have no option off the bench and lose more from an attacking point of view.

it just shows the issues with squad quality and depth

 

[Metalhead]

Another factor for the decline was the massive hangover from the CL final.

I think both manager and players lost all motivation, and there was a ‘what now’ feeling in the camp.

The lack of recruitment in two successive windows was probably a massive contributor to the drop off in the high press.

That could well be the case. With fresh personnel maybe it could have continued although Liverpool have found out that it can't last forever.

 

[djhotspur]

Joelinton, Wilson, Trippier, Botman, ASM, Pope, Bruno all get into our first 11 in my opinion on current form. Our squad is so poor I'm surprised more people don't acknowledge it.

I agree with that bar Wilson… no chance he gets in over Kane

 

[sidford]

Lads, and I mean this with up most respect, please piss off and take the squad debates elsewhere. Its boring, repetitive and completely misses the bigger picture that's going on.

Thanks

 

[jurgen]

Lads, and I mean this with up most respect, please piss off and take the squad debates elsewhere. Its boring, repetitive and completely misses the bigger picture that's going on.

Thanks

But I was looking forward to seeing our combined XIs for every single team in the league

 

[H-SF]

The fact that people are saying Newcastle have a better squad than us does not reflect favourably on Conte at all. This would not have even been a conversation a year ago when they were bottom but Howe has done a genuinely brilliant coaching job, improving lots of players (Almiron) and getting other average ones to perform well in a functional system. How many of our players has Conte improved? Both managers have spent similar amounts since they joined so it’s inexcusable for the Newcastle squad to have drastically improved so much in quality yet ours is supposedly just as shit as it has been for years. Either he’s got recruitment wrong with Paratici or he’s performed a worse coaching job than Howe. Make your mind up.

 

[Hakkz]

With who? Bentacur is out injured. Hojbjerg and Bissouma are playing. If we play Skipp we have no option off the bench and lose more from an attacking point of view.

it just shows the issues with squad quality and depth

If you are in a proper crisis, then you try to cope with it. Of course it's not optimal at all but put in a 3 man midfield. Höjbjerg, Bissouma, Sarr, Skipp, Devine and White. Either that or leave the defenders exposed and just let the other team attack freely.

 

[hughy]

Compare the two most recent sides, and Newcastle is comfortably better.
Our last squad:

Kane - gets into Newcastle
Son - not a starter
Gil - not on the roster
Perisic - not a starter at LB
Hojbjerg - rotates with Longstaff
Bissouma - bench option
Doherty - not on the roster
Davies - not on roster
Lenglet - bench
Romero - Schar has had a better season but I think they find room for Romero

Lloris - backup to Pope.

IDK what roster means, but if you're talking about a mega chicken it's spelt 'Rooster'.

 

[arunspurs]

The fact that people are saying Newcastle have a better squad than us does not reflect favourably on Conte at all. This would not have even been a conversation a year ago when they were bottom but Howe has done a genuinely brilliant coaching job, improving lots of players (Almiron) and getting other average ones to perform well in a functional system. How many of our players has Conte improved? Both managers have spent similar amounts since they joined so it’s inexcusable for the Newcastle squad to have drastically improved so much in quality yet ours is supposedly just as shit as it has been for years. Either he’s got recruitment wrong with Paratici or he’s performed a worse coaching job than Howe. Make your mind up.

Neither.

Conte does have a 11-14 which works for him (except RWB). Problem been injuries.

Injuries to Kulu, Richarlison, Romero and to some extent Moura. On other hand, Newcastle do have a strong XI working as per Howe wants. They dont have injury issues . Their starting back 5 - Pope, Trippier,Schar, Botman, Burn is very solid. But their bench is still bang average. And they have a player Almiron who is going on a abnormal streak. May be Howe has unlocked his potential but we have seen these type of players in the past.

 

[Clockspur]

Regardless of what Conte is doing on the pitch, what Arsenal are doing on, off or around the pitch, what he IS doing is pointing out to all in and outside the club that there needs to be a change in how we work off pitch to keep moving forward on the pitch. Because at the moment we're in a never ending cycle of new manager, slight improvement, no real significant (based on ability, not spend) backing, start to falter, head downwards, get new manger in, rinse and repeat.

Also, he's clearly saying, he wants to continue in this process, and he either gets it to a point where he leaves and someone else can carry on, or he himself carries on. But what really matters is he wants to change the culture help the club improve throughout its processes. He's not saying give me £1b worth of talent so he can win now.

Excellent post and that’s why I can’t understand the clamour for Poch who always covered for the owners and their penny pinching ways.

Conte is the mad bastard this club desperately needed. We just need more fans to realise they are being duped and stop giving Enic and Levy all of your money

 

[Darth Vega]

The fact that people are saying Newcastle have a better squad than us does not reflect favourably on Conte at all. This would not have even been a conversation a year ago when they were bottom but Howe has done a genuinely brilliant coaching job, improving lots of players (Almiron) and getting other average ones to perform well in a functional system. How many of our players has Conte improved? Both managers have spent similar amounts since they joined so it’s inexcusable for the Newcastle squad to have drastically improved so much in quality yet ours is supposedly just as shit as it has been for years. Either he’s got recruitment wrong with Paratici or he’s performed a worse coaching job than Howe. Make your mind up.

