₦airaland Forum

How we made the pitch look big each time we were on the ball was the biggest positive for me on Monday. Teams would find it pretty difficult breaking Chelsea down this season.

Then our pressing when off the ball is awesome too, hell lot of work I swear.

Now I see what Conte's idea of football is all about. It would be interesting to see how we fare with the same approach against a top side.

Vital win it was.

No one seems to be fazed about Fabregas' situation. I would love to have him in this current setup. We weren't creating enough chances from the midfield on Monday and I think that would pose as a problem any day our wing-play goes dumb.

Today, with the start of the 2016 / 2017 Premier League season almost upon us, Antonio Conte held his first Premier league pre-match press conference.

Our new Italian head-coach fielded questions, from the assembled journalists on a variety of subjects.

First up when quizzed on the transfer situation, Conte had this to say,

"We have a plan. We know this transfer market is very crazy. We must be patient to find the right solutions for the team, to improve this squad.

'I'm very happy to work with these players. They show great commitment every day.'

And on the prospect of managing in the Premier League for the first time, Antonio added,

'It's a very tough league. There are many great clubs who can fight to win the title.

'I'm excited and so are the players. We're in a good situation.'

Continuing, Antonio was asked about the English tradition of music in the dressing room before a match, with the Italian responding,

'I would choose discotheque music. Boom, boom'.

A remark that brought smiles to the room.

Continuing, Conte then responded on the introduction of a new style under his management, commenting,

'We are working on a new idea of football. The team lost their confidence a bit in the last season. We are working on this.'

And as for the forthcoming game against West Ham, Conte finished with,

'The match will be very good. They are a strong team.

'Last season they had a good season. They have a good manager and good, physical, fast players with great talent.

'Also it's a derby. These types of games are very tough. But we want to play and start the season.

'It's the first time for me for everything. To start with a derby is tough but I'm excited. It's important my players must start in the right way, to take confidence after a year last year.'

Bring it on is what I say.

Source: VitalFootball

mukina2:
Ibime lalaboi fredoooooo A40 raumdauter Bourne007 sod09 Cancity234 Zamzummim Nwikys U1 azpekuliar apoti iPopAlomo nihilist griffon tboy1 MaziOmenuko
etc etc etc

Iammcsinclair@gmail.com

Ibime:
Mukina2, Griffon made FA Cup QF last season so deserves FA CUP code.

I hear say you dey try play am ojoro. Please send am code osiso. I don loss the one wey you send me.

Nairaland County Social Service to my rescue after all.

Nihilist:
but not about a Baba loan:

From a statistical viewpoint(using whoscored ratings),there really isn't much of a difference between their respective performances.

So is this really a case of different perspectives, or is there a general bias in popular opinion in favour of young players who came through the academy...perhaps because they are seen as 'one of us'?

Do you need a loan move for a left-back that cost you 20milla?

It is Bristol Rovers or Bristol City in the League Cup.

Mukina2 I see you're trying to reach me. Well you can contact me on Iammcsinclair@gmail.com

The FA Cup and League codes still. Thanks for you co-operation.

Nihilist you've got mail.

ladyF:
Hey dear, Griffon trust your day is going well. Apologies for spamming you mentions, but please Fynestboi needs your votes for Mr. Nairaland. Please, help us abeg.

To vote, simply go to the voting thread, today is the finals ----> https://www.nairaland.com/3271417/mr-nairaland-2016-grand-finale anytime between 10am and 6pm.
Then type in ---->

Thank you so much in advance.

Hey dearie, I'm just seeing this now and I'm quite sorry I couldn't vote.

Ibime:
Let's give credit where it's due to Emenalo. . . that's a cool £5m profit on Djilobolodji.

You beat me to that. Good business there.

Brestar:
Thanks... I'd be sure to look out!

You heard it from the thread's priest himself. I'm god-fearing, gentle and hardworking. Let's just say my reputation precedes me dear.

Bres I think my cellphone has got a fault, it doesn't have your digits in it. . .

mukina2:
bros did you see ya position on the table?

