The Conte Era - Chelsea 17/18

Nothing but the best

That explains why we're being run into the ground of late. Put me in charge of this place and within a quarter we'd be making Reddit look like Formspring

And how would you do that?

We'll make great deals. We're being absolutely torn apart because the people in charge are clueless. They're clueless. They've got no clue. Our enemies are laughing at us because we've got people with no clues in charge. When I'm in charge we'll win. We'll win big. We'll be winning so much your head'll spin. You'll say, "my gosh, we are winning so much that I'm almost tired of it". It'll be yooge.

Spoiler:

Hi Trump!

Kick wrote:And how would you do that?

by leaving

Make me the leader of this forum and I'll build an IP block around Shed and make him pay for it

Both of you realise I have no power to make either of you in charge?

So we're two games into pre-season, and I thought I'd check up on our current squad. Presently everyone bar Hazard, Courtois and Kante are back with the squad and, resultantly, the squad is overflowing with players.

The travelling squad is:

GOALKEEPERS:  Asmir Begović, Jamal Blackman, Matej Delac

DEFENDERS:  John Terry, Branislav Ivanović, Matt Miazga, Baba Rahman, Michael Hector, Ola Aina, Papy Djilobodji, Gary Cahill, Cesar Azpilicueta

MIDFIELDERS: Mikel, Nemanja Matić, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Jordan Houghton, Nathaniel Chalobah, Cristian Cuevas, Cesc Fabregas

ATTACKERS:  Diego Costa, Loïc Rémy, Bertrand Traroré, Kenedy, Oscar, Willian, Victor Moses, Christian Atsu, Juan Cuadrado, Pedro, Michy Batshuayi

(With Courtois, Hazard, and Kante still to join)

I think it's safe to assume these players + 1/2 signings will make our squad.

So, by simply looking at the squad, there is a few obvious ones who will be cut, Delac, Djilobodji, Houghton, Cuevas, and Atsu. For my money, anyway. There are also some players who will obviously make the final squad; Courtois, Begovic, Terry, Ivanovic, Cahill, Azpilicueta, RLC, Fabregas, Kante, Costa, Willian, Batshuayi, and Hazard.

That is 13 players, and as we do not have European football, I imagine only 8-10 more players need to be added to that squad. My personal choice to add to those would be Blackman, Baba, Aina, a new CB, Zouma, Matic, Traore, and Pedro.

Making our squad:
Gks: Courtois, Begovic, Blackman
DEFs: Ivanovic, Aina, Baba, Azpilicueta, Terry, Cahill, Zouma, and a new CB
Mids: Loftus-Cheek, Fabregas, Kante, Matic
Wings: Willian, Hazard, Pedro
CFs: Costa, Batshuayi, Traore

With Conte's recent comments about RLC, he could potentially be our 4th choice CF as well as 4th/5th choice CM. So the main issues remaining would be:

who will our 4th choice winger? The options are Cuadrado, Moses and Kenedy. Each have their own qualities which could see them selected, I personally do no know who will be chosen, but the other two will either be sold or loaned.

Who will be our make our final midfield spot? Mikel and Oscar could both be first team options, but Chalobah has been playing well in pre-season so he could potentially be the fourth choice.

Which CB should be signed? We obviously need one, but Conte and the board must make a choice on who to sign.

And finally, who should our fullbacks be? Azpilicueta is the obvious choice, but with Ivanovic's and Baba's continued poor form could mean Aina becomes first choice RB if he continues his impressive form. If Conte decides none of these options are optimal, another player should be brought in, perhaps at the expense of Baba.

One thing is clear though, it's going to be a very busy remainder of the summer.

Oscar recently confirmed that Conte intends to play 4-4-2/4-2-4 this season.