I understand this line of thinking but elite managers require elite players. It's like when people ask "yeah but I wonder how Pep Guardiola would do at Burnley" and the answer is fucking shite, because even though he's a world class manager, the things he demands of his players are so extreme that it only works with the best of the best, which is exactly what he's always had everywhere he's been.

Conte I would argue is slightly below that demand, given he's won leagues with players like Victor Moses, Marcos Alonso and others, but we know how rigid he is with his demands. He needs very specific players that can do very specific things. Howe has done a brilliant job at Newcastle but these are always apple to oranges comparisons.

By the same token, why did it take Arteta three to four years to get Arsenal competing for the Champions League positions with a club that was finishing 5th when he took over while Howe inherited a club that looked like it was going down and now he has them challenging for the Champions League within just 12 months. If they both achieve top four this season and Arsenal don't win the league is Arteta then worse than Howe by comparison? Every situation is unique and comparing them does nobody any favours.

 

[Clockspur]

The fact that people are saying Newcastle have a better squad than us does not reflect favourably on Conte at all. This would not have even been a conversation a year ago when they were bottom but Howe has done a genuinely brilliant coaching job, improving lots of players (Almiron) and getting other average ones to perform well in a functional system. How many of our players has Conte improved? Both managers have spent similar amounts since they joined so it’s inexcusable for the Newcastle squad to have drastically improved so much in quality yet ours is supposedly just as shit as it has been for years. Either he’s got recruitment wrong with Paratici or he’s performed a worse coaching job than Howe. Make your mind up.

Here is how I look at it: Romero aside as he was really signed the summer before last, we spent £122m in the summer.

to put that into perspective, Chelsea are about to spend £130m on one player after spending £200m + in the summer.

Meanwhile we’re hoping Levy can find enough change down the back of the sofa to buy Porro

 

[Trix]

I'm confused. To date we have backed Conte havent we? He knows full well we can't just give him a blank cheque and tell him to go for it.

I think the main backing we have lacked in the laast 20 years is when managers inevitably hit a sticky patch / season. We are way too quick to pull the trigger, and thats on the fans as well as the board. Arsenal ignored their fans for 3 years. The board had a vision and stuck to it and are now reaping the rewards.

This is a decent post asking the right questions that's worth replying to.

You are right in that Conte has been backed to a decent degree. I do believe we could and should have done more in the Summer especially when we had pulled the £150mil to do just that. The issue is that it was only the starting point. AC was happy with it because he was expecting the backing to keep coming but now Levy has decided he doesn't want to keep going in this direction. Last season we were thread bare but we only had one game per week and a decent enough starting 11 to play once per week. This season we've been playing 2-3 games in the same amount of time and it's taking it's toll on the squad. Yes he was backed but not enough that he could sustain last seasons form playing twice as many games. He understood this but again expected us to keep strengthening every window until we were able to compete. He isn't complaining about what we did last Summer, his rants right now are about what we are looking to do going forward and it's not matching his ambition or what he was expecting based on previous conversations with Levy when he took the job. As he keeps saying "it's a project" but right now it's a project that half way through has had the parameters and funding changed from the original brief.

The football is poor right now, no one can deny this but there have been circumstances to explain some of this, and it doesn't change that once again Levy has moved the goalposts on yet another manager.

You are also bang on with the fact at some point we need to stick rather than twist and bust, and for me a manager who is willing to ask "why are we settling for second best?" is the man that we should stick with.

 

[chas vs dave]

You don’t fluke your way to a champions league final. Doesn’t happen. You play a number of the best sides in the world, twice each. Look at every team in the last twenty years that’s reached a CL final. Every single one was a very good side who reached the final on merit.

So, we weren't outplayed by city and Ajax? With the opposition teams spurning lots of great chances.

So, we can't be terrible in the league and be 5th? Results never lie, eh?

 

[parj]

Compare the two most recent sides, and Newcastle is comfortably better.
Our last squad:

Kane - gets into Newcastle
Son - not a starter
Gil - not on the roster
Perisic - not a starter at LB
Hojbjerg - rotates with Longstaff
Bissouma - bench option
Doherty - not on the roster
Davies - not on roster
Lenglet - bench
Romero - Schar has had a better season but I think they find room for Romero

Lloris - backup to Pope.

Swap the managers around and none of them will be good enough for Conte.

 

[PeeEyeEmPee]

Another common misconception

During the 19/20 season, his first with Inter, he placed -

League - 2nd
CL - Group stage 3rd
Italia Cup - Semi-Final
Europa - Final

the following season

League - Champions
CL - Group Stage
Cup - Semi-Final

He doesn’t need one game a week to be a good manager, he can do it playing in Europe too.

Except he didn't really "do it" in Europe. He won 2 games in the CL that first season, and then the majority of the Europa League run was the revised Covid tournament format in August, when Serie A was already over. He won 2 Coppa Italia games too, and dropped points in 3 of the 4 Serie A games that book-ended them.

The following season, he won 1 CL game and finished bottom of the group. He also won 2 Coppa Italia games, and again dropped points in the games preceding them.

It's not a misconception at all. His record when playing multiple games a week is a lot worse than when he just has one.

 

[chrisd2k]

Win tonight and we are 2 points off of Newcastle, playing much shittier football than them.

Keep in mind they have no European football, barely any WC players and barely any injuries to key players all season.

I’m point this out because Newcastle are a common argument for how bad Conte is but they can only managed a 2 point gap on us.

I guess that's because they shouldn't be ahead of us at all? Not yet anyway