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Antonio Conte - officially NOT the coach of THFC

It wasn't just the prize money though. I thought getting to the latter stages (as we really should have done) would have netted far more UEFA coefficient points than the competition deserved.

Getting into cl would be worth more. With our squad i couldn't see us doing that playing conference league.
A blessing we were kicked out.
 
What I don't get is why we don't try to sub out Reguilon and Emerson for actual wingers in games like this one, where both are absolute sh*te.

Sub Reguilon for Bergwijn, Emerson for Lucas, and have a go at them while one of Hojbjerg + Bentancur sits deeper next to Dier and the two wide CBs go wider to make up for it.

It's not like he hasn't used wingers as full-backs before - he turned Victor Moses from a crap winger into a wonderful wing-back for one season, and did the same with Perisic at Inter.

Bit strange that he's not even attempted it once at Spurs, honestly. We could have used an out-of-the-box solution like that today, where the team just didn't try at all.
 
What I don't get is why we don't try to sub out Reguilon and Emerson for actual wingers in games like this one, where both are absolute sh*te.

Sub Reguilon for Bergwijn, Emerson for Lucas, and have a go at them while one of Hojbjerg + Bentancur sits deeper next to Dier and the two wide CBs go wider to make up for it.

It's not like he hasn't used wingers as full-backs before - he turned Victor Moses from a crap winger into a wonderful wing-back for one season, and did the same with Perisic at Inter.

Bit strange that he's not even attempted it once at Spurs, honestly. We could have used an out-of-the-box solution like that today, where the team just didn't try at all.

I think it’s clear he only trusts 5/6/7 of the players, sadly for him he needs to pick 11 players - so he’s going to go
to the bench as little as possible.

When Moura came on it was the standard Moura game, does something ok, followed by giving the ball away, I don’t think he has the brains to be a wing back.

Winks was he’s normal passive nothingness and almost gave a goal away
 
What I don't get is why we don't try to sub out Reguilon and Emerson for actual wingers in games like this one, where both are absolute sh*te.

Sub Reguilon for Bergwijn, Emerson for Lucas, and have a go at them while one of Hojbjerg + Bentancur sits deeper next to Dier and the two wide CBs go wider to make up for it.

It's not like he hasn't used wingers as full-backs before - he turned Victor Moses from a crap winger into a wonderful wing-back for one season, and did the same with Perisic at Inter.

Bit strange that he's not even attempted it once at Spurs, honestly. We could have used an out-of-the-box solution like that today, where the team just didn't try at all.

His in game management is extremely lacking and more often than not he’s been bailed out by the front three. Today those players didn’t come to party and Conte had no answers.

Like you I thought of many ways in that game that we could have been inventive but Conte is just not that guy.

No top class manager would have watched that today and thought the system was fine up until the end.
 
What I don't get is why we don't try to sub out Reguilon and Emerson for actual wingers in games like this one, where both are absolute sh*te.

Sub Reguilon for Bergwijn, Emerson for Lucas, and have a go at them while one of Hojbjerg + Bentancur sits deeper next to Dier and the two wide CBs go wider to make up for it.

It's not like he hasn't used wingers as full-backs before - he turned Victor Moses from a crap winger into a wonderful wing-back for one season, and did the same with Perisic at Inter.

Bit strange that he's not even attempted it once at Spurs, honestly. We could have used an out-of-the-box solution like that today, where the team just didn't try at all.

Yes. As I posted in the OMT, Conte has a huge decision to make in the coming days about RWB and how to get more attacking threat from there. I struggle to see how we’ll get the 4 more wins we need if we play with a full back there. We’ll be solely reliant on brilliance from our front 3
 
I think it’s clear he only trusts 5/6/7 of the players, sadly for him he needs to pick 11 players - so he’s going to go
to the bench as little as possible.

When Moura came on it was the standard Moura game, does something ok, followed by giving the ball away, I don’t think he has the brains to be a wing back.

Winks was he’s normal passive nothingness and almost gave a goal away

Fair enough mate, but I doubt he trusts Reguilon and Emerson either. At least, I hope not, or he's got a few screws loose.

So, if the full-backs are going to be crap anyway, why not swap them out for wingers? Yes, Lucas is basically chaos personified in that his entire schtick is to bring it down, run into a cul-de-sac and lose it 9 times out of 10...but then, the wing backs don't have that complicated a job.

They have an immense job in terms of fitness, running up and down the field, but their instructions in a Conte system are to defend at the back post on our end, and be at the opposite end to receive crosses from the other flank when we're attacking. When in possession, the sort of thing Lucas does in-field (kick it past someone and run in a straight line) is actually perfect for a wing-back - which makes it more galling that Conte hasn't tried it.

I agree with @AdamB - we cannot continue with Emerson at full-back if we want to do anything with the games we have left, and Conte has to find a solution.

He lost Doherty, that's bad luck. But he has to adapt, he's paid the money he is precisely for that. He has options, and I think starting Lucas there would be a good one. Or dropping Kulusevski further back and putting Lucas up front (would prefer giving Bergwijn a go, but Conte seems to hate him for some reason).

