It's going wrong largely because of him. He chose to let Reguilon leave on loan and keep Sessegnon around, he continues to choose Emerson and Doherty despite them constantly letting us down, he'll play Richarlison on the right when it's clear he can't play there, he persists with Son despite him being a hindrance but won't give Gil a shot, the style of football is representative of what he's working on in training and then to make it better he then moans about the squad and how we're starting games... it's just tiresome.
I think that Son's form has to have a fairly straightforward explanation. He's gone to pot in the space of a few months and looks devoid of confidence. So what's changed from last season, where he won the golden boot and ended the campaign well? I think that there are 3 factors and I expect a couple of them to be controversial. Firstly and least debatably is Kulusevski's injury making us less effective in general. Next is Kane playing higher up the pitch. He's not making those passes now. Lastly is replacing Reguilon/Sessegnon with Perisic. The Croatian is clearly a better player than both of them. He's not a better wingback, though.
I think the Richarlison stuff was because of other injuries, no? And he did score those two Marseille goals from the right. It’s not his best position but he’s functional there at least. Conte definitely deserves some blame but it’s also nothing we couldn’t have seen coming. We know what he is as a manager and it’s clear he doesn’t think Gil is ready for the PL. He should be out on loan somewhere gaining experience and value, instead of gathering dust on our bench. Unfortunately there remains a major disconnect somewhere between Levy, Paratici and Conte. If Gil, Spence and Sarr aren’t experienced enough for Conte’s taste right now then they should be playing somewhere else. All 3 are talented players and it shouldn’t be difficult to find homes for them. They are not fresh out of academy football, they have all experienced the professional game at good levels. They should be out on loan and players more suited to Conte’s requirements bought in. Either do that or what’s the point? There have been promising signs throughout Paratici’s time here of a change in recruitment and how the club is run but there is clearly a long way to go. I think we’re suffering from a lack of a defined vision and strategy and are still guilty of making it up as we go along. I’ve talked for years about the club needing to be proactive not reactive and while we’re getting there, we’re a long way away from the operations of the top clubs.
Both goals came from him being in the box where a striker/ CF would be and both came after Marseille went down to 10 men. His all round play is awful when over there, Son would've made more sense seeing as he can play on either flank or he could've just played Gil. That there is a problem though because Conte refused to sanction their loans as he said he needed them in the squad/ needed to replace them... you don't need to replace players that are about 5th in the pecking order. It was a dick move by him, not only did he keep players around for no reason but he prevented them from developing elsewhere, which does us or them zero favours. If the club knew he had zero plans to play Spence we should've immediately loaned him too, as we should've done with White. His stubbornness to stockpile players and then not or barely use them - all whilst complaining about the squad - is awful management in my opinion. Paratici is doing a fantastic job, I have zero issues or qualms with him. He's more than delivering, the manager isn't.
I have few issues with Paratici. I think it’s more the environment around him. He knows Conte but seems caught between what the club want (if they even know) and what his manager wants. I agree with your points about Conte being stubborn over having the young players around but if he says to the club that we need to bring in a player or two to loan these young ones out then that’s what the club should do. If we had the Perisic version of a winger signing then maybe they would be getting Gil’s game time and more rather than a promising talent sitting around doing mostly nothing. Conte’s stubbornness is frustrating but he’s entirely a known quantity, especially to Paratici, and the club should be planning around him, given that.
We don’t have a similar profile to Kulu. Lucas is the closest but he’s unreliable and unfit. I suspect the forwards we look at in Jan will primarily be right-sided but flexible.
I don't understand why he wants another player in their position though. Sarr and White haven't kicked a ball this season, so why does he need an experienced player in to cover for them to go on loan? How many experienced players would even want to be a 5th choice option, even 4th choice if we assume they jump above Skipp who's barely played? Likewise being a 3rd choice for RWB or 5th choice winger. I'd imagine that's probably something Levy would even query too from his financial perspective, do you really want to be paying someone upwards of say £50k a week where there's a 95% chance they won't get onto the pitch?
I agree but that’s also part of management. Either use them or be good enough at man management to work in balancing the squad minutes for more experienced players. I agree that with 4 ‘senior’ players and an academy prospect we should have enough. But that still leaves one of white or Sarr to go out.
Loan out all of the players that he thinks are too young to play and sell some of the ****e. There's no point in the kids rotting on the bench, so bring in journeymen to cover. Strengthen where we can and add some bodies so our youth can gain experience. Would I rather Conte gave opportunities to youngsters who clearly deserve it? Of course. Is he going to do it? Not a chance.
Weirdly we seem to be looking at left-sided ones, namely Martin Terrier and Donyell Marlen - with Randal Kolo Muani the only right-sided one...but he mainly plays through the middle Same can be said for our midfielders: we keep being linked with the likes of Weston McKennie and Sofyan Amrabat (while those oh-so-reliable Turkish sources are linking us with Manuel Ugarte) when what our midfield needs is either a Modric-type who can split defences with a single pass or someone to fill the void between midfield and attack that's been there since Conte insisted H plays as an out-and-out striker
Interesting that Dan KP has amended their article from earlier so that, while it still references potential January loans for Tanganga, Gil and Sarr, all references to Skippy being loaned have been removed
Only purchased Romero since that is an upgrade poor for a team aspiring for top 4 and above but par for the course when you have a chairman who’s eye is never on the football
I'm not sure. Looking back at that, it's incredible that Levy thought a manager like Mourinho could eke a trophy out of that piss poor group of players. Fast forward and I think we can say: Romero over Sanchez as you've said. Hojbjerg over Sissoko by a mile. Bentancur over Ndombele by a mile. Perisic over Lo Celso by a mile. Kulu over that version of Dele by a mile. So we've upgraded half the outfield team. Kane and Son didn't need upgrading, Davies/Lenglet probably could truth be told but not urgent. Which leaves Dier and Aurier as the only two utterly ****e players in that 2019 team who still need upgrading with urgency, and this has to be our top priority next week. I have to say, of all the managers we've had in the PL era, Conte is one of the first who is probably getting less out of the squad available to him than it is actually capable of delivering.
Hasn't really worked out for him at Barca and given the fact that his release clause is £500m, I can only assume we're taking advantage of the financial mess there with a lowball offer. Let's be honest, out last transfer deal with Barca turned out swimmingly
Marco Conterio of TuttoMercatoWeb claims that Conte has asked the board to bring in Piero Hincapie If there is something to this (I did say Tutto Mercato, after all...) that's intriguing, given Hincapie is a LCB - which could suggest that Conte is considering moving the CBs one spot to the right, with Lenglet being seen as more of a CCB and Dier as more of a RCB. Further down the line it also begs the question about next summer, because if we do have Hincapie at LCB does that mean Bastoni is on the agenda or not?
It should move Dier right to the bench. As for Bastoni, I think we should move on, didn't wanna join before and I'd rather not chase players who aren't fully on board with wanting to join us. Get Lenglet on a perm, sign a CB whether it be this Hincapie or not and we're more or less good there with a first choice trio of Lenglet, NEW CB and Romero, with Davies, Dier etc in reserve.
