Ex-Manager watch: Antonio Conte

[HildoSpur]

It's not miles off to be honest.

Kane and Son have been world class for years , Kulu is fantastic and Rich is Brazil's number 9.

Granted, Gil and Lucas aren't good enough, but you're acting like our front line is a joke. Realistically, we're 1 more top forward away from having very solid front line depth - and last season many thought our attack was the best in the entire league.

You can't say our depth is bad then use the perennially injured Ox and an unproven 20 year old as examples of Liverpool's wealth of attacking depth when they have similar injuries.

We are however, severely lacking an alternative to Kulusevski as we're so desperate for creativity when he's not in the side and Kane's not getting on the ball.

Sorry but it is miles off - if one or two of their attackers get injured there is little or no drop in quality for the players that come in. For us if Kane or Kulusevski get injured you are left with Richarlison (will be good but not yet there), Son (utterly useless at the moment), Gil (terrible) or Lucas (terrible). It's not good at all and in no way compares favorably to Liverpool.

 

[Tucker]

Ok you win. I’ll gracefully bow out and concede defeat.

You’re missing the point of this thread I think. It’s not a place for reason or calmness. Everything is awful and we must shout as loud as we can about it.

Even if that means pretending we only have four forwards in the squad when we have six.

 

[Timberwolf]

Sorry but it is miles off - if one or two of their attackers get injured there is little or no drop in quality for the players that come in. For us if Kane or Kulusevski get injured you are left with Richarlison (will be good but not yet there), Son (utterly useless at the moment), Gil (terrible) or Lucas (terrible). It's not good at all and in no way compares favorably to Liverpool.

To be fair they have scored a mighty ONE goal more than us this season, so their huge depth is definitely making a big difference.

 

[E17yid]

Every Arsenal fan I've spoken to(and to be fair it's not many) have basically said any long term injuries to their midfield 2 and they are fucked as things stand. So whilst they are coping right now it's because they've kept all their key players fit and playing. They don't have great depth either but they have been luckier thus far with injuries and it's a big reason they are where they are, amongst other factors of course.

This is why I think our extensive, consistent injury list this season has exasperated the issue. It’s not so much our depth is shocking across the board just we’ve been a bit unlucky. Don’t get me wrong we need investment especially in defence but I do t think it’s as bad as some are making
Out.

Arsenal have Jesus out and they don’t seem to be missing him to much. I think the coach has
to take a lot of credit to be fair

 

[fishhhandaricecake]

Yes major surgery. Players that need to go for me are.....

at least 2 of Sanchez, Dier, Davies, Lenglet, plus Tanganga
Then 2 of Doc, Emerson or Spence(preferably the first 2)
Moura, GLC, TN, Winks, Gil
Hugo

That's 10 players we need to move on, and at least 6 of them replaced. That's without Son's horrific form and Kane's contract situation. I'd call that major surgery.

And here in lies the issue, Levy won’t make it easy to move these players on, he won’t take cut fees or he’ll get them out the door and so it slows down our squad building, always the same story.

 

[greaves]

This is why I think our extensive, consistent injury list this season has exasperated the issue. It’s not so much our depth is shocking across the board just we’ve been a bit unlucky. Don’t get me wrong we need investment especially in defence but I do t think it’s as bad as some are making
Out.

Arsenal have Jesus out and they don’t seem to be missing him to much. I think the coach has
to take a lot of credit to be fair

Yep. Exasperating injuries have exacerbated the situation. Conte needs to be flexible and pragmatic though.
Maybe he thinks he is being so.

 

[E17yid]

Yep. Exasperating injuries have exacerbated the situation. Conte needs to be flexible and pragmatic though.
Maybe he thinks he is being so.

It is frustrating but then what coach doesn’t stick to his guns. You rarely get coaches who chop and change philosophy to much. You want your coach to build an identity and way of playing. Just that we seem a bit shit at the minute.

 

[HildoSpur]

To be fair they have scored a mighty ONE goal more than us this season, so their huge depth is definitely making a big difference.

Thats because they are in about as good form as we are

 

[bubble07]

The thing I'm clinging onto is with such obvious upgrades the team should be so much better.

Under peak poch it was difficult to realistically improve the stating eleven but now it's obvious

If the club can somehow get the players conte wants which should be at CB, LCB RWB and AM/RWF cover we will definitely see a massive improvement. Just don't think that happens in Jan

Assume the dream for Conte would be Hakimi Skrinier Bastoni Zaniolo so we just need to work our way down from that list

Surely Paratici must have a list of players conte wants in those positions and it's a case of getting the player as high up the list as possible

4 positions does seem a lot but the other 5/6/7 positions are all good enough if the 4 new additions are top quality

 

[Timberwolf]

Thats because they are in about as good form as we are

Exactly - but you can't say Son's shit and then act like Liverpool's forwards are pure quality throughout, when Darwin is missing about 4 big chances every match and Salah's looking like a shadow of his former self too.

Anyway, let's agree to disagree. It's clear we agree we need some more attacking depth - I just think we have much bigger issues elsewhere and our attacking problems are exacerbated by injury at the moment more than anything. It's our defence and lack of variety of options at CM that are the key issues for me depth-wise.

 

[HildoSpur]

Exactly - but you can't say Son's shit and then act like Liverpool's forwards are pure quality throughout, when Darwin is missing about 4 big chances every match and Salah's looking like a shadow of his former self.

They are still much more effective than Son has been this season - with Son unfortunately he looks like a player in sharp decline rather than this being a period of poor form.

 

[Timberwolf]

They are still much more effective than Son has been this season - with Son unfortunately he looks like a player in sharp decline rather than this being a period of poor form.

Topic for another thread, but I think some of that blame has to come down to the manager too.

If Son's struggling in the system with his back to goal (never a strong part of his game) maybe we need to play him higher up in a 2 and play to his strengths (finishing) by using him as more of a conventional forward? I don't think Son is done, but a combination of the system and lack of confidence are killing him at the moment.

 

[greaves]

It is frustrating but then what coach doesn’t stick to his guns. You rarely get coaches who chop and change philosophy to much. You want your coach to build an identity and way of playing. Just that we seem a bit shit at the minute.

Yes. I can see that. I become all grumpy and reactionary when I read about philosophy (and projects). In my present mood I come over all Redknapp. Get good players and score more than the other lot is my rather childish, simplistic and petulant response. Life is too short to no have a little bit of fun.

 

[Teegart]

The thing I’m using, maybe naively, as justification for our garbage performances lately, is the fact I have a feeling Conte actually wants to play 352 and get control of the midfield. I think he knows 343 isn’t working but the complete lack of any attacking threat from RWB forces him to play Kulu at RW to stop the entire right side from being a football black hole.

I think that’s why we’re seeing ITK now of the priority for Jan being a creative attacking player and RWB. This would let us transition to a 352 far easier with Kulu the creative CM furthest forward in the 3 man CM, with the new signing backing him up. Then clearly the new RWB offering that attacking threat down the right.

The above might just be all wishful thinking and completely wrong, but it’s giving me comfort to look past these terrible performances. Of course we clearly need a massive squad overhaul in general terms, but the current squad should not be performing close to how badly they are just now.

 

[IfiHadTheWings]

Someone has said in one of my chats he has resigned but can't see anything so most likely nonsense.

 

[Rout-Ledge]

Yes major surgery. Players that need to go for me are.....

at least 2 of Sanchez, Dier, Davies, Lenglet, plus Tanganga
Then 2 of Doc, Emerson or Spence(preferably the first 2)
Moura, GLC, TN, Winks, Gil
Hugo

That's 10 players we need to move on, and at least 6 of them replaced. That's without Son's horrific form and Kane's contract situation. I'd call that major surgery.

it’s pretty damning that of the players you’ve listed as surplus to requirements, four of them were brought in within the last 18 months…

 

[KAISERwells]

Someone has said in one of my chats he has resigned but can't see anything so most likely nonsense.

Please be true

 

[FinnYid]

And here in lies the issue, Levy won’t make it easy to move these players on, he won’t take cut fees or he’ll get them out the door and so it slows down our squad building, always the same story.

Worse deal you get out of these, less you can back up manager. It isn't some seperate business issue, it's directly involved on how we can run the footballing side. Sure we could tear up any contract of players we don't want, but then we can't moan how we don't back up manager. Hard to say if there have been deals that these players would've accepted that we should've taken. Possibly.

 

[HildoSpur]

Please be true

Sincerely hope not

 

[Rout-Ledge]

Someone has said in one of my chats he has resigned but can't see anything so most likely nonsense.

I don’t think he’ll walk away before the end of his contract. He doesn’t have long to wait.

He certainly hasn’t resigned today - he’s due for a presser.