As for Winks, agree with you mate. Sad he's even on the pitch at this point, and it underlines that behind Hojbjerg and Bentancur is a black, terrifying void. Nothing there, one injury and we're toast, since Winks basically guarantees we lose every game we play.
 
As for Winks, agree with you mate. Sad he's even on the pitch at this point, and it underlines that behind Hojbjerg and Bentancur is a black, terrifying void. Nothing there, one injury and we're toast, since Winks basically guarantees we lose every game we play.
We do have that injury to Skipp, which is why Hojberg’s playing so much. Skipp’s massively important to us, very underrated generally IMO.
 
His in game management is extremely lacking and more often than not he’s been bailed out by the front three. Today those players didn’t come to party and Conte had no answers.

Like you I thought of many ways in that game that we could have been inventive but Conte is just not that guy.

No top class manager would have watched that today and thought the system was fine up until the end.

Funny he seemed to change it against villa and we scored 4.
 
fudge me some of the posts in this thread over the last 24hrs…questioning if Conte is a top manager and all the “he should have done this, that or the fudging other”

And we wonder how we get our reputation [emoji2357]
Football fans, like people, are often total cnuts with very low levels of critical thinking or sophisticated analysis. It's binary, and mainly idiotic.
 
He still doesn't have the players to make changes or fully implement his ideas.

Brighton played us perfectly yesterday by flooding the midfield which stopped Kane finding spaces in there to create and limited Bentancurs impact too. It meant we got no quality ball into the forwards. Normally with Conte that would mean using the WBs more but we don't have the quality there to make the difference going forward.

If Skipp was fit he might have changed to a 3 in midfield to match up against Brighton. The only option yesterday for that was to bring in Winks and Conte obviously doesn't rate him and I doubt anyone would disagree there.

Hopefully, we will address this in the summer and Conte will be able to implement his ideas fully next season.
 
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Fair enough mate, but I doubt he trusts Reguilon and Emerson either. At least, I hope not, or he's got a few screws loose.

So, if the full-backs are going to be crap anyway, why not swap them out for wingers? Yes, Lucas is basically chaos personified in that his entire schtick is to bring it down, run into a cul-de-sac and lose it 9 times out of 10...but then, the wing backs don't have that complicated a job.

They have an immense job in terms of fitness, running up and down the field, but their instructions in a Conte system are to defend at the back post on our end, and be at the opposite end to receive crosses from the other flank when we're attacking. When in possession, the sort of thing Lucas does in-field (kick it past someone and run in a straight line) is actually perfect for a wing-back - which makes it more galling that Conte hasn't tried it.

I agree with @AdamB - we cannot continue with Emerson at full-back if we want to do anything with the games we have left, and Conte has to find a solution.

He lost Doherty, that's bad luck. But he has to adapt, he's paid the money he is precisely for that. He has options, and I think starting Lucas there would be a good one. Or dropping Kulusevski further back and putting Lucas up front (would prefer giving Bergwijn a go, but Conte seems to hate him for some reason).

As for Winks, agree with you mate. Sad he's even on the pitch at this point, and it underlines that behind Hojbjerg and Bentancur is a black, terrifying void. Nothing there, one injury and we're toast, since Winks basically guarantees we lose every game we play.

It’s All about making do till summer.

I don’t think trusts reggy either, however I don’t think he will cost us goals and till the summer is fine, plus Sess is almost back to full fitness.

I would not want Moura trying one of his runs from full back and losing it, also how is he defensively? I don’t rate royal at all, but I would suggest he is better at defending and positioning.

The idea of Moura on the pitch in his preferred position is sad, let alone full back

Given the options we have maybe sess/reggy are the best options on either side?
 
What I don't get is why we don't try to sub out Reguilon and Emerson for actual wingers in games like this one, where both are absolute sh*te.

Sub Reguilon for Bergwijn, Emerson for Lucas, and have a go at them while one of Hojbjerg + Bentancur sits deeper next to Dier and the two wide CBs go wider to make up for it.

It's not like he hasn't used wingers as full-backs before - he turned Victor Moses from a crap winger into a wonderful wing-back for one season, and did the same with Perisic at Inter.

Bit strange that he's not even attempted it once at Spurs, honestly. We could have used an out-of-the-box solution like that today, where the team just didn't try at all.

Victor Moses wasn't a crap winger. It should also tell you something that Victor was able to perform solidly in the wingback role.
 
Villa played brick or bust football
I don’t think he changed anything

He did. You watch second half v Villa. Bentancur and Hojbjerg protected the back four much better. First half, Coutinho was finding a lot of space there. He changed things up a bit without changing formation. Yesterday needed more men in midfield. Winks as well as Bentancur rather than instead of.

On a related note, Conte is one of the few managers who manages like a fan in a way. If you're on a yellow, you usually get hooked. I thought it was the right decision with Kulu yesterday as he walked a tight line even after being booked and had a poor game. Moura looked much more lively. However, hooking Bentacur was wrong. We needed numbers in midfield and he's our best midfielder.
 
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