Did conte make a creative midfielder a priority last summer? We made signings to CB, LWB, RWB, CM multiple times, ST, LW, RW…. We made a signing in pretty much every position but not a creative midfielder.
That’s good evidence a CM wasn’t a priority for conte.
It also fits with the fact that he played two midfielders. There’s no room for a creative midfielder on there.
The issue isn’t that Milan sussed us out. A lot of teams sussed us out. The issue is that Conte was unable to get the team playing on new patterns so his play was predictable. You could have the 11 best players in their position… if you play the same patterns then teams will suss you out.
I think your focus on players over systems is wrong. We had better players last year than the season before and we did a lot worse, particularly in defence. There are no doubt excuses or reasons but the problem was the system was predictable.
And I think the focus on the system and patterns of play is overstated. We played players in normal football positions, they did normal football things, wing backs got forward, wide players cut in, sometimes defenders rampaged forward, midfielders did midfielder things. You may not have liked the system (and I'm not a fan either) but the idea that every move was prescribed by the manager is a nonsense. From goal kicks sure, but most teams do that now, defensively yes, the players were drilled as they should be. And yes there was certainly a plan to maximize the transition which of course there should be as it's a strength of ours given our squad.
Without the Son and Kulu of the season before we became much easier to play against, Richy was injured and poor and Lucas and Dan were either injured or not good enough.
Kulu's last good game was at home vs Leeds and that was before the world cup. He had injuries and I also think he relaxed without Conte standing on his neck. Son was injured a few times and apparently never recovered properly. There was no way Conte could've predicted this and all the other stuff that meant we regressed. But we were still fourth.
As for CMs we brought in Yves and that is one of my biggest gripes with Conte as he didn't involve him enough and to my mind he's our most complete midfielder - and even he ended up injured too.
The problem wasn't the patterns of play (any examples from open play btw?) but all the stuff I've already explained. Players injured, Conte not standing on their necks because he was grieving and/or sick and the players relaxing as a result - the crux of Conte's rant "the players also need to take responsibility".
He was right - that's not to say he didn't make mistakes, that the style of play was entertaining, it wasn't largely. But the fact remains our league position under him was an outlier in recent years. And outside of the players we had back then, none of these players would've made the first team under Poch in 2017. Not one. At best a couple would've been squad players.
We're signing players now to address this lack of quality especially at CB hopefully. This is itself an admission that the squad needs improving. We've got weaknesses all over the squad and have had since before the CL final - we replaced Dembele and Wanyama with Winks and Sissoko ffs.
Our recruitment was either non existent or poor for too long and it's hurt us - there's direct correlation between our ascent and decline under Poch (with 2017 the apex) and the quality of players at our disposal.
I obviously hope Ange does well, he's smart enough to realise that if he's going to succeed, we need better players. Madison is a good signing on paper, we're desperate for CBs and have been for years, we have to hope that PP and Udogie are the real deal, that Richy, Yves, Kulu, Son come good, that the new keeper is quality. We might get top 4 but there's a significant chunk of our squad I don't trust, a poor mentality that's run through it for too long. And the only time that improved in recent years was under a fit and fully focussed Conte.
