I'm in favour of Conte staying if RA allows him to become part of the process and replaces the cronies with professionals. If Conte goes then we need a total restart, still need to be rid of cronies, which means 2 to 3 years outside the combat zone in the PL and CL, until we build, not just buy a team. I think unless RA makes the behind the scenes changes needed, players like Willian, Luiz, Hazard, Courtois, Michy, Abrahams, Zouma, Alonso and maybe more will leave for more stable and competitive Clubs, and top class new players and managers will stay away in droves. Have no idea what will happen, but whatever it is it needs to be a proper change in approach, or end of next season we will be back here again.
Of those players you mentioned CP only Hazard Luiz Willian are worth keeping, when you factor in what we could buy. But heaven knows we must not lose Kante.
Amen to that Kante is one of the few keeping us afloat; if we’re short of change the least we can do is get a quality midfielder to take the heat off him - as for Conte staying on...I would be in favour if he was not so defeatist in his attitude the team that played against Spuds 2 seasons ago put up a better show and yet they had a bugger all to play for and they were 2 goals down.
Hmm...can’t help thinking that the proposed building of our birdcage will put a spanner in the kibosh on our future purchases; if past form is anything to go by you’ll be lucky to get 3 players.
Look, unless RA has a complete personality overhaul, Conte will be gone in the summer. Lets face it, even if RA does agree to keep him, Conte may not want to stay after this anyway. I cannot imagine he is having a good time lately. I am pretty sure, unless a miracle happens and we get top 4, that RA will be brandishing the Axe. I would be for Conte staying, provided he is given appropriate backing by the board and be given the funds, and be allowed to pursue the targets he wants. We haven't been penny pinching lately, we have been spending, we have just been spending badly. Drinkwater I could kinda understand, given that Baka was our only midfield signing prior and with Matic going and Fabregas needing someone to switch out with. Giroud was pointless, as was Barkley, our January signings were a shambles. Yes, Morata hadn't worked out as people had hoped, and Giroud fits our style more, but if we had signed a proper striker in the summer, one that fit our system (aka Lukaku) then we wouldnt have had to sign Giroud in the first place. Barkley is ****, and permanently injured, complete waste of money Bakayoko, I guess I am willing to give him another shot, provided we get someone else in that role to swap him out with. I would keep Luiz, Christensen, Kante, Alonso, Pedro, Hazard, Willian and Giroud as a backup striker (now we got him, may as well use him). Everyone else, I would have no compuctions about **** canning.
Seems we are of one mind with all this stuff going on. I would keep the same players, though Giroud I could replace with a Michy recall and a top ,top striker as our #1.The real issue is can RA change enough for Conte to stop spitting the dummy and commit? I doubt it, though believe it would be the best result. Then, would Hazard and Luiz stay? They are not big Conte fans mainly because he has misused them dreadfully. Watching the last few games I couldn't help but see how predictable we are, how Hazard has been sussed out in our system, and how wrong we are to persist with a lone striker who can't play as a lone striker. I wouldn't be gutted if Hazard left as I think we play too much for him, which limits any other systems. And he's no Messi. Apart from Erikson,( who would transform us as a team) , Ali and Kane ,the Spuds have no fabulous players but no dross like we have. Their overall quality is now better than ours and they outplayed us. They are more cohesive, more creative and more versatile and simply a better team. We by contrast, have Hazard, Dave, Willian and Kante, Alonso, yet are totally predictable and have no cohesion. We can't play out from the back, through the midfield and onto the strikers.We have absolutely no power in our team. At the risk of repeating myself as often as Stan, we need to hugely upgrade the midfield with creative, aggressive ,powerful players like Pogba pre Utd, forget "one up front strikers" and get instinctive poachers who score more than our duds miss, add some ball playing defenders,and bring on our more creative youngsters and get us playing as a team from back to front.We are too old, too slow too comfortable, and all because RA is too complacent and listens to too many useless cronies
In the years we have won titles we played with a cavalier attitude to attacking Ancelotti's double winners were both exciting and enthralling to watch but also very clinical. We seem to have lost this attribute as now when we attack its rare an earl ball is played or crossed and we just fuddle around with the ball generally getting passed back to the half way line or goalkeeper.
I agree with that. I think the system should be changed. BUT, if we are to do that, and make a more creative side, Conte is definitely NOT the coach to do that.
I was a big fan of Conte last season but i had my criticisms of him. This year has sort of exacerbated those criticisms and you really see a manager when they are going through a sticky patch. 1. manager has his favourites and plays them through thick and thin - see fabregas, christensen recently, morata during his long bad spell, hazard up top 2. his lack of proper rotation - will he learn from this next year or will he play the same 11 all the way through 3. lack of reaction to matches. He's come out trumps on occasion with subs, formation tweaks. This year especially during our bad runs, its the same old same old no change to tactics, no subs til 80 minutes even when we fall behind, boring like for like subs. We have been poor going forward all season why hasn't he tried giroud up top with morata/2 strikers. 4. It might be unfair as this is what conte does is our lack of pressing and it's a very italian style of football we play where he makes sure we are solid first. This isn't so much of an issue when we are winning (as standard) but when we've been abject going forward recently (imo) and our balance is wrong. Especially when our team is not defending well and we're not clinical, we need to try create more chances rather than his philosophy of being clinical in front of goal. 5. Lastly, Morata isn't a lone striker, well not in the sense of booting it long to him with not much support round. Or hazard in the false 9. We need to learn to control games better but when we have 3 CBs and 2 WB who come short (when they aren't flying up in a great counter attack which we haven't seen loads of this season) plus 2 DMs who either aren't great on the ball (kante/baka) or 1 who can't dribble, it means when teams press us, we have 7 players in our own half and we end up lumping it. These tactics need to change. Overall, if contes heart is here, then he should stay as he deserves a chance but he seems pretty down recently and if his heart isn't in it anymore, i'm not against losing him. Lastly Bod, not sure lukaku suits a lone striker system as much as you bang that drum. He's hardly been holding the ball up brilliantly at United. Like morata hit and miss in terms of his hold up play (not sure there are many who will do it great when you lump the ball to them and he's surrounded to be honest)
Not sure to be honest. We scored a **** ton of goals under him. I would probably be willing to have him back (I dont think he should have been sacked in the first place), at least in the short term.
What about switching to 2 up top. Giroud and Morata together could work. We should definitely sign a new striker in the summer of course, but since we have next to nothing to play for league wise now, maybe give the two of them a go as a pair and see what they can do.
I've often thought about that though most managers are too scared to try it. I haven't got a problem with 1 up front if you have a strong forward who can hold the ball up. We don't.