Mukina see as you just dey treat regular. Na Airbornelacer be this ooo. Kuku send me the codes before I press charges against you.

Brestar:
Names of potential target within that range that 'd hit the ground running almost immediately?

A three-man midfield of Kante-Fabregas-Bazoer would be a joy to watch.

Nihilist:
Airmark can you please supply that Ancelotti quote on how uncompetitive the league is ?

If the quote is far-fetched, here's Klopp with his own testimony:

“I think all these managers are here because competition makes it really interesting,” Klopp told the Liverpool Echo. “If you are three times in a row Spanish champions, three times in a row Bundesliga champions, then you think OK, let’s try something else.

“If you are looking for the biggest challenge, then you need to go to England. That’s the difference 100 percent. It’s not like they wanted an easier job. They wanted this.

“Winning the title in England is the biggest challenge of them all. There are the most teams who can [win the title].”

“It’s not easy in Germany where all the clubs take points from each other. If you want to be in front of Bayern Munich, you have to win all the other games and then a minimum of one against Bayern. They don’t lose.

“There are a few teams in England who have always been playing Champions League in recent years but nobody is satisfied. It’s because one other team has always been better.

“In this country it’s a very different kind of difficulty. Here you have a number of clubs who think they should be No. 1.

“In Germany, there is one team who think they have to be No. 1 [Bayern] and one team who think they should be [Dortmund]. The rest hope for I don’t know what.”

- Jurgen Klopp

https://www.today.ng/sport/161585/conte-guardiola-face-biggest-challenge-premier-league-klopp

Under the tutelage of Conte, fellas like Bazoer and Goretzka can become midfield beast. The potentials are just there, all that is required is fine tuning.

I would have these two ninjas over an out of form Matic anyday anytime.

Just watch what Bazoer is made of and he isn't even worth up to 30milla. Kid is a beast in the making!

Nateevs I doubt you've seen this lad play.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPlgDzFQFK4

Brestar:
Doubt you'd find much better players on a "cheap"

Matuidi's current market value is 30m euros and he's running into his 30s. I would rather spend that muller on a young fella with a resell value and who is equally capable of doing a yeoman job in that CM area.

Brestar:
Anyone Been Impressed with Matic? would you prefer selling him off to Juve and Getting Blaise Matuidi [29] Instead? I know it sounds like Fantasy though, and there is a slim chance this can be pulled off! But Matic is yet to rediscover his 2014/2015 form! Not gotten anyway close to that through out this preseason!

True that but Matuidi wouldn't feature in my list of probable replacements.

Nihilist:
Yay or Nay?

Certainly a yay. One must be a good student of the game to arrive at this conclusions. Conte is someone i am beginning to have a very huge admiration for, the man knows his onion.

Have you noticed how much he uses the phrase - ''idea of football''? Just check this out:

"'In the past I started my season with other teams with one IDEA OF FOOTBALL, and then I changed it because I saw the system for these players wasn't good" - Conte while talking about formation on his unveiling

"We prefer to wait and go for our targets, rather than go with emotion and take the players who don't adapt to our IDEA OF FOOTBALL" - Conte talking about targets on his unveiling

"They are great workers and this is very important because we need to have a bit of time to go into a new IDEA OF FOOTBALL, and a new method of work with different tactical, physical and mental aspects" - Conte on how the players are responding to training.

"I am getting to know a lot of new players and I'm bringing them a new IDEA OF FOOTBALL. We need a bit of time but I saw a lot of positive things this week" - Conte on his new surrounding and possible challenges.

"This is important because I need to have the complete group to work, and to transfer my IDEAS to all the players." - Conte on players starting to return for pre-season

"He has also started to play our IDEA OF FOOTBALL when we have the ball, and also without the ball" - Conte on Zouma

"He stays with us, he is working very hard, he is very happy to work with his teammates and with me in the new IDEA OF FOOTBALL" - Conte on Cuadrado

If there is any such thing as pragmatic idealist, then there's where he resides.

mukina2:
team name from last season? position(s)

Saturn Cavaliers. Proudly a quarter-finalist in the FA Cup, finished around 20th in the league. A feat I believe you and your boys couldn't match

Mukina2 I need no intro. Na we dey run this economy. Do the needful already

Iammcsinclair@gmail.com. Both the league and FA Cup codes.

