it's been nearly a decade now since we last won the league. Apart from Tuchel, Conte is the only other manager who had us playing some great football in his title winning season. So what went wrong during his second year?
I know the main talking point might be Costa leaving and us getting Morata instead of Lukaku whom Conte wanted. As for the rest of the squad, Terry also called it quits on his Chelsea career and we lost Matic to Mou's United. But the core squad still remained intact.
I remember there was switching of formation a little from 3-4-3 to 3-5-2 to accommodate Fabregas much better, but we had started the season strong..One of the key games I remember is the game against Atletico Madrid (batshuayi scoring in the last minute 2-1).
You take us from there, to the second half of the season where we completely parked the bus when playing against City and losing ( i guess 1-0 ) in one of our most depressing matches yet. So what happened by this time?
I remember we played Barcelona in the knockout rounds and actually held up well until Christensen had an error resulting in Messi's only goal against us.
Was Conte found out? Did our wingbacks get pressed more since we lost the width with this new formation? Or was it the added pressure of the CL games? Or the squad just collectively dropped ?
by headlights27
30 Comments
“Thank you for the seasono but you are not in my plans”
Morata was pretty useless. Up there as one of the softest strikers ever seen.
Selling matic, getting zappacosta and bakayoko, and not getting Alex Sandro and dani alves and the conte contract drama
Morata for one. I also felt like Cesc had lost his legs a bit, too.
The beef with Willian. And generally, Conte is never content too long anyway so that would’ve spread.
The guy wanted lukaku, board thought 90mil was too much, they got him moratta for 60 something.
It went downhill from there.
Honestly? Morata was a lot of it.
Him being bad kinda shifted the offense to where Conte started moving Hazard to a false 9 if I remember correctly. And while Eden is magical almost everywhere, it disrupted a lot and made him easier to mark.
my impression at the time was conte had a classic one of his behind the scenes meltdowns and it all capitulated
Conte’s explosion paired with very poor transfers. The Bakayoko transfer imparticular needed to be a great signing and ended up being a disaster.
The system also got found out and he didn’t have a plan B
Conte isn’t really a long term fit as proven elsewhere
As far as I recall, Conte did get found out, big time! And Morata couldn’t convert a chance to save his life. I remember watching Werner missing some big opportunities and the community going nuts because of it, but in my mind, Morata was the worse scorer of the two.
the players came back from the break with hangovers and Conte started trying to change the way we setup so we can compete m, which broke down everything. Training sessions got harder and players like Hazard and Fabregas were getting exposed for not being able to defend, plus Morata was a total flop.
Basically everything that could go wrong in squad building did go wrong, and the board took all the blame for it, but the players let Conte have it, especially Willian blasting him on social media leading to a sack.
Getting Morata and Bakayoko as replacements for Costa and Matic.
I really don’t know how we signed Bakayoko over Fabinho.
3atb got found out and didn’t wanna change it up. He died on his 3atb hill like most managers who only have a plan A.
Lukaku instead of Morata gets us top 4 comfortably. Matic was a huge loss and Bakayoko wasn’t ready for the league.
Our defence was good except for a few matches. It was the 23 less goals scored that heavily impacted us.
I think competition was higher in the league: City and Liverpool were much stronger than the previous season. Also player form dramatically dropped: Moses and Alonso weren’t as decisive as they used to be, Morata up top cost us many crucial points, defense was aging and Terry’s was felt, Conte’s tactics weren’t as flexible and novel as last year, and he was read by many teams, and struggling against beatable opposition for no reason, unlike the year before. I would also blame the board for not backing Conte properly: he wanted certain players and instead got replacements for his picks; this led to a falloff between the board and him, and Conte isn’t the best manager to deal with when things like these happen.
It wasn’t too bad as we still won the FA cup, but more was expected for sure.
That Bakayoko horror show against Watford is burned in my head.
DIEGO COSTA
Lukaku went to United.
Conte wanted him.
Conte wanted Matic to help and develop Bakayako.
Didn’t happen.
Costa replacement wasn’t present.
3-4-3 was found out.
We were a tough watch every freaking week.
FA cup was glossing over a failed league campaign and UCL flop show. We were dire in the second leg.
I remember we were on a break and it was just Hazard trying to dribble his way past 3 players.
Matic was such a huge loss for us
The change from Costa to Morata was dramatic and toothless
Lost Costa and lost matic and lost the dressing room
One of the worst windows in recent memory, we downgraded in key positions and didn’t strengthen any. We have to play in midweek and didn’t have the luxury of playing the same XI every game so we didn’t have the depth to compete in multiple comps
Victor Moses bro. conte made that boy believe anything is possible. He peaked at the right time.
Lots of comments saying poor transfers but at the time I didn’t really mind Bakayoko/Morata/Zappacosta being brought in. On paper pretty they appeared to be solid transfers, but turned out disappointing. I didn’t expect Morata to flop so bad.
That being said Conte’s back 3 getting found out was probably the biggest contributor.
God awful transfer windows is probably the biggest thing.
Liv purchased Salah. We purchased… Morata? and a bunch of guys just not good enough to genuinely fight for CL & PL
One of the worst transfer windows of all time
Players sold that were useful
Players stayed that lost their legs
Conte wasn’t properly backed and he clashed with Costa
Conte went Conte.
Morata
The Chelsea managers rarely ever bow out gracefully, it’s almost always a volcanic eruption of an exit.
Poor investment, Conte not being backed in the Summer 2017 window. Replacing Matic with Bakayoko also, and replacing Costa with Morata.
Morata
Lukaku was such waste when he came in under Tuchel, but I do wonder what it would’ve been like if Conte had gotten him (there’s your daddy) instead of Morata.