CONTE
A shiny leather shoe cut through the air and water bottles
scattered like nine-pins to all corners of the dressing room.
This flash of fury, modern
football's natural successor to the flying teacup, was the starting gun for
Antonio Conte's transformation of Chelsea.
It was half-time at Arsenal, his
team were 3-0 down and Conte could hold it in no longer. His players were not
entirely surprised. They had seen the steam rising.
He was still seething when he
fielded post-match questions.
'Bad game,' he whispered. 'We didn't
have the right attitude. We must look in our own house for the problem.'
A worn-out voice and Italian accent conjured the added chill
of an underworld threat.
If this was to go wrong it would go
wrong on his terms and, after mapping out proposals over a lunchtime meeting or
two with owner Roman Abramovich, the Chelsea manager set to it.
The most striking change was the switch to a back-three.
Having delivered him success in the past, Conte has faith in the system and
here it has helped him impose his trademark.
'You can recognise my team,' said
Conte, four games into this winning run, before casting aside Everton 5-0.
'More pressure, we stay short, we come back, we work.'
There have been elements of good
fortune, too. Injuries to Cesc Fabregas, Branislav Ivanovic and John Mikel Obi
crystallised his selection issues.
Conte had become convinced Ivanovic
and Gary Cahill could not play side-by-side on the right of his back-four,
especially when he had asked them to play out from the back. Neither Fabregas
nor Mikel had the legs to do what he was demanding from two central
midfielders.
When Willian and Oscar were given
compassionate leave after family deaths in Brazil, he had little choice but to
turn to Pedro, who injected the extreme pace the team craved.
Pedro is thriving without the burden
of defensive instruction. As is Eden Hazard, who has scored five in five since
the Arsenal defeat.
'I must focus on my offensive role,'
said Hazard, while on duty with Belgium. 'The wing-backs do the defensive work,
that's the major change.'
Hazard operates in this system as a
traditional inside-left. He can go wide or inside through the channel to
support his centre-forward, just as he does for his country.
'Chelsea will claim we followed
them,' joked Belgium coach Roberto Martinez, last week, when asked about
Hazard's transition to a slightly different role. Now, 11 games into the
Premier League, Hazard and Diego Costa have 16 goals between them, same as the
whole of last season.
Hazard cannot escape the contrast,
although a problem with a hip bone spur nagged away at him last season and
meant he was not pain-free until the final five games of the campaign.
Costa appears hungry, focused on
goals not arguments, aside from one public dispute with his manager late on in
a 3-0 win against Leicester when he demanded to be replaced and was duly left
on for the 90 minutes.
Chelsea's forwards are expected to
contribute to the collective effort but are ably covered by a midfield quartet
of great stamina and selflessness: Victor Moses, N'Golo Kante, Nemanja Matic
and Marcos Alonso.
The formation change has revived
Matic and released Kante to be the livewire he was for Leicester.
David Luiz has excelled in the
centre of the back three and Cesar Azpilicueta — teased about his relentless
work-rate by team-mates who claim he runs to training — has found a position to
perfectly suit his strengths.
The absence of European football
afforded Conte time to drive the changes into the minds of his players with a
blast of double-sessions, including long and repetitive pattern-of-play
exercises.
He helps set out cones and leads
virtually every session as his team practise tactical routines until they are
second nature. No wonder he imports his favourite throat lozenges from Italy.
Any player not exactly where they
are told to be can expect an invitation to study the video evidence.
Video footage stops the argument in
Conte's view, and Chelsea's IT analysts have become among the busiest people at
the club, unsung heroes of the revolution as the manager's mind whirrs at a
rate faster than their technology.
He will request a series of clips in
the afternoon before he leaves and a new set when he returns the next day
because an idea sprang out in the night. He is often found scouring footage in
the morning before training.
After the Arsenal defeat, Conte
returned to his pre-season policy of splitting the squad in two and working
outside with one half while the others worked on their body strength in the gym
with fitness experts Paolo Bertelli, Julio Tous and Constantino Coratti.
Conte insists he would rather be
playing in Europe but empty weeks offered time to debrief thoroughly, drive
team-shape, improve fitness and ease off again to prepare well for the next
test.
He has restored a 'winning
mentality' according to the players, who clearly feel an affinity with a
manager who played at an elite level in a midfield with Zinedine Zidane, which
ought to count for little but helps when he demands higher standards of
commitment or discipline.
Players are not summoned to his
office like naughty schoolchildren. If he wants to make a point, he does it
without fuss beside the training pitch.
Nor are they bombarded by texts, a
favourite motivational method of Jose Mourinho which had worn thin by the time
he departed. Conte values the power of a concise message but prefers to talk.
At the same time, he manages egos,
taking care to involve John Terry, with a late appearance against Everton when
the game was won. Terry lost his place while injured but Conte knows he will
need him.
Technical director Michael Emenalo
is delighted to see young players Nathaniel Chalobah, Ola Aina and Ruben
Loftus-Cheek given chances.
Conte's human touch was noted when
he granted Willian and Oscar time in Brazil after family bereavements and sent
them messages of support.
His backroom staff are popular and
polite around the camp and a rare team outing for a meal at Nobu after the 4-0
win against Manchester United was hailed a success.
Of course, the positive energy is
amplified by performances and results but Conte seized his moment and has been
rewarded. The upturn means Chelsea approach the transfer market without panic
in the air despite Conte's desire for more cover and competition in areas
specific to this system.
Even inside the camp, there is a wariness;
a feeling that everything has fallen nicely into place but the balance is
fragile, with little scope to survive the loss of key players.
Conte's priority is to add at least
one midfielder to compete with Kante and Matic but this will probably hinge on
selling or loaning-out Fabregas, Mikel or Oscar. Having claimed Ivanovic, Aina
or Pedro can do the job, there is a lack of options at wing-back.
His first-choice players have been
available. Seven have started every Premier League game: Thibaut Courtois,
Azpilicueta, Cahill, Kante, Matic, Hazard and Costa.
Since Luiz broke into the team, he
too has been ever-present. Since Hull, and the introduction of the back-three,
there has been just one change in five games, Pedro in for Willian.
The transformation has been
remarkable. Six games into the campaign, Chelsea were eighth, eight points
adrift of Manchester City.
Five games later and they are one
point above City and one point behind leaders Liverpool. They go to
Middlesbrough on Sunday having won five in a row without conceding since the
explosion at the Emirates.
Water bottles and everyone in their
vicinity are safe. At least for the time being.
No comments:
Post a Comment