Antonio Conte was not the most talked about of the new managerial appointments in the Premier League at the start of last season, that honour fell to Pep Guardiola, and close behind him Jose Mourinho. But nine months on, it is the Chelsea manager who has his hands on the trophy.
Perhaps we should all have seen it coming given his resounding success in three years as Juventus boss, but that was, and remains, a very one-sided Serie A where even decent sides like Napoli and Roma have little chance of knocking the Old Lady off her perch, while former giants AC Milan and Inter Milan are a far cry from what they once were.
In the Premier League, meanwhile, this season started with six serious title contenders, which didn’t even account for giving last year’s surprise champions Leicester City a hope of retaining their crown. Given that Chelsea finished all the way down in 10th last term and looked an ageing, demoralised group, what hope did this English football novice have of coming out on top of the Manchester clubs with their shiny new managers at the helm and the flurry of big-name, big-money signings that followed?
Well, following tonight’s 1-0 win at West Brom, Chelsea are champions with two games to spare and, perhaps most surprisingly of all, have done it with a fresh new approach under Conte. We’re used to them winning, but Conte has done what looked the impossible by turning the Blues into an entertaining, uncontroversial side that – whisper it – neutrals actually quite like.
How’s he managed it? We’ve picked out the Italian’s five biggest masterstrokes of the 2016/17 campaign…
Formation change
It’s no exaggeration to say this innovative tactical tweak changed the course of the Premier League season.
A solid if unspectacular start yielded three wins from the first three games. Chelsea were then undone in a 2-2 draw with Swansea, and then in back-to-back defeats, 2-1 at home to Liverpool, and 3-0 away to Arsenal.
Koeman on Chelsea’s 3-4-3 after 5-0 defeat with Everton
After being blown away at the Emirates Stadium, Conte first sent his team out with three at the back for the second half of that game, and though it was too late in the context of that game, they didn’t concede a fourth goal in that setup. It seemed of little relevance at the time, but it what followed was a run of six wins, six clean sheets. Chelsea went on to win an incredible 13 in a row, a club record, conceding just four goals.
Rarely seen on these shores, Conte’s three-at-the-back is now being copied up and down the land, with Tottenham using it to great effect and even the ultra-conservative Arsene Wenger tempted to try it for the first time since using a similar system all the way back in his first season at Arsenal.
Chelsea’s 13-game winning streak
2-0 vs Hull (A)
3-0 vs Leicester (H)
4-0 vs Manchester United (H)
2-0 vs Southampton (A)
5-0 vs Everton (H)
1-0 vs Middlesbrough (A)
2-1 vs Tottenham (H)
3-1 vs Manchester City (A)
1-0 vs West Brom (H)
1-0 vs Sunderland (A)
1-0 vs Crystal Palace (A)
3-0 vs Bournemouth (H)
4-2 vs Stoke City (H)
P13 W13 F32 A4
Some people feel the role of tactics is overplayed in football, but the dramatic change in Chelsea since Conte changed to 3-4