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Antonio Conte - officially NOT the coach of THFC

I feel like this club is CLOSE to great things. As conte gets the entire squad he wants, and they learn his style, we could really do something.
As far as I can recall, and I could well be mistaken, apart from Manure, we haven’t been entirely woeful for a whole game.

add some players, lose some mistakes, play with high intensity before half time and whom knows…
What do you think now?

Sent from my SM-T865 using Fapatalk
 
it's the players

it always was

it always will be

It's a squad building issue more than the players themselves, i mean it's not the players fault they aren't suitable for the managers tactics or aren't at the level he requires in terms of pure ability - it's not the players fault the club has built a squad lacking in quality going back several years.
 
What do you think now?

Sent from my SM-T865 using Fapatalk
Thanks for asking. I stand by what I said. We are close to great things. Conte has been here one year, and close to the start of the season. He said he needed at least two more transfer windows (I think).

And in the longer term, as a club, Levy has to back Conte. If not, it will be hard to lure another top coach to be in charge.
The football has been inconsistent this year, but we have to give conte time. Them lot up the road - consistently a better run organization than us - didn’t bin Arteta when his results and football were awful.

this is not aimed at you, but at times, reading this forum is like a spurs transcription of AFTV.
 
It's a squad building issue more than the players themselves, i mean it's not the players fault they aren't suitable for the managers tactics or aren't at the level he requires in terms of pure ability - it's not the players fault the club has built a squad lacking in quality going back several years.

it's their fault they make mistakes, or don't turn up though

we've got some of the best players on the planet, but they are inconsistent, that's in their heads
 
Southampton H
Fulham H
Eintract Frankfurt A
Eintract Frankfurt H
Everton H
Saudi Sportswashing Machine H
Liverpool H

To me these are the games we have played well (for most of the match)....given how the last half of last season went i have to admit i'd expected more in terms of good performances (regardless of results). We are 4th and in CL knockout stages, but the fear is this is the pinnacle of our team under Conte; performances are not stagnating but actually regressing: we are getting less defensively sure and our attacking play is getting towards Nuno levels of toothlessness.
I know we should really judge more AFTER the world cup, but we aren't the only team that has had to juggle Europe and the heavy PL schedule...yet our actual gameplay and tactics look possibly the worst of all the teams playing in Europe.

The lack of rotation is now killing us in more ways than one: it looks like the subs really don't have a clue about how we want to play and that leads us to the vicious cycle of having the constantly play 'first teamers' and now they themselves look as clueless as the subs...remember when a common reposte was that performances don't matter look at the wins and the fact the opposition huff and puff but rarely blow our house down?

@thfcsteff looking forward to your views as i believe you were at the game tonight and you usually have a way to bring some form of balance to discussions...
 
Bring back Poch, he never went out of cups early. Every game was exciting, there was never 90 minutes of trying to break down a deep lying defensive team only to be beat by a sucker punch. I want my managers perfect.
 
Bring back Poch, he never went out of cups early. Every game was exciting, there was never 90 minutes of trying to break down a deep lying defensive team only to be beat by a sucker punch. I want my managers perfect.

I hope this is sarcasm.

My big question is " why have we regressed since the end of last season when we were playing fast attacking football and scoring goals for fun. ?"

Since then we have had a full pre-season to work on tactics, shape and Conte's supposedly legendary fitness regime. We have had a decent transfer window adding some strength in depth, and yet

We look tired and leggy most games, can't apply any intensity to our game, look like a team of strangers, don't start a game well and generally have poor first halves in every game and create very little as our passing is so bad - either undercutting or overhitting the easiest pass to play a player in on goal . Finally why are our tactics so negative with so many defenders on the pitch every game.

Conte, please bring back the swashbuckling style of Ossie, Harry or Early Poch The signs at the end of last season were encouraging. What happened?
 
Southampton H
Fulham H
Eintract Frankfurt A
Eintract Frankfurt H
Everton H
Saudi Sportswashing Outfit H
Liverpool H

To me these are the games we have played well (for most of the match)....given how the last half of last season went i have to admit i'd expected more in terms of good performances (regardless of results). We are 4th and in CL knockout stages, but the fear is this is the pinnacle of our team under Conte; performances are not stagnating but actually regressing: we are getting less defensively sure and our attacking play is getting towards Nuno levels of toothlessness.
I know we should really judge more AFTER the world cup, but we aren't the only team that has had to juggle Europe and the heavy PL schedule...yet our actual gameplay and tactics look possibly the worst of all the teams playing in Europe.

The lack of rotation is now killing us in more ways than one: it looks like the subs really don't have a clue about how we want to play and that leads us to the vicious cycle of having the constantly play 'first teamers' and now they themselves look as clueless as the subs...remember when a common reposte was that performances don't matter look at the wins and the fact the opposition huff and puff but rarely blow our house down?

@thfcsteff looking forward to your views as i believe you were at the game tonight and you usually have a way to bring some form of balance to discussions...

Yup, was there alongside autoram! Was there Sat and will be again this Sat.
 
I really wished last night he let the youngsters play, why bother knackering everyone ? was he half hoping they wouldn't go to the world cup and have a fresh off season instead?

That's the only thing I don't like about Conte he is hardheaded, but that is also what makes him successful
 
I hope this is sarcasm.

My big question is " why have we regressed since the end of last season when we were playing fast attacking football and scoring goals for fun. ?"

