Antonio Conte

[brehme1989]

The Chelsea problems were due to the players having the PL flu. Which translates to "don't give a fuck". Conte forced that into them and he forced them to play in the way he intended to from the beginning and the rest is history. He started casually with a different system because that's the type of football his players were used to.

At Inter we have allegedly got rid of the trouble makers in the locker room and now this is 100% the coach's team. And we started with a 3-5-2 from day 0. There's no mental issue, this is the coach's game.

Whether we want to blame this disastrous performance on:
- "The team was not prepared to face this kind of football". What the fuck football did you expect to face then? This is just a hidden message that we don't give a fuck about Europe or about competing in Italy because this is exactly how we will get treated by Juventus and Napoli and even the Atalantas, Fiorentinas and Romas.... Did we only prepare for teams that will sit back and wait for us?
- The team selection was wrong. This should be a decent excuse for a mistake, but we have not started with a player that won't be in the first 18 guys in terms of minutes played. So if this is our rotation and we'll be outplayed by Slavia at home with just 2 minor line up changes (Godin for D'Ambrosio and Barella for Gagliardini), I don't even wanna know what the expectations are.
- Rotten luck. Arguably a different game if we scored that Lautaro attempt or one of the couple of headed attempts (De Vrij + D'Ambrosio) we had, but we are not aware of how Slavia would react to that either.

The situation is that we were abysmal. Not just bad or things not working. We were abysmal. Even VS Atalanta last season where we could have lost by 6 we felt a lot better than tonight.

I'd buy the "team is not ready for the system" yet if we slowly phased it in and we showed ongoing signs of struggle in the first games, but we didn't really. Okay, vs Udinese we were poor, but it was a bad effort, not a tactical blunder. We had seen glimpses of 3-5-2 disease where our flanks were vulnerable, but that wasn't the main problem here. We lost every battle out there and we had bigger and stronger bodies. It was unacceptable.

 

[Matrix_invincible]

Conte is a natural winner, he hates nothing more than losing, this is what makes me quite calm. I dont think he ll let that happen too often.

 

[CafeCordoba]

It is and isn't. This is exactly what I posted earlier. Whether the Inter curse will strike Conte like it did Spallo. What happens is, our players are too accustomed to freelancing it when the pressure is on or we're behind. They don't stick to the tactic/strategy. They panic.

Spallo definitely let that go on too long. There would be periods where you see some patterns; but then the pattern didn't work out, we concede a goal or it's late in the 2nd half and it's still tied, and the players abandon the tactic. Or we lose a game then the next game, the players are thinking must win, so just go gangbusters.

Here's where I REALLY HOPE conte can step in and iron that shit out. That is unacceptable football. Committ to the strategy and patterns.

It's interesting because there's already degradation. Game 1 v Leece had way more attacking patterns. Each game got subsequently worse, especially when we didn't score. Today was by far the worst, particularly in the offensive third.

Curious to see what happens v BBilan and Lazio.

Exactly! I hope Conte's biggest contribution is this. Beat the shit out of this Inter freelancing (great word for this) from the team. They need to commit to the cause and not getting distracted, panicked. That is probably longer-term thing which won't happen in weeks.

These are the players who has been part of the "old core" who are already accustomed to the freelancing:
Brozovic
D'Ambrosio
Gagliardini
Candreva
Skriniar (in some extent, 3rd year)
Vecino (in some extent, 3rd year)

Others haven't been around that long or haven't played that much (like Ranocchia, Valero). Or are not shitters (Handanovic who almost always performs at high pressure). If we can limit the amount of old core freelancers playing there, the freelancing might diminish considerably and even be killed completely. But it needs tough love from Conte and immediate reactions from him.

edit. Candreva added, forgot him

 

[surripere]

Any chance he'll ever drop the three at the back with crappy wingback formation?

