Ex-Manager watch: Antonio Conte

Timberwolf · Aug 1, 2022

Usual boring answer but I think the truth lies somewhere in the middle here.

We have improved our squad notably and that's worth a lot. We now have a squad with real depth that can survive injuries and rotation without resorting to the likes of Winks or Tanganga.

Equally, I agree with some posters that we could have improved our first 11 more. Squads are important but the first 11 is still a thing and both Liverpool and City have certain players that play 90-95% of games when fit (Salah, TAA, VVD Robertson, Cancelo, KDB, Dias, etc). Perisic is the only player that fits into that category and I think most of us hoped we'd sign a RWB or a CB of that ilk.

Overall happy with the window and I don't blame the club as we clearly went all out for a LCB and couldn't get our top targets, while there isn't really a great market for RWBs.

Huge step in the right direction and I have faith we will make big signings in Jan or next summer if we can't do them this time. COYS.

walworthyid · Aug 1, 2022

Bluto Blutarsky said:
Maddison would not start as a CM for Conte - does not have enough industry.

And, simply because "many agree" does not mean that "many are right"...

Last year - from February 1 to the end of the season (i.e. after Deki and Bentancur arrived) we scored 2.4 goals per game. That was second in the league to Man City. Conte's system produces goals without having to carry a "Creative" player who lacks in the defensive aspect of play.

A creative player by himself - does not unlock defenses. Its takes teamwork to unlock defenses - and if Conte is spending the majority of time training on his preferred system, then the team will not be drilled on more creative/individual play. We are not City or Liverpool. Adding a creative player won't transform us into a possession based team.

I think that this is an oversimplification. By its very nature creativity is unstructured, its that little bit of inventiveness that creates an opening. You can plan for it in your system by having creative players and getting the ball to them in positions where they can create eg a creative 10 between the ines, a tricky winger isolates the fullback, deep lying playmaker etc but it ultimately boils down to the player in the moment doing something different.

Yes, we create chances and score lots of goals, but we do so in a very mechanical way that clearly struggles against certain teams. Its not to say that we wouldn't struggle if we had a creative player but I feel it would give us an x factor that we currently lack.

spursfan77 · Aug 1, 2022

Aphex said:
There's no doubt our squad is stronger, but I do feel we haven't improved the first 11 sufficiently this summer.

Bissouma is a CM rotation option, but we don't know yet if he will improve the first 11, particuarly if Conte ends up keeping PEH in the side and dropping Bentancur, I don't see how a PEH Bissouma midfield is stronger than a PEH Bentancur one....

The only unquestionable first 11 signing which improves us has been Perisic.

Yes our bench is a lot stronger now which is great but I do share the concern that on paper our first 11 going into the new season will still have potentially any one of Davies, Sanchez, Doherty, Emerson and PEH starting.

We haven't improved at RWB, there has been no top CB brought in.

Lenglet may prove an upgrade at LCB but he's only on loan for a year with no buy option.

I look at the side that started yestersday and I don't see that it's been strengthened sufficiently. I know it was probably a fitness /availability decision but it's so disappointing to see Sanchez still starting a game at CB, Doherty and Emerson at RWB, PEH in the middle.

This isn't being overly negative, it's just providing a bit of balance to what has been the majority of fans saying (me included) what a truiphant window it's been. Yes our squad is stronger, but our first 11 IMO hasn't improved all that much at all.

But add all that to a full preseason working with Conte and stir up the pot and it might well look a bit different that what you are portraying.

I have said this already this morning in another thread. We need to take our opening fixtures into account this season too. They aren’t great.

THOWIG · Aug 1, 2022

Aphex said:
There's no doubt our squad is stronger, but I do feel we haven't improved the first 11 sufficiently this summer.

Bissouma is a CM rotation option, but we don't know yet if he will improve the first 11, particuarly if Conte ends up keeping PEH in the side and dropping Bentancur, I don't see how a PEH Bissouma midfield is stronger than a PEH Bentancur one....

The only unquestionable first 11 signing which improves us has been Perisic.

Yes our bench is a lot stronger now which is great but I do share the concern that on paper our first 11 going into the new season will still have potentially any one of Davies, Sanchez, Doherty, Emerson and PEH starting.

We haven't improved at RWB, there has been no top CB brought in.

Lenglet may prove an upgrade at LCB but he's only on loan for a year with no buy option.

I look at the side that started yestersday and I don't see that it's been strengthened sufficiently. I know it was probably a fitness /availability decision but it's so disappointing to see Sanchez still starting a game at CB, Doherty and Emerson at RWB, PEH in the middle.

This isn't being overly negative, it's just providing a bit of balance to what has been the majority of fans saying (me included) what a truiphant window it's been. Yes our squad is stronger, but our first 11 IMO hasn't improved all that much at all.

Agree. Certainly improved the squad, but not the first 11. Think Perisic and Bissouma will make a difference, but there are still two glaring holes at RWB and Central Midfield. Really hoping we do something about the central partnership asap.

Scot-Spur · Aug 1, 2022

Conte seems happy with how things are progressing. He isn’t stupid and will continually wanted backed which we seem to be able to do financially now.
This window was all about overhaul, hopefully next summer we are in the CL again and can really target 2/3 big names that will take us to the next level. We are on the right path but it takes time, our squad was badly needing refreshing and that is what we have done the past two windows.

mil1lion · Aug 1, 2022

I can't believe people still think it's about individuals when it's clearly about the way a Conte team functions. We were excellent the last few months of last season when we were out of the cups and signed Kulusevski and Bentancur. The real issue was depth of the squad which we have clearly improved. A Conte team has never been one full of star players, not too dissimilar to Klopp really. It's always about players that function well in his formation. Its not like Klopp hasn't signed underwhelming players on paper over the years.

People really need to stop obsessing over what we need in the transfer window. This is what Conte does best, trust the process. I'm pretty shocked really that people are not excited and optimistic ahead of the new season. If you can't be now then I don't think you ever will. Football is a hobby at the end of the day so why would people be so negative all the time? Even if we don't challenge for the title we should be enjoying what the club is doing now. We have the best squad in terms depth ever and one of the best managers in football. People moan about the players lacking belief but now they have it and yet portions of our fans themselves don't. Its match week and I for one can't wait for the new season to get underway.

tommyt · Aug 1, 2022

walworthyid said:
I think that this is an oversimplification. By its very nature creativity is unstructured, its that little bit of inventiveness that creates an opening. You can plan for it in your system by having creative players and getting the ball to them in positions where they can create eg a creative 10 between the ines, a tricky winger isolates the fullback, deep lying playmaker etc but it ultimately boils down to the player in the moment doing something different.

Yes, we create chances and score lots of goals, but we do so in a very mechanical way that clearly struggles against certain teams. Its not to say that we wouldn't struggle if we had a creative player but I feel it would give us an x factor that we currently lack.

I agree with this, but would like to add that creativity and chance creation can come about simply by receiving and control a pass well. With a well drilled team players are already making movement into space and even the likes of Højbjerg (not the most 'natually' creative) has the ability to pick passes.

Stamford · Aug 1, 2022

I looked at some of the previous conte buys and they didn't blow me away but he still found a way to win

Impspur1 · Aug 1, 2022

Stamford said:
I looked at some of the previous conte buys and they didn't blow me away but he still found a way to win

I mentioned before that the guy turned Victor Moses into a title winning RWB, alls good!

TOLBINY · Aug 1, 2022

The squad does have a sense of more depth - but let's say we are 1-0 down to a team who are intent on defending their lead, where are the game changers in the new squad who we can bring off the bench? Indulge me and assume Lenglet, Perisic and Bissouma are starting instead of Davies, Sess and PEH.
All I can see in terms of game changers are Lucas (who we had anyway) and Richarlison who is a replacement for Bergwijn. Richie cost us around twice as much as we got for Bergwijn, is he twice the player? I know he can play all 3 positions across the front, but Bergwijn could have done that given the chance and Kane doesn't come off unless we are comfortably winning or he's injured, so Richie replaces Son or Deki in truth. You're still 1-0 down, do you take Son off - I doubt it, so actually Richie replaces Deki.
I think we need another game changer at least. That might be a creative attacking midfielder or out and out attacker.