Since then we have had a full pre-season to work on tactics, shape and Conte's supposedly legendary fitness regime. We have had a decent transfer window adding some strength in depth, and yet

We look tired and leggy most games, can't apply any intensity to our game, look like a team of strangers, don't start a game well and generally have poor first halves in every game and create very little as our passing is so bad - either undercutting or overhitting the easiest pass to play a player in on goal . Finally why are our tactics so negative with so many defenders on the pitch every game.

Conte, please bring back the swashbuckling style of Ossie, Harry or Early Poch The signs at the end of last season were encouraging. What happened?

Kulusevski got injured. Romero got injured. Doherty was injured. Then Richarlison. Then Son. The drop of in quality and fit for the system from some of our first choice players to our backups is too much. We fixed some of that in the summer, but not all of it. And the injuries have mostly come in areas we didn't fix.

When we were flying last season we had a game a week. Rest, time on the training ground. This season has been two games a week more or less week in week out. The difference is massive, particularly when we get injuries and Conte doesn't trust all his options (rightly or wrongly).

We have to be able to deal with two games a week most of the time. For now that requires luck with injuries, which we haven't had. To really deal with it we need more options that Conte trusts.
 
I really wished last night he let the youngsters play, why bother knackering everyone ? was he half hoping they wouldn't go to the world cup and have a fresh off season instead?

That's the only thing I don't like about Conte he is hardheaded, but that is also what makes him successful

Conte's stubbornness gets a lot of attention.

-Why is he stubbornly refusing to play 3-5-2. We would be so much better. Conte forced into 3-5-2, somehow the calls for 3-5-2 as the solution has stopped.

-Why is he stubbornly refusing to play Doherty. He played Doherty last night, who did next to nothing without the presence, quality and fit of style Kulusevski ahead of him. I think Doherty was never the solution until Kulusevski was back.

-Remember when him not playing Bissouma was the stubborn thing. Turns out Bissouma needed time and is only now starting to come into his own.

-I guess two of the stubborn claims that haven't been as clearly refuted are Gil and Spence. But it's so easy to put that on Conte being stubborn when we don't have them actually playing showing both their strengths, but also their weaknesses. Personally what I've seen so far makes me want to see more of both, but mostly to see what they can do and with hope that they would take steps if given the chance. I don't think they are quick fixes.

Conte is stubborn. I think the vast majority of the time he's right to be. That's not to say he never gets it wrong, of course he does. But rather often the "stubborn" choice proves to be the right one.
 
well still conte's fault that we are not able to play a plan b (352) more coherently with more players.
5 subs this season and took too long to introduce gil and we've made djed go backwards by not playing him at all.

if anything it looks like a lack of training and preparedness if we can't even get our reserves to control a game against bottom placed second stringers.

somethings amiss. don't know what but conte's not stupid but he's stubborn so there must be a reason why he insists on using the same players even though they know they are lethargic and have a world cup looming. all he can do is to ask the fans to get behind the team and be patient? current training with current players isn't working and the 2nd half of the season will be as busy and we will have the same issues like lethargy and injuries.

the only way out is spending big on quality in a few areas in the mid season window.
 
I hope this is sarcasm.

My big question is " why have we regressed since the end of last season when we were playing fast attacking football and scoring goals for fun. ?"
The signs at the end of last season were encouraging. What happened?

We only really started to play well last season when our calendar opened up and we were able to focus on the league. There was some talk when Conte arrived that he doesn’t cope well with 2 games per week and that’s how it looks.
So why didn’t he pick a second string last night?
I can only think he’s such a competitive f****r he wanted to win the thing and picked the best 11 he thought we’d get away with.
 
We have to look at the context around 2 games per week.
Our record prior to CL participation was 4-2-0.
Since CL midweeks its 4-0-4.

The CL programme has been squeezed to once a week this season whereas normally its fortnightly and runs right through to early December.
The intesity and pressure that has been involved in getting through the group has meant we have struggled both in CL games and the weekend PL games following. Surely people can see this?

Its much easier for Saudi Sportswashing Machine (no Europe so 1 game a week) or Arsenal (Europa & resting 4/5 players) than CL teams. Only Emirates Marketing Project have been able to juggle the demands of both competitions. Look at the dropoff from Liverpool. Not just down to aging players but also the intesity/demands plus injuries which we've certainly had to contend with.

I wouldn't be surprised to see us have a massive improvement in performances when we return from the WC as there will be fewer midweek games to contend with.
 
I think fans need to accept/understand that Conte is trying to evolve the side. He doesn't want us to be so passive. So we are playing more on the front foot. While we adjust, we're shipping goals. Injuries and the number of games make it tricky to achieve. And we already have a weak backline.

But there is progression. It is just not working yet! I am far more into that than just playing the same low block. Conte is trying to evolve the side. We have to be patient. In the meantime, we're high up the table and in the last 16 of the CL. After the next game we reset, maybe add a CB and WB. It is 2 steps forward 1 step back. But show some patience and we'll get there.
 
We have to look at the context around 2 games per week.
Our record prior to CL participation was 4-2-0.
Since CL midweeks its 4-0-4.

This is a good point

Question though is why and how much its because of not enough depth/quality in the squad and how much because of Conte's refusal to rotate?

Some players like Skipp, Bissouma, Doherty could have been used more IMO and helped keep legs fresh

In some positions (such as RCB, CCB, attacking positions) we dont have the depth to rotate but in others I feel we could have done more
 
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