 

[brehme1989]

These are the players who has been part of the "old core" who are already accustomed to the freelancing:
Brozovic
D'Ambrosio
Gagliardini
Skriniar (in some extent, 3rd year)
Vecino (in some extent, 3rd year)

Others haven't been around that long or haven't played that much (like Ranocchia, Valero). Or are not shitters (Handanovic who almost always performs at high pressure). If we can limit the amount of old core freelancers playing there, the freelancing might diminish considerably and even be killed completely. But it needs tough love from Conte and immediate reactions from him.

There's also Candreva who was here before Gagliardini.

 

[n4l]

Any chance he'll ever drop the three at the back with crappy wingback formation?

almost zero %...at least not in the league. He did go 4-3-3 with Juve in his second CL season (iirc)....didn't go too well.

 

[PHM1605]

almost zero %...at least not in the league. He did go 4-3-3 with Juve in his second CL season (iirc)....didn't go too well.

Almost half of his Italy matches were with 4-3-3 iirc.

 

[Lui]

Depends on his personnel I would think. We dont have the means to play a 4-3-3.

Sent from my SM-A520W using Tapatalk

 

[Il Drago]

Any chance he'll ever drop the three at the back with crappy wingback formation?

I don't think so. We can only use 3-5-2/3-4-2-1 with the current squad. Our only wingers are Alexis, Politano and Candreva who aren't enough to use a system with wingers. We also lack AMs so we can't use diamond either. If the back 3 formation doesn't work, we're in big trouble as we obviously have no alternative.

 

[n4l]

free loaning of perisic :notbad:

 

[brehme1989]

free loaning of perisic :notbad:

Not free. We got 1/3 of Lukaku's annual transfer fee cost for the loan.

 

[surripere]

I noticed Lazaro recently played as an attacking winger for Austria; so that's a possible option. Also Sensi could certainly play as a trequartista.

 

[thatdude]

I maintain what I said before, the forwards are killing us. To have a tactic with 2 players playing high and not contributing much on defense, they need to be significantly better on the ball and making runs. Lukaku and LM10 are just absymal. They consistently get beat to the entry pass by their defender. We need to sort this out ASAP. If that means sanchez and poli, so be it. Lukaku needs to be much more mobile because he's just too shit and reactionary (slow reaction too).

And this gags/vecino/barella situation has to be sorted out.

Otherwise we're fine. Tough road ahead. Need to eek out some results. Cannot lose to Bbilan under any circumstance.

Beginning to wonder whether Lukaku and Lautaro are actually a good match long term. It seems like they both really want to be the tip of the spear. Someone needs to drop deep and link play and the player that’s looked most comfortable doing it so far despite limited minutes has been Sanchez.

 

[n4l]

They can work, theoretically. Conte's systems all use a very, very dynamic foward line who can move from front line to soft zone to receive, or front line to soft zone to diagonal wing run. And in all cases, the forwards have to be very adept at receiving vertical entry passes to feet, back to goal, under pressure. They simply have to be able to do that. Quags, vucinic, giovinco/matri. Tevez and llorente the next year. Add Morata the year after. Hazard, Costa, Pedro/Willian. So much movement and interchanging but they also all can receive the ball, to feet, under pressure, back to goal or on the 1/2 or 1/4 turn.

The challenge is then what I posed above. The players need to consistently work at it, even under mental pressure (losing a game etc). What we see instead is the players stop working at it as soon as they feel that pressure and revert to what's 'comfortable' for them.

First game against Lecce saw a lot of the movements. Short drop into the soft by both players. Patented move (stolen from ventura ) where both forwards drop into the soft zone, and one dummies the entry pass and rolls the defender. Diagonal runs by both players. etc....But that game the pressure was low. We got an early goal, then another. Took some of the tension off so the players executed what was asked.

Fast forward to Udine and now this game...more pressure and they abandon the moves. Both too stationary. Diagonal runs gone. Drops into the soft zone gone. And just lazy as fuck. Annoys the shit out of me that these 2 fucks get beaten to the entry ball almost all the time. Like...wtf? Are you not paying attention?