TOLBINY · Aug 1, 2022

mil1lion said:
I can't believe people still think it's about individuals when it's clearly about the way a Conte team functions. We were excellent the last few months of last season when we were out of the cups and signed Kulusevski and Bentancur. The real issue was depth of the squad which we have clearly improved. A Conte team has never been one full of star players, not too dissimilar to Klopp really. It's always about players that function well in his formation. Its not like Klopp hasn't signed underwhelming players on paper over the years.

People really need to stop obsessing over what we need in the transfer window. This is what Conte does best, trust the process. I'm pretty shocked really that people are not excited and optimistic ahead of the new season. If you can't be now then I don't think you ever will. Football is a hobby at the end of the day so why would people be so negative all the time? Even if we don't challenge for the title we should be enjoying what the club is doing now. We have the best squad in terms depth ever and one of the best managers in football. People moan about the players lacking belief but now they have it and yet portions of our fans themselves don't. Its match week and I for one can't wait for the new season to get underway.

"We were excellent the last few months of last season when we were out of the cups and signed Kulusevski and Bentancur."

Did you watch us at home to Brighton, away to Brentford and even home To Burnley - one penalty goal in all those three games - zero shots on target v Brighton and v Brentford.

Our staring 11 may be better this season, but we need more game changers on the bench.

Bluto Blutarsky · Aug 1, 2022

TOLBINY said:
You're still 1-0 down, do you take Son off - I doubt it, so actually Richie replaces Deki.

Team sitting deep? I take Son off easily. He can’t use his pace to get in behind a team sitting deep.

RWB -> Lucas
Son -> Richarlison

Now we have:
Perisic - Richarlison - Kane - Deki - Lucas

Players who can cross/ get on the end of crosses; players who can dribble at defenders; players who can shoot from distance.

Bluto Blutarsky · Aug 1, 2022

TOLBINY said:
Our staring 11 may be better this season, but we need more game changers on the bench.

Every ITK and half the media reports say we are still looking to bring in an attacking player this summer (and a CB).

jurgen · Aug 1, 2022

TOLBINY said:
The squad does have a sense of more depth - but let's say we are 1-0 down to a team who are intent on defending their lead, where are the game changers in the new squad who we can bring off the bench? Indulge me and assume Lenglet, Perisic and Bissouma are starting instead of Davies, Sess and PEH.
All I can see in terms of game changers are Lucas (who we had anyway) and Richarlison who is a replacement for Bergwijn. Richie cost us around twice as much as we got for Bergwijn, is he twice the player? I know he can play all 3 positions across the front, but Bergwijn could have done that given the chance and Kane doesn't come off unless we are comfortably winning or he's injured, so Richie replaces Son or Deki in truth. You're still 1-0 down, do you take Son off - I doubt it, so actually Richie replaces Deki.
I think we need another game changer at least. That might be a creative attacking midfielder or out and out attacker.

Or you can bring Richarlison on for someone who isn't already in the front three if we're dominating possession - it's always an option...drop Kane or Deki deeper where they can thread passes

And it's hard to quantify 'twice' the player but I swear there's something in the water on here regarding Bergwijn - we've replaced an attacker who barely hit a barn door in his time with us with a super hard working league proven 1 in 3 attacker who also offers an aerial threat should we need it. How is that not a good improvement to our 'game changing' options?

Everyone can see we probably will ideally want another attacker/AM and obviously we haven't got our big CB signing yet but there's some logical twists going on here.

smallsnc · Aug 1, 2022

IMO, the one thing that really hurt us in the second half last year was having to really only play 2 CMs, every game, all game and I thought they were tired many matches. We will now have the ability to rotate, have the starters go 60-70 minutes and then bring on another quality CM. This really showed in matches where we needed to be taking it to the lower level squads and did not have the legs to do it.

mil1lion · Aug 1, 2022

TOLBINY said:
"We were excellent the last few months of last season when we were out of the cups and signed Kulusevski and Bentancur."

Did you watch us at home to Brighton, away to Brentford and even home To Burnley - one penalty goal in all those three games - zero shots on target v Brighton and v Brentford.

Our staring 11 may be better this season, but we need more game changers on the bench.

