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Manager Antonio Conte

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I honestly think that the fact Manchester United may be looking for a new manager soon and that Newcastle United with new ownership are potentially on the cusp of making a turnaround towards the CL in future seasons has accelerated this appointment of a results based over style manager.

ENIC want that CL money above all else...our ethos basically means fuck all up against profit.
 
To Dare Is To Do. said:
Chelsea changed form 3-5-2 to 3-4-3 after 1.5 years of Conte I think. Also his Inter played 3-5-2.

3-5-2 suits us a lot better than 3-4-3. Why would he go for the latter?
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My memory is he played 343 for his whole tenure at Chelsea. I can’t say I’ve checked that but I don’t remember a single game where they didn’t play that way, certainly against us in his first season where they won the league.

Personally I hate 352. I think it leaves you totally exposed to modern marauding full-backs and double teams out wide, and creates a really easy outlet pass for any press for the opposition. As an attacking force, I think width is important too. We saw against West Ham how being structurally narrow made us so easy to defend against.

Add to that we have depth for wide positions, and our options at 10 are unlikely to be Conte’s cup of tea IMO and I think he’ll go for 343.

Lloris

Tango Romero Dier

Royal PEH Skipp Reggie

Lucas, Kane, Son
 
You’re not a world class manager manager until you win any kind of silverware with Tottenham Hotspur. First Jose, up next Conte. Who will be after that in a few years. Maybe Mancini, Tuchel, Klopp and Pep.
 
To Dare Is To Do. said:



Contract till 2023 shows this is going to be a short term fix. No way would Conte come unless significant spending has been promised in Jan & summer transfer windows of 2022.

Following on from Sir Archibald Crooks Sir Archibald Crooks * Guido 🇺🇦 Guido 🇺🇦 's point earlier, I want us to not just get top players in Jan, but they should be younger than 25, so when a long term project manager takes over in 2023 (ie Potter), we have have something to build on.
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If Levy does this he's just pulling a Mourinho, a big name manager that can only get signings from poundland on a short term contract. He'll get sacked before his bonus becomes due.
 
Doc said:
I think he'd use 3-5-2 .. close enough to what his Inter team did.. maybe splitting use of wing backs instead of predominantly targeting RWB. Don't think we have two midfielders or the RW to make 3-4-3 work. Matic and Kante to Skipp and Hojbjerg is .. well.. Next two months will be sink-or-swim for Ndombele, Gio, Dele... Wouldn't surprise me at all to see us move for Barella if they don't cut it. If he joins I think we'll be in for a ruthless few months, much needed.
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The CM comment is fair. You need 2 absolute players there.

Equally I think Conte will despise Ndombele and I can’t see him liking GLC much more either. So who does he play at 10?

See my comment above on 352. It creates a dream partnership with Kane and Son but I think it makes you very easy to attack against.
 
GDG said:
My memory is he played 343 for his whole tenure at Chelsea. I can’t say I’ve checked that but I don’t remember a single game where they didn’t play that way, certainly against us in his first season where they won the league.

Personally I hate 352. I think it leaves you totally exposed to modern marauding full-backs and double teams out wide, and creates a really easy outlet pass for any press for the opposition. As an attacking force, I think width is important too. We saw against West Ham how being structurally narrow made us so easy to defend against.

Add to that we have depth for wide positions, and our options at 10 are unlikely to be Conte’s cup of tea IMO and I think he’ll go for 343.

Lloris

Tango Romero Dier

Royal PEH Skipp Reggie

Lucas, Kane, Son
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That is the exact team I said we would play when I was discussing this with my son on the school run this morning.
 
VirginiaSpur said:
Who fucking cares what Lewis' family thinks?

Even when Hercules is trying to play it safe he's absurd.
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It might explain the turnaround by Levy

And there has been a turnaround because it failed last time due to Conte’s transfer demands
Conte won’t have changed so Levy has

Speculation that’s all

Keep your hair on
 
Matt1882 said:
Serious question - what is peoples vision of good football?

For me, in 2021, I want to see my players hound the shit out of the opposition to get the back and when they get it, I want quick passes into their half/box and a chance.
I don't want to keep the ball and pass it around our half. I don't want to sit back and wait for the opposition to make a mistake and try and poach a goal. I don't watch to witness players with a poor first touch and an even worse ability to make simple forward passes.
Unfortunately a large portion of our squad are in the bracket of the last point.
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Well when I was younger my idea of good football was Jose Dominguez doing a few stepovers, flicking his hair a lot and banging in the odd worldy from 25 yards, and by odd I mean 2 in his entire stint...

Now I'm more interested in seeing us in control of a game, attacking the opposition with an actual plan and purpose, actually winning due to the players carrying out what they practice in training on a regular basis rather than the odd bit of magic/fluke from Son.
 
To Dare Is To Do. said:
I'm sure Conte was offered huge wages this summer too, and he can always wait for the United job where he'd get an even bigger salary.
I think he is coming because he's been promised big spending. Let's see if Levy delivers.
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History has me doubting that he will but it does feel slightly different this time. It’s amazing that this apparent businessman could not see that not properly investing football team would affect his valuation of the whole package.

My 13 year son could see that & he spent most of yesterday evening shouting “ GREEN LIGHT …. RED LIGHT”
 
Guido said:
I don't like Conte, the persona, the fact he's ex-chav and I'm not a favourite of his football that he predominantly plays (a mid-block 3-5-2, sometimes that's a low-block 6-3-1).

He absolutely is a short term fix, which I'm not too fussed about as he hasn't left any of his previous clubs in the shit when he leaves them. There will be the snarky comments from him in press confs that I hope to turn a blind eye to whilst he's here (assuming that he is, still think there's a way to go on this and maybe Utd are being forced to play their hand over Ole??).

My personal preference should be clear now and that's a progressive manager in the shape of Potter, Ten Hag, Flick, Nagglesmann etc.... I enjoy how these managers build their squads and have the team play, it's uncompromising no matter who the opposition is, it's always brave and exciting and I feel overall better suited to Tottenham than these ego appointments.

HOWEVER, there can be no denying is ability as a manager, the difference between him and the Dinosaur is that tactically and strategically he's still relevant as a coach. He's always demonstrated that he can build a team (all be it with considerable funds spent) but I think his biggest quality is taking the team available to him and getting the most out of them on the pitch (plus additions). He is IMO one of the worlds top 5 managers.

Just have to endure a bit of mid-block and loads of Conte slow-mo cams of him shaking his fists to massage his ego. Will be better than we've had during the last 2-3 seasons. I would start to have concerns in January if we are signing 30yr old plodders on long contracts.
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No disagreement that I can find with this. The short term thing does chap my ass though and that combined with a less than modern setup doesn't really thrill me. but he is competent and he will construct a functioning unit. I have no doubt about his ability...just didn't want it here and it's another sign the DNA statement was nonsense.
 
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