He's desperately trying not to publicly slate the team but you can bet your sweet Arse he's already torn into them. I wouldn't be surprised if his had them training this morning. Cahil's confidence is shot so needs resting so he can take in what he's doing wrong. If he's going to persist with Ivan it has to be at centre back as he no longer has the pace to worry full backs going forward. With JT and Zouma out surely a recall for Andreas Chrstensen is a must. Hazard needs to play more central in my view. Would also like to see Moses given a decent run and has played well upto now when given the chance.
Gary Cahill did the same against Swansea as he did against Arsenal yesterday, hanging around with the ball and inviting far quicker opposition forwards to dispossess him. At this level that's very poor to make the same mistake twice in a few weeks and the whole team was punished as a result. In many other areas he's a great defender. I'd like to see Conte sign some top Italian defenders in January to stabilize our defence. Going forwards against Arsenal, there were no clear chances to get a goal back and that was a shame considering the great efforts made by Costa who always seemed to have two players marking him. The whole team did look in better shape in the second half but to come back from 3-0 down was asking too much.
We need 2 up front IMO. Too much to ask of Costa with no support from midfield. 3-5-2 with Hazard and Cesc, with Kante holding for the midfield. Moses and Willian out wide. Recall Christiansen and play him. Azpi at RB and play the new LB or recall Aki.
Looks like you missed the Batsui chance Cech saved with his legs and Willian's drive just past the far post!
Well in my opinion they were 'almost' chances. In the type of words used by Pep the Man City manager "we didn't create a lot of clear chances, we created a couple of almost chances". Having written that, Batsui could have dinked the ball over Cech but the option he chose got saved.
OK, you win. However, I wouldn't fancy my chances scoring against Petr Cech in a one on one from where Batsui was.
As a matter of interest, who do you rate as the best keeper out of an ageing Cech and a young Courtois? With a lot of talk of our dodgy defence, I put a lot of it down to Courtois not organising it properly.
I think Courtois has the potential to be the very best. I just worry that for some reason, he will never reach that potential. Cech in his prime was better.
Courtois is without a good keeper but low on confidence at the moment but without a leader in front of him he lacks organisation.
Petr Cech in his prime was probably the best goalkeeper in the world. Courtois has got a lot to live up to.
I'd rather have Cech if he was blindfolded. Courtois is hopeless. One of the most overhyped, overrated players I've ever watched.
Top top posts gents. Everyone is screaming for common sense. But our club definitely lacks common sense in many instances. Ex: Ivan is a ****ing CB who was thrust into RB against his will FFS!! Conte has already terminated Mikel - another common sense which was lacking for so ****ing long. Hope he continues in that same vein - common sense. Cahill really is taking mick out of Conte there. twice in 10 days??? Looks like Ivan, Cahill & JT are untouchable now. Conte needs to fix them real soon. that is what Sanchez did.. Batshuayi needs lot of game time to hit that peak level.
Hopefully Conte will have made notes and will be making the required changes. We are only a few games in and in reality not performing all that badly. He should know the areas needed to improve and has given everyone their shot. I would be surprised if Cahill makes a start at the next match.
I know its disappointing but Rome wasn't built in a day. Conte is well aware of the shortcomings of Jose's ageing squad. Money and personnel just wasn't available in the last window but this squad is still good enough to deliver a top four place. So less slagging off and more support is called for. Its still early days and he will wield the axe where necessary.