Beht I'm glad to see Rahman leave na.

That midfield remains a huge concern.

nateevs:
I want to think Conte already has a plan for this. Have you seen the any PS season games? What I have noticed is that the 4-2-4 system heavily relies on an extremely mobile 2nd striker, who is able to join the midfield and form a defensive 3 in midfield.

I only saw the Liverpool game. I believe Conte has a plan for his "idea of football", the players we are chasing speaks volume of that fact.

bigkesh:
I hope you know that 4-2-4 becomes 4-4-2 when we are defending.... Might even become 4-4-1-1 with one forward dropping deep

Leicester play it,Atl Mad use it....We will be fine only if we avoid Mikel

Yeah it becomes a 4-4-2 when we're defending but that tend to suffer also in the hands of a manager who has an extra man in the midfield.

bigkesh:
Why can't he play 4-2-4 , kante and Cesc with Hazard and Willian on the wings

Why must it be 4-3-3

I'll go with a three-man midfield anyday anytime. It is one formation that brings balance to your squad. Two-man midfield? Just pray you don't meet a shrewd gaffer who would overload the middle of the park with bodies and suffer you for eternity.

That extra man matters a lot in the central midfield zone. A two-man midfield can only thrive when the players' increasing level of skill and fitness are put to good use. Conte knows this hence he went for Kante - a beast of a player we all know.

I see us getting pummeled anyday Mikel starts in Conte's 4-2-4. It would only take the grace of Jehova jireh for us to escape a possible 7-2 thrashing.

SIRcumalot:
@griffon
this is nothing new,
you could say the same for any big time manager

And if their is any merit to this article we've deep pockets so no worries.

I get it but then again, I only had to bring that up 'cos I like the way the writer questioned whether the man with the aura about him is actually Special.

Good points raised there, points a Chelsea fan like me wouldn't want to view from my blue-tinted glasses when we had Jose. Sentiment is a b!tch

Pre-season matches are supposed to be 'friendly'… right? That I saw couple of hours ago wasn't just a friendly game.

Damn feisty contest.

Meanwhile, below is a well-constructed, well thought-out article that you all would love to read. It dissects the appointment of Jose Mourinho as the new Manchester United manager and questions whether the man with the aura about him is actually Not So Special. It was written by a manyoo fan. Quite a long read I must say, but hell yeah, it's worth the time.

The following article was sent to me by Guy Bennett, it provides a few sobering thoughts for us Manchester United supporters with the author asking whether we have the right man for the job

Is there any evidence - beyond his own self-assessment - that Jose Mourinho is special?

Clearly, Manchester United Vice-chairman Ed Woodward thinks so. On May 27, 2016 he hired Mourinho, declaring:

'His track record of success is ideal to take the club forward.'

That track record includes 21 trophies over a 15 year period. An impressive haul. But you don`t need to be a master chef to make a delicious salad from expensive ingredients.

If the job of football manager is to get the maximum number of wins from the available players, then you can judge his effectiveness by comparing the quality of his squad against the table position on his last day of coaching.

For the purposes of this discussion, we will use the collective wisdom of the market (team wages) to value the quality of the squad. No, this metric isn`t perfect. But 49 times out of 50, having Chelsea`s Eden Hazard (£185,000 per week) on the pitch gives you a better chance of winning a football game than fielding West Bromwich Albion`s Gareth McAuley (£8,462 per week).

A manager`s skill must be judged in the context of player quality. No-one could reasonably expect Bournemouth`s manager Eddie How (team wages £25 million) to get the same number of wins as Manchester City`s manager, Manuel Pellegrini (team wages £203 million).

My Manager`s Effectiveness Rating (MER) is the statistical gap between the team wages ranking, and the final table position. If you manage a team with the 10th highest wages, and you finish 8th, that gives you and MER of +2. If you finish 20th with the same team, you get a -10.