Aside from Kante and Mikel, All of Chelsea's first team have flown to the USA for our pre-season camp. They're joined by some youngsters making up a 30 man travelling squad:

GOALKEEPERS: Thibaut Courtois, Asmir Begović, Jamal Blackman, Nathan Baxter

DEFENDERS: John Terry, Branislav Ivanovic, Gary Cahill, César Azpilicueta, Kurt Zouma, Baba Rahman, Ola Aina, Matt Miazga, Michael Hector, Fikayo Tomori

MIDFIELDERS: Nemanja Matić, Cesc Fàbregas, Oscar, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Nathaniel Chalobah

ATTACKERS: Eden Hazard, Willian, Pedro, Diego Costa, Loïc Rémy, Michy Batshuayi, Bertrand Traoré, Kenedy, Victor Moses, Juan Cuadrado, Tammy Abraham

With Ivanovic's and Zouma's injuries, they're probably just travelling for light training. It does mean we've only got Aina, Azpilicueta and Baba for our FB options.

No Djilobodji, too. Must mean he is off.

Kick wrote:Oscar recently confirmed that Conte intends to play 4-4-2/4-2-4 this season.

It's probably the best set-up we can start the season with. I still expect Conte to experiment with it somewhen during the season with a 4-3-3 or 3-5-2.

What will happen to him tho? He isn't really suited for a 4-4-2. Maybe on the wings or as one of the two strikers. Can't see him in a 2 man midfield.

Loic Rémy and Moses are still there ? They are not going to play.

Katy Perry wrote:

Kick wrote:Oscar recently confirmed that Conte intends to play 4-4-2/4-2-4 this season.

It's probably the best set-up we can start the season with. I still expect Conte to experiment with it somewhen during the season with a 4-3-3 or 3-5-2.

What will happen to him tho? He isn't really suited for a 4-4-2. Maybe on the wings or as one of the two strikers. Can't see him in a 2 man midfield.

I don't think we'll see 3-5-2 this season, Conte has only used it when he had the defenders available to him, which he doesn't now.

So far Oscar has played in the two man midfield. He could well play there as he is decent defensively but I imagine he'll be behind Kante, Cesc and Matic in the pecking order.

LeBéninois wrote:Loic Rémy and Moses are still there ? They are not going to play.

I think Remy will leave, Turkey seems a likely destination. Moses is currently bossing it because he is a pre-season legend, but with Hazard, Willian, Pedro, Cuadrado and Kenedy around, I can't see him staying.

Kick wrote:

Katy Perry wrote:

Kick wrote:Oscar recently confirmed that Conte intends to play 4-4-2/4-2-4 this season.

It's probably the best set-up we can start the season with. I still expect Conte to experiment with it somewhen during the season with a 4-3-3 or 3-5-2.

What will happen to him tho? He isn't really suited for a 4-4-2. Maybe on the wings or as one of the two strikers. Can't see him in a 2 man midfield.

I don't think we'll see 3-5-2 this season, Conte has only used it when he had the defenders available to him, which he doesn't now.

So far Oscar has played in the two man midfield. He could well play there as he is decent defensively but I imagine he'll be behind Kante, Cesc and Matic in the pecking order.

LeBéninois wrote:Loic Rémy and Moses are still there ? They are not going to play.

I think Remy will leave, Turkey seems a likely destination. Moses is currently bossing it because he is a pre-season legend, but with Hazard, Willian, Pedro, Cuadrado and Kenedy around, I can't see him staying.

The thing with Conte is that he started with a 2men midfield (Pirlo Marchisio) at Juve as well, but when a third midfielder (Vidal) started to perform as well as those two or maybe even outperform in the chances he got, he didn't hesitate to shift to a 3men midfield in either the 4-3-3 or 3-5-2. If the starting midfield is Kante Cesc, I can see a similar scenario to happen with the emergence of one of Matic/Oscar/RLC/Mikel.


I'm not opposed to have Moses this season tbh. Cuadrado has stated that he wants to return to Italy and is on his way out, and I can expect Moses to usurp Pedro's place as a back-up given the disastrous season he's coming from.

Conte switched from a 4-2-4 for two reasons, firstly, to protect Pirlo, as he was fantastic but weak defensively, and secondly, because he didn't have the wingers to play 4-2-4.

We have the wingers, and if we're going for a two man midfield, surely Matic - Kante is the way to go? therefore not needing a third midfielder. Fabregas will likely play against scrub teams as he is very much a scrub killer.

My points are stated in this article here, It's well worth a read on Conte's thoughts and Tactics:
http://www.gazzettaworld.com/features/italy-return-4-4-2/

Kick wrote:Conte switched from a 4-2-4 for two reasons, firstly, to protect Pirlo, as he was fantastic but weak defensively, and secondly, because he didn't have the wingers to play 4-2-4.

We have the wingers, and if we're going for a two man midfield, surely Matic - Kante is the way to go? therefore not needing a third midfielder. Fabregas will likely play against scrub teams as he is very much a scrub killer.

My points are stated in this article here, It's well worth a read on Conte's thoughts and Tactics:
http://www.gazzettaworld.com/features/italy-return-4-4-2/

Well, in his first season he switched to a 4-3-3 with wingers because of Vidal's emergence exclusively.

I really don't expect Fabregas to have a marginal role, he's just way too good and has such unique skillset. I mean, he had a poor season, but so did Pirlo in his last season at Milan before shitting all over Serie A with Juve. I'm confident he'll return to his prime this season.

Katy Perry wrote:

Kick wrote:Conte switched from a 4-2-4 for two reasons, firstly, to protect Pirlo, as he was fantastic but weak defensively, and secondly, because he didn't have the wingers to play 4-2-4.

We have the wingers, and if we're going for a two man midfield, surely Matic - Kante is the way to go? therefore not needing a third midfielder. Fabregas will likely play against scrub teams as he is very much a scrub killer.

My points are stated in this article here, It's well worth a read on Conte's thoughts and Tactics:
http://www.gazzettaworld.com/features/italy-return-4-4-2/

Well, in his first season he switched to a 4-3-3 with wingers because of Vidal's emergence exclusively.

I really don't expect Fabregas to have a marginal role, he's just way too good and has such unique skillset. I mean, he had a poor season, but so did Pirlo in his last season at Milan before shitting all over Serie A with Juve. I'm confident he'll return to his prime this season.

I don't expect Cesc to have a marginal role, but the issue is that we don't have European football, so who ever is first choice off the bench will have a depleted role.

My personal preference would be to play the 4-3-3, however, it looks like 4-2-4 will be our primary formation.

What is 4-2-4 ? Where does that from? 4 attacking players ( 2 wingers + 2 CF ) ? If isn't à 4-4-2?

LeBéninois wrote:What is 4-2-4 ? Where does that from? 4 attacking players ( 2 wingers + 2 CF ) ? If isn't à 4-4-2?

It's a 4-4-2 on defence but on the attack, the wingers push forward to be in line with the CF's to make a 4-2-4.

It's basically the same thing as a 4-4-2.

Mail are reporting that Cahill and Ivanovic are set to be dropped due to poor performances.

So our defence will probably look like:


We really should also drop Matic, and use play Fabregas or Chalobah in his place.

I'd also switch Kante to CM if Chalobah is chosen.:

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ESPN are reporting we want to sign Ben Davies in Jan to help with our defensive issues. Although, this would probably kill Aina's career with us, or Ivanovic, if we're lucky.

Thank god for that about time Cahill and Branislav dropped, however I think Branislav should be played at CB.

Over Terry and Luiz?

Kick wrote:Mail are reporting that Cahill and Ivanovic are set to be dropped due to poor performances.

So our defence will probably look like:

Courtois
Azpilicueta Luiz Terry Alonso

We really should also drop Matic, and use play Fabregas or Chalobah in his place.

I'd also switch Kante to CM if Chalobah is chosen.:

Courtois
Azpilicueta Luiz Terry Alonso
Chalobah
Willian Oscar Kante Hazard
Costa

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ESPN are reporting we want to sign Ben Davies in Jan to help with our defensive issues. Although, this would probably kill Aina's career with us, or Ivanovic, if we're lucky.

Actually, I've changed my mind, we would be better off swapping straight to a 4-2-4: