Antonio Conte

[CoolMan44]

Trust me with playoffs or without this team with this mentality isn’t a CL material.

So who do you think is going to bypass and take our CL spot? Let's say Atalanta is one of them - who else?

 

[Bluenine]

yeah, there is still Moratti-mentality here. Change the coach each year. First year with Klopp in Liverpool? 8th place (he started coaching at the beginning of October). Second? 4th place. Guardiola's first year in City? 3rd place in spite of getting almost every player he wanted. It's a process.
We've lost against Napoli 0:4 about one year ago. They changed the coach, but generally they have the same players + few more. In January we've won against Napoli 3:1 and it was first victory over them since 1997. It's not that easy to win there.
How many games Mertens and Insigne played together? 100, 200? In comparision I think Eriksen played with Lukaku and Lautaro about 5 times.
Conte is not flawless as I said before, but it's not like he took over Barcelona or Real Madrid. It's Inter after years of failures and with two decent seasons where we have managed to secure 4th place in the last match of the seasons.

It's still a team with just 3 strikers for 2 positions (which is a disaster). One of them is old Alexis who is struggling with injures and the second one is Lautaro who apparently has problems with focusing on Inter. There are no decent wingbacks as well.
Inter is in the halfway of its transformation and I will expect results from Conte in the second season. So far he is doing well, but the expectations are huge.

Thank you, great post. I was planning to write a very similar post, you saved me some time. I agree 100%. Just another point I would like to add to some people who blame Conte for not adapting his strategy to his players ie play some variation of 4-3-1-2. Thats not who Conte is, and we knew that very well when we got him. This was my biggest issue with hiring Conte, that the squad will need to be transformed to suit him. There are very few coaches who can adapt their strategies so drastically, most top coaches cannot - and Conte is one of the rigid ones. Expecting him to change so drastically is like expecting Eriksen to become a DM - thats not what he has been brought here to do, thats not what he is good at, and its extremely unlikely.

Now that we have got Conte, the best we can do is give him the tools he needs to win silverware. We know he can from his past, and he has shown enough at Inter to give us optimism. The gap with Juve is reducing, and now lets give him the few more players he needs (like quality wingbacks) to take us home in the next couple of seasons.

 

[Puma]

I have been finding it difficult to move on from the Napoli game. I was really happy that our season was restarting and had not given much thought to anything else as I just wanted to see my black and blues again. But the game against Napoli brought back alot of the anger and frustration that I had before the lock down.

The football that we are presently playing is vastly different to what we saw at the beginning the season. When we started the season, there was urgency, motivation, hunger, variation and movement. The team played at tempo and did their best to impose themselves on the game. Perhaps the best part about our play at that stage of the season is that we had a number of gears and there were times when you could see the players working through the gears, upping the tempo and playing at pace.

But recently, both before and after the lock down, we have only had one gear and a single tempo and no matter what is going on in the game, we always play at that single speed. I find it amazing how many chances Candreva gets a game. Whenever there is space or a chance to shoot, Candreva always seems to be the player (regretfully) on the ball. In contrast, Martinez barely touches the ball. I thought Biraghi's crossing was exceptional, especially for a player that only came on and had limited minutes on the back of not having played for three months. I also thought that Moses was lively.

I guess what I am trying to say is that something has changed and/or is broken (or both). And it takes the likes of Biraghi and Moses to come on, who are playing for their respective Inter futures, to bring some urgency and unpredictability to our game. I do not think the absence of Sensi is the answer and when I look at the squad we have, I cannot help but think that we are nowhere near a few midfield additions to becoming contenders in any respect of the word. We need better wing back options, increased midfield depth that allows Conte to select players with with different skill-sets and alternative attacking options upfront (regardless of whether Martinez stays).

 

[CafeCordoba]

Honestly I wouldn't judge quite yet. It's 3 months stop after all. It's summer, it's fucking hot out there. It's not like Napoli played great and we didn't.

I agree with you if after let's say 5 games it looks exactly the same as before the lockdown. We need new shit to our game and maybe that AM position is the new shit. Let's wait and see how this thing evolves.

 

[firmino]

He let me down the other day. We weren't terrible and we weren't worse than Napoli, but we weren't better either. From a coach that makes those figures, I expect that he can at least outsmart Gattuso in an important match.

And I would also question him taking so much time to make substitutions, especially Sanchez seeing as lautaro was being utter shit.

 

[Puma]

I think you are spot on in relation to the substitutions. It was obvious that we needed players on the field that could offer something more or something different to what the players on the field were doing. Making changes earlier may have given us a better chance at scoring another goal, especially given the liveliness of Biraghi and Moses and how close Sanchez came to scoring when he came on. Also, given that so much time had passed since we had last played, I thought it would have made sense to make earlier substitutions as the players are not as fit as they were when we were playing several games a week.

I read an article this morning that stated there has been little visible improvement of the manner in which we play from Spalletti to Conte. The interesting point in the article is that the writer was of the view that the players and the instructions they are following in terms of movements on the pitch are so strict and regimented that there is very little room for improvisation and creativity. The article was basically saying that Inter undoubtedly have world class footballers but the team is so regimented in the way that it is coached that it has become predictable and leaves very little room for the players to express themselves.

 

[RickyMaravilla'sRightFoot]

I think you are spot on in relation to the substitutions. It was obvious that we needed players on the field that could offer something more or something different to what the players on the field were doing. Making changes earlier may have given us a better chance at scoring another goal, especially given the liveliness of Biraghi and Moses and how close Sanchez came to scoring when he came on. Also, given that so much time had passed since we had last played, I thought it would have made sense to make earlier substitutions as the players are not as fit as they were when we were playing several games a week.

I read an article this morning that stated there has been little visible improvement of the manner in which we play from Spalletti to Conte. The interesting point in the article is that the writer was of the view that the players and the instructions they are following in terms of movements on the pitch are so strict and regimented that there is very little room for improvisation and creativity. The article was basically saying that Inter undoubtedly have world class footballers but the team is so regimented in the way that it is coached that it has become predictable and leaves very little room for the players to express themselves.

I think Conte is more regimented when it comes to the the defending phase-- which if done properly and everyone knows what's happening, is very difficult to break down. The attacking phase of the game is inherently more improvisational. You can pick the players on the pitch and arrange them, but they ultimately have to be creative individually and as a unit. Conte can't call out every pass and I don't think he does. Most of the yelling I hear him doing is in relation to marking assignments when we don't have the ball.

 

[Puma]

Regarding our defending, I still find it hard to get over some of the cheap as shit goals we have conceded on the counter. And the common pattern is that up until the point of conceding we have largely been on top and dominated the game. But as well all know, domination and possession do not count if we do not put the ball in the back of the net.

Some posters on here rightly commented on Brozovic and his occassional brain fades at the end of games. I think it is important to note that some of those miscued passes also happen in the early stages of games when the team is still trying to find its rhythm. They do not solely happen at the end of every game when he is exhausted due to all the ground he covers. Accordingly, I think those lapses are down to his attention and decision making the fact that there are moemnts when he either switches off or makes bad decisions (or a combination of both).

I have raised those lapses because because they apply to our defence also. Bad decision making and lapses in concentration are not limited to Brozovic in midfield. Some of the goals we concede start from what from appear to be innoccuous balls struck in a hit and hope manner that our defenders simply fuck up by failing to adequately deal with and at the end of a the move we concede. More often than not, the moves by our opponents that turn into goals often start from a lapse in judgment or concentration or a moment inattention.

 

[CafeCordoba]

Regarding our defending, I still find it hard to get over some of the cheap as shit goals we have conceded on the counter. And the common pattern is that up until the point of conceding we have largely been on top and dominated the game. But as well all know, domination and possession do not count if we do not put the ball in the back of the net.

I still don't like our defending. We've conceded 24 league goals this season. Not bad or anything, but with Spalletti we conceded 30 and 33 goals respectively in the whole seasons. In the year 2020 we've had one clean sheet (against Udinese away). That's a terrible statistic. We've had 8 clean sheets in the league so far, out of 25. That is not good enough.

Fixing the defensive setup is the biggest thing Conte needs to fix. We keep leaking stupid goals way too often.

 

[junior55]

I would not divide it as defense vs attack issues. Tbh we mainly take fluke goals it's not that we are suffering or whatsoever.
What worries me is the results vs strong opponents . I am used to judge by numbers/trends ( professional desease) and they almost never lie.

With spallo we used to almost never lose vs strong opponents (although the performances were not good) but we lost points vs small teams.
With conte we seem to be solid vs small team but somehow always lose vs strong ones ( even though the perfomances are better).

in Serie A if we see the top 4 in the leage we have : 2L (juve) , 1L-1W (Lazio) , 1D(Atalanta) , so 1-1-3 and still have to play at bergamo. So its a terrible stat
In CL vs the top 2 teams of the group we have : 2L (barca) , 1L-1W (dortmund) , so 1-0-3 so again terrible
In Copa vs the 1st important team we faced we got 1D-1L .

Now the variables can be infinite here but the result is what it is. And conte needs to find what is the root cause of this and fix it for next year mercato.
When Mou won the league in the 1st year and lost in CL he clearly stated where was the issue. We didn't have players with enough international pedigree and experience so we signed just that during that mercato and clearly saw the results.

Lets hope Conte has found the root cause as well .

 

[Palacio]

I still don't like our defending. We've conceded 24 league goals this season. Not bad or anything, but with Spalletti we conceded 30 and 33 goals respectively in the whole seasons. In the year 2020 we've had one clean sheet (against Udinese away). That's a terrible statistic. We've had 8 clean sheets in the league so far, out of 25. That is not good enough.

Fixing the defensive setup is the biggest thing Conte needs to fix. We keep leaking stupid goals way too often.

Our midfield is still burden for defense. Barella is the only ball recoverer.

 

[DARi0]

print edition of Italian daily newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport: Inter manager Antonio Conte wants more experienced players and players with experience of winning silverware brought in to improve the team.

Whilst this season’s Inter has no shortage of players accustomed to big games, very few of the team actually have any experience of winning trophies. Barcelona and Chilean national team player Arturo Vidal is a player Conte has wanted for a long time and it is understood that Vidal is no longer so sure about staying with the Blaugrana club but for now Vidal is not a priority for Inter.

The report from the Milan based news outlet goes on to explain that the former Italian national team manager has dictated what he wants to Inter management ahead of the upcoming transfer window and his views were shared by Inter chief executive Giuseppe ‘Beppe’ Marotta.

 

[n4l]

I think Conte is more regimented when it comes to the the defending phase-- which if done properly and everyone knows what's happening, is very difficult to break down. The attacking phase of the game is inherently more improvisational. You can pick the players on the pitch and arrange them, but they ultimately have to be creative individually and as a unit. Conte can't call out every pass and I don't think he does. Most of the yelling I hear him doing is in relation to marking assignments when we don't have the ball.

This is actually quite opposite. Conte is very detailed in the attacking phase and has several prescribed patterns the team is supposed to run. This is one of the few reasons I actually liked Conte coming to us and was curious to see if he could sustain those patterns (given that Spallo also was pattern oriented offensively, then came here and somehow abdandoned it).

It is precisely those patterns that had caused opponents problems in the early part of the season. Around the 2nd Lecce game, teams started to do more to combat our patterns and we've somewhat kinda given up on doing them as often as we used to in the first part of the season. It also appears that we haven't made many modifications to those patterns either.

 

[RickyMaravilla'sRightFoot]

This is actually quite opposite. Conte is very detailed in the attacking phase and has several prescribed patterns the team is supposed to run. This is one of the few reasons I actually liked Conte coming to us and was curious to see if he could sustain those patterns (given that Spallo also was pattern oriented offensively, then came here and somehow abdandoned it).

It is precisely those patterns that had caused opponents problems in the early part of the season. Around the 2nd Lecce game, teams started to do more to combat our patterns and we've somewhat kinda given up on doing them as often as we used to in the first part of the season. It also appears that we haven't made many modifications to those patterns either.

You can telegraph certain movements, but the players have to make the decisions and beat their markers. I feel like it will take a little more time to see some of the more organized attacks you mentioned-- given the long pause.

 

[varmin]

For me, one of the reasons is that the chemistry between Lukaku and Lautaro got worst lately.

 

[Puma]

For me, one of the reasons is that the chemistry between Lukaku and Lautaro got worst lately.

That's because the latter is focused on building chemistry with Lionel Messi in Barcelona.

 

[firmino]

This is the first year, so I can accept a champion league qualification, without trophies.

But no excuses for next season, he has go for a big win, or at the very least we should be scudetto contenders till the last match day.

We need more quality, but Conte also needs to work on his game plan, which I am afraid is starting to become kind of predictable.

 

[dax21]

This is the first year

How many more first years are we going to have? This loser Inter is almost legal to fuck in some countries

 

[varmin]

How many more first years are we going to have? This loser Inter is almost legal to fuck in some countries

How many coaches we're changing every season?
Spalletti was the first one able to stay two seasons in a row. I even was behind him until the moment when he lost the locker room. Inter need to give to some coach at least 3 seasons and proper market support before start judging him.

 

[syrus]

But no excuses for next season, he has go for a big win, or at the very least we should be scudetto contenders till the last match day.

We need more quality, but Conte also needs to work on his game plan, which I am afraid is starting to become kind of predictable.

Or could it be a few of the players are not executing his game plan and tactics as they should ?