Ten times out of the last 13 years, (with Porto, Chelsea, Interazionale, Real Madrid and Chelsea again) - Mourinho`s team had the highest wages in the league. In these years, he can reasonably be expected to win the league - which he did 79% of the time (giving him an MER of zero for those trophy seasons). The other 21% of the time, his teams under-performed and finished with an MER of -1, -1 and -15.

In 2011 with Real Madrid he had the 2nd highest team wages, and finished 2nd. In 2014 with Chelsea he had the 3rd highest team wages and finished 3rd. Just once in 13 years, Mourinho had positive MER: in 2015 Chelsea won the league with the 3rd highest wages (an MER of + 2). Over the last 13 years, his cumulative MER is -15.

History suggests that club owners must spend heavily to get results under Mourinho. Clearly he is no Claudio Ranieri (2016 MER +17). Mourinho lacks the skill-set to lead a group of infantrymen into battle against a better equipped army. To get good results, the preening Portuguese boss requires big, expensive weapons.

In 2016-2017, Manchester United is projected to have the 2nd highest wage bill in the English Premier League (EPL). So the team will probably avoid relegation. But fans anticipating aesthetically pleasing football or a league trophy are likely to be disappointed.

By all accounts, Mourinho is a manipulator - not an innovator. 'His methods are exhausting," stated former Chelsea striker Demba Ba. "He convinces you that if you do what he tells you to do, it will bring results," stated former Porto player Deco. 'He squeezes out what he doesn't like," recalled Xabi Alonso.

"We build very well from the back," confirms Mourinho, "We have a very good ball possession we don`t play counter-attack." This low-risk mechanical style requires followers, not leaders. That`s why Mourinho sells imaginative players like Kevin de Bruyne, Juan Mata and Arjen Robben, and hangs onto diligent proletarians like Didier Drogba, Frank Lampard and John Terry.

Manchester United fans should now be asking themselves two questions:

1. To what extent is Mourinho`s effectiveness based on his 'winning mystique`?

2. Is this mystique still intact?

To remember the power of Mourinho`s mystique, let`s go back to 2004 when the new Chelsea manager confronted Chelsea mid-fielder Frank Lampard after a training session.

"I was standing in the shower cleaning my balls," recalled Lampard, "he tells me, 'you`re the best player in the world, but you need to win titles.` He has that air of arrogance, that confidence, and it rubs off. Not that I thought I was the best player in the world."

Eleven years ago, Mourinho inspired Lampard to be a better player by telling him a lie so transparent that Lampard himself knew he was being gamed.

Fast forward 11 years to August 2015: while the other 19 EPL teams were training, Mourinho gave his players a month's holiday. Chelsea subsequently lost all of their pre-season games, including a 4-2 defeat to the New York Red Bulls - a social-athletic club for retired international footballers.

Last year, Chelsea began its title defense with a home game against Swansea City. With Chelsea reduced to 10 men, Eden Hazard was fouled by the Swansea captain. Hazard fell to the ground and stayed there. The team doctor, Eva Carneiro, ran onto the pitch to treat him. Fifa rules state that Hazard then had to leave the field, temporarily reducing Chelsea to nine men.

After the match Mourinho had nothing critical to say about his own game tactics. Instead he told the assembled media, "My medical staff were impulsive and naïve. I was sure Eden did not have a serious problem. He had a knock. He was tired.'

A few eyebrows were raised. Was that smart to publically accuse the club`s most expensive player of malingering? Hazard never scored another goal under Mourinho. Dr. Carneiro was demoted. She resigned and launched a sexual discrimination suit against Chelsea, claiming that Mourinho called her the 'daughter of a LovePeddler'.

Given the power differential between the two parties, it was an unsightly squabble - as though Richard Branson had scheduled a press conference to castigate a drowsy parking attendant.

FA chairman Greg Dyke said Chelsea's manager had 'made a mistake' and should apologise. Mourinho disagreed.

From this low point, the 2015-2016 season continued downhill.

After getting crushed 3-0 by Manchester City, Mourinho claimed the result was 'fake'. After losing 3-1 at Everton in September, he stated that 'the game was completely under control' even though they were losing 2-0 within 25 minutes.

In early October, Mourinho was given a £50,000 FA fine for saying that referees were afraid to award Chelsea penalties. A few weeks later he was given a one-match stadium ban and a £40,000 fine for swearing at a referee.

Normally reliable players like Diego Costa, Branislav Ivanovic, Nemanja Matic and John Terry, all had sub-par seasons. By December 5, 2015 Chelsea had won only 26% of its games.

After a 2-1 defeat by Leicester City, Mourinho said that he felt 'betrayed' by his players. Again, he could locate no flaw in his own game tactics. "Sometimes I find myself thinking last season I did an amazing job," mused Mourinho, "brought players to a level not their level."

On December 17, 2016, with Chelsea one point above relegation, Mourinho was fired.

Sports heroes with mystique are vulnerable to catastrophic and irreversible implosions.

Mike Tyson, 'the baddest man on the planet` was 37-0 when he lost to Buster Douglas in 1990. After that loss, he won only 68% of his remaining fights.

Tiger Woods was the world`s best golfer in 2009 when he was revealed to be a sexual deviant. Since then, he has not won a single major tournament.

Over the last half decade Mourinho`s MER is better than Mark Hughes (-18), but worse than Alan Pardew (-12), Sam Allardyce (+1), Arsene Wenger (+6) and Tony Pulis (+9).

Has Mourinho learned anything from last season`s epic failure? Can he recover? Will the players be inspired if this insecure, self-aggrandising little man flatters them shamelessly while they are washing their testicles?

Manchester United fans are about to find out.

Writer - director Guy Bennett authored the best-selling book, Guy`s Guide to the Flipside and has twice been named British Columbia`s best weekly newspaper columnist for his work in The Westender.

nateevs:
I worry about that as well. Although, I will like to see what the final set-up can do when the likes of Hazard and Kante join.

A few positives to take from this.

1. If this is anything to go by, we will be super solid at the back. Great organization.
2. Everyone looked fit and committed. New Manager factor or Conte factor?
3. We will definitely play 2 strikers.

One interesting thing to note is that until Fabregas' red card, Conte kept RLC on, in striker position, from the first minute. Traore was taken off and Bat went in but not RLC. RLC only had to go off when Fab got a red card. This might suggest, RLC is closer to the first team than last season.

These are the very words of Conte:

‘There are many players with a good prospect for Chelsea. I don’t know why in the past a few players have played with the first team,’

‘It’s important. Because Chelsea has a fantastic academy. I think that the academy is a great source for the manager of the first team,’ he added.

‘It’s important, also, that the young players must show to play in the first team.

‘But I love to play with the young players and to improve them. It’s important to have good quality to improve and to show that a young player can play with the first team.

‘I haven’t any problem with the choice to take a young player in the starting 11.

‘For example, Pogba. Pogba arrived at Juventus and he was only 18 years old and after three months he played in the starting 11.’

Ola Aina and RLC are the names if you ask me.

Ibime:
Well I said he would need 5 or 6 this season and can only get 3 or 4.

That's where smart use of the likes of Ake comes in.

Surely a LB, CB and DM is part of the unfulfilled need.

Already he has found Ola Aina (a youth rightback) to be trusted more at left back than Osaniwa Baba Rahman, yet peeps cannot see the utter stupidity of sending our best leftback out on loan.

I was one of the few ninjas on this board who kept tabs on the development of Christensen and Ake. In a time like this we can come up with a contingency plan, which in this case is to have this two integrated into the first team.

If we consider Christensen good enough as to turn down a reported "big" offer from Gladbach, why then cant we recall him already and save this club from spending mega milla on a new Cb?

Why send Ake out when it is pretty obvious we need a left-back? What is the essence of his education at Watford last season?

All these careless calls can not be the manager's. These board puts the I in incompetence. They better listen to Conte Al Pacino and save us another horror seasonal.

Conte isn't satisfied with the squad at his disposal and really wants more signing? Hehe

So what have Emenalo led board being doing all these years? Signing "we dem fancy flicksters". I dont get the message but that is what i think it is.