Yes I watched us and after our form was up and down in March it was excellent in April and May. It was clear the players were fully drilled in the system by then and you could see the Conte identity forming. In our last 10 games we got 23 points, City got 24 and Liverpool 26. I guess that just shows the mentality of fans who focus way more on the odd bad result or performance over the bigger picture.

DJS · Aug 1, 2022

Timberwolf said:
Usual boring answer but I think the truth lies somewhere in the middle here.

We have improved our squad notably and that's worth a lot. We now have a squad with real depth that can survive injuries and rotation without resorting to the likes of Winks or Tanganga.

Equally, I agree with some posters that we could have improved our first 11 more. Squads are important but the first 11 is still a thing and both Liverpool and City have certain players that play 90-95% of games when fit (Salah, TAA, VVD Robertson, Cancelo, KDB, Dias, etc). Perisic is the only player that fits into that category and I think most of us hoped we'd sign a RWB or a CB of that ilk.

Overall happy with the window and I don't blame the club as we clearly went all out for a LCB and couldn't get our top targets, while there isn't really a great market for RWBs.

Huge step in the right direction and I have faith we will make big signings in Jan or next summer if we can't do them this time. COYS.

Personally I feel Bissouma is also a player who improves the first 11, especially as he dominated our midfielders in both games last season.

Also you’ve said Perisic, so only other place we really could have improved was right wing back, which we conceded for home grown.

Bastoni obviously would also have come into this category, but couldn't be done through no fault of our own.

thebenjamin · Aug 1, 2022

TOLBINY said:
The squad does have a sense of more depth - but let's say we are 1-0 down to a team who are intent on defending their lead, where are the game changers in the new squad who we can bring off the bench? Indulge me and assume Lenglet, Perisic and Bissouma are starting instead of Davies, Sess and PEH.
All I can see in terms of game changers are Lucas (who we had anyway) and Richarlison who is a replacement for Bergwijn. Richie cost us around twice as much as we got for Bergwijn, is he twice the player? I know he can play all 3 positions across the front, but Bergwijn could have done that given the chance and Kane doesn't come off unless we are comfortably winning or he's injured, so Richie replaces Son or Deki in truth. You're still 1-0 down, do you take Son off - I doubt it, so actually Richie replaces Deki.
I think we need another game changer at least. That might be a creative attacking midfielder or out and out attacker.

It's surely pretty obvious we are going to sign Zaniolo

mil1lion · Aug 1, 2022

The competition is far better now. Perisic for Reguilon, Lenglet for Rodon, Bissouma for Winks, Richarlison for Bergwijn. Even Forster for Gollini as a more reliable 2nd keeper. Spence adds extra competition at right wing back as we havent sold any. Add from the start of the season Kulusevski for Lo Celso and Bentancur for Ndombele. We're in far better shape going into the season. That's without mentioning being under Conte from the start. Conte is happy but some fans still aren't

Trix · Aug 1, 2022

mil1lion said:
The competition is far better now. Perisic for Reguilon, Lenglet for Rodon, Bissouma for Winks, Richarlison for Bergwijn. Even Forster for Gollini as a more reliable 2nd keeper. Spence adds extra competition at right wing back as we havent sold any. Add from the start of the season Kulusevski for Lo Celso and Bentancur for Ndombele. We're in far better shape going into the season. That's without mentioning being under Conte from the start. Conte is happy but some fans still aren't

Whatever we did this Summer it was never going to be enough for some on here mate. Some are just never satisfied, just wanting everything instantly and not prepared to build anything. They ignore that Liverpool and City took years to get to the position they are, and because we aren't going after the players they deem to be "what we need", it's just constant negativity and criticism despite a ball not even being kicked.

I've put easily double figure number of members on ignore this Summer because I just can't be arsed to read their constant(in every thread) negative horseshit.

Forums

What's new

Matches

Sportsbook

Members

Ex-Manager watch: Antonio Conte

Well-Known Member

David Ginola

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

This is the place to be

SC Supporter

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Busy ****

Well-Known Member

This is the place to be

A hoonter must hoont

Well-Known Member

This is the place to be

Well-Known Member

Similar threads