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Antonio Conte - officially NOT the coach of THFC
- Thread starter Daisuk
- Start date
afsoc4life
Vedran Corluka
Are these quotes from Conte?
Yep, from yesterday. Think he was defending the criticism from Richarlison. But oblivious to the broader criticism of his squad management.
K.D.D.D.D.Soc
Ian Walker
Whatever you think of Conte this squad isn't good enough to compete in 3 cups and finish 4th in the league. We had a good chance (it's all about luck of draw) in both domestic cups but he chose poor groups of players, CL is beyond us, I don't think he has any excuse not to finish 4th now as he can pick his favoured team for each game without making "rotation" mistakes.
K.D.D.D.D.Soc
Ian Walker
Whatever you think of Conte this squad isn't good enough to compete in 3 cups and finish 4th in the league. We had a good chance (it's all about luck of draw) in both domestic cups but he chose poor groups of players, CL is beyond us, I don't think he has any excuse not to finish 4th now as he can pick his favoured team for each game without making "rotation" mistakes.
balesleftboot
Sean Davis
Think it's more of an attitude of 'the club don't care so why should we' . And forget the early rounds, if we were to win a cup the celebration amongst the fans and players would be far greater than they are for finishing 4th. CL isn't that elite really is it, we shouldn't be anywhere near a tournament with the name 'champions' in it really should we.. farcical.
It's no more of an achievement. Newcastles squad is weaker than ours, Chelsea and Liverpool have dropped off this season and our squad is on par with Utd and Arsenal.
We don't have Son playing to his true ability is right, but there are other alternatives and Conte has decided to play him no matter how brick he is.
City is the only team that are miles ahead of us in terms of squad. A supposedly elite manager should be the difference between us comfortably getting 4th and not.
The squad is easily good enough to compete for at least one cup and finish 4th in the league. We lost in both domestic cups to teams we should be beating. Beat Sheffield Utd and we were in the FA quarters against Blackburn. No excuse not to be there.
If Conte had used the squad properly, a little rotation and using 5 subs regularly and before the 80th min then the squad would be fresh enough to compete.
You can’t just dismiss us being up there over other big 6 clubs as they’ve ‘dropped off this season’. It can happen to literally any of these clubs, so if Conte has ensured we are in the top 4 ahead of those that have ‘dropped off’ then that is credit to him - not just dismissing it as a given that we should be up there because there’s as much chance of us ‘dropping off’ as any of them if not managed well…..
He's supposed to be an elite manager. If he can't get us there and ensure we don't drop off then he's not elite and shouldn't be getting 15m a year. If he had a track record of achievement with us like Klopp has with Liverpool and was at the end of a cycle you could forgive it, but not where he is now.
If we finish 3rd/4th it's a good enough return result wise in the league - of course other teams dropping off should be taken in to consideration but most years will see one or more of our rivals have poor seasons, that's just how things tend to play out year to year.
Whether the season as a whole has been a success is a different discussion. Poor performances in general, lack of progress in terms of establishing a way of playing and bad form in the cups (domestic & European) outweigh the minimum target being met in the league table imv - unless people are now arguing that top 4 literally is our everything?
Whether the season as a whole has been a success is a different discussion. Poor performances in general, lack of progress in terms of establishing a way of playing and bad form in the cups (domestic & European) outweigh the minimum target being met in the league table imv - unless people are now arguing that top 4 literally is our everything?
K.D.D.D.D.Soc
Ian Walker
A lengthy injury to Kane and we would be lucky to be in top half of league on our form this season. That's not a good enough squad.
So which ‘elite manager’ would you say would come here and get us top 4 and trophies without needing a few seasons? Because I don’t see one. I have no issue with people criticising certain performances under Conte, but I do see why we have this rep of being delusional at times. Who the fudge are we to expect top 4? There are four or five clubs at least with bigger resources than us, practically all the top managers in the world are in this league, and I’m sorry but I don’t think our squad is that great at all still although moving in the right direction. So forgive me, but I don’t care how much the manager is on I do consider getting top 4 an achievement. We had t been there for a couple of years when Conte arrived and didn’t look like we would be anytime soon until he got going. That doesn’t mean things are all rosy, but finishing in the top 4 is certainly job done from what I can see…..
I don't think people are saying he has to win trophies as well as top 4 but we should be doing better than crashing out the way we have in every cup competition under him so far. We've been knocked out by a team worse than us in every competition this season and barely put up a fight in any of the games that saw us go out, that isn't good enough.
I think the fact he's just shrugging his shoulders and saying what do you expect/lower your expectations - is far worse than the results themselves too.
If we do finish top 4 conte can hold his head up high. It's other things that have turned fans against him. Style of football, not committing to the club, being borderline suicidal in some interviews...
It's a shame. Cause i really do think he is only a few players away. If he could have got the best out of son and lloris this season we'd be better off.
It's a dreadful season in context regardless of result
- We had a real shot at a long run into both domestic cups and fell to opposition our B side should walk
- We lost an opportunity to get to CL QF, again, against a beatable team with only a 1 goal deficit and home advantage in deciding game
- We should probably have been aiming for 3rd/2nd based on the results of the usual challengers.
It's one of those classic seasons you could spin but in reality has been brick
I suggest you reread what I said. Nowhere have I said he should get us top 4 and trophies. I clearly say competing for a domestic cup, that does not mean winning trophies.
We've been in the top 4 for 5 out of the last 7 seasons. Going by that I think it's a realistic target for an elite manager.
There aren't 4-5 clubs with bigger resources than us, there are 3, City, Utd and Chelsea. Chelsea will be in danger of going outside the financial fair play rules when they don't qualify for the CL. That will have a big impact on what they do next season and will most likely see them do a fire sale of players, so that will leave 2. The rest are around the same depending on if they qualify for the CL or not.
Our squad isn't great but it's no worse than anyone's outside Citys. Every team has areas where they are stronger and weaker, but overall there's not much difference between Arsenal, Utd, Liverpool, Chelsea and us.
If all teams are playing well and we fail to get top 4, then fair enough, it's tight, but not when Liverpool and Chelsea have been rubbish for most of the season.
What the manager is on is relevant, you pay top money for elite managers to make the difference. If it doesn't make a difference then what's the point?
There was no injury to Kane so that's no excuse. Conte hasn't used the squad either.
Grays_1890
Chris Jones
I agree with this TBH, I am harsh on him but on individual aspects rather than the whole encapsulating product that Conte is. The main issue with Conte and the longer term vision which on paper I very much agree with is that he does not strike me as a man that has the patience to stick around long enough. At somewhere like Spurs, to reach the point you mention you will have to navigate maybe more downturns than up at times, would he wanna stick out another season of it for a glorious potential 3rd season? Im not 100% convinced he would
I did read what you said, the trophies bit was reference to people keep referring to going for the cups aswell - it wasn’t specifically at your point. You’ve said the same thing again, if every team is playing well and we fail to get top 4 it’s fair enough - it’s our managers job to make sure we are performing well enough to be up there regardless and he’s done that and still in with a shout of third perhaps. I’ll ask again, what elite managers do you think will come to our club and exceed potential back to back top 4 finishes? Which I assume means a trophy aswell as top 4? Because we are a special case of a club, it’s no coincidence players and managers consistently arrive here having won things, win nothing here and leave then go onto win further. So which elite manager is going to change this and improve on what Conte has done, considering hes been here less than one and a half seasons?