Conte has to get these guys to work the system consistently....

 

[Vertigo]

I don't know whether he was being too stubborn with 3-5-2 refusing to play wide to adapt the game or he thought we aren't ready to shift

 

[nurko]

Formation is not the problem, players were simply too scared and too slow, as if in state of some kind of shock.
Conte addressed that in the post match press conference stating he simply did not prepare the team or explain what kind of match to expect.

One bad performance does not mean formation has to be changed. If anything, we should have learnt by now that formation does not matter, but tactics and approach to the game.
Fan favourite 4231 was played throughout last 2 season.

 

[CafeCordoba]

Exactly. Conte said how the players didn't play like he wanted. So that's the root problem, why players played like an amateur team who has never stepped onto the field together.

 

[junkie]

I don't know what some of you expect, that one-half preseason and couple of players can change everything,
he is not a miracle worker, he`s a hard-working coach, he needs time like everyone else,
if success comes instantly it probably won't last long and what have we done then,
the same thing will happen like in Chelsea,
let him work his first year best that he can, I`m sure he`ll do just fine,
in the second year he can change couple players they will know the tactics better and be more comfortable with it,
then we can talk shit, like Spaletti, first-year ok, you can see improvements but second was the same, no progress...
ok he maybe didn't have that backup like Conte with management, but that's just better for us now that Conte has that

 

[rockball]

This isn't about Conte, but the tactics so far.

Last season our play was all about the 2 CBs and Brozovic very deep trying to play out the ball. They could get the ball up to the fullbacks who moved a bit ahead. The problem was the other midfielders Vecino, Gagliardini, Valero couldn't get, hold the ball, or move the ball up front due to reasons like being slow, and having poor technical ability. Our striker usually found enough space, but wasn't good at holding the ball at all. What that led to is trying to get the ball high up for Perisic who would run to it and cross, or Politano who took the opposite route of getting the ball but cutting in. Unfortunately Perisic was on a decline, Politano sucks at the end product of shooting/crossing, and Icardi couldn't do anything else apart from waiting for the ball. The only trump card Spalletti had was Vecino getting into positions and having chances. But he was too poor individually and this tactic was easily found out by the opposition.

This year, we have 3 CBs and Brozovic falling deep to pick up the ball and move forward. However the tactics call for the WBs to move high up when we have the ball. That means they are not a passing option for Brozo or the CBs. The only passing options are the other midfielders, who are fairly closely marked. The forwards are also high up so they can't receive the ball at their feet. This is leading to the back 4 passing within themselves, inviting pressure and then losing out or playing the long ball, which is also losing out. First up, Lukaku isn't good at holding the ball up. Lautaro isn't as well though he tries hard. Lautaro has managed to get free and make runs, but that won't work very well since he isn't exactly quick. Lukaku is the quicker one, but then he is tasked with the other job.

The other problem I'm seeing is when we lose the ball. We fall back in 2 rows of 3 and 5 behind the ball. That is creating a big gap with the forwards. And when we win the ball, the wingbacks will take time to get higher up the pitch. Within that duration we have lost the ball since the midfielders and 2 forwards cannot keep it enough. Conte has to figure out a solution for this.

I would like to see a 4312 which retains the similar ethos of having 2 strikers and getting more players up the pitch. The back 4 can be an imbalanced one where one of the fullbacks is more attacking and the other is more stable. Such as Biraghi and Danilo combo, or Asamoah and Lazaro combo. The latter two can also feature as the LCM or RCM. What this 4312 would help with is giving more space for the fullbacks to run in ahead of them, and have more passing options within the midfield.

 

[firmino]

a Brehme praising conte:

“Inter Is A Great Team, Conte Has Great Personality”

https://sempreinter.com/2019/09/18/...-is-a-great-team-conte-has-great-personality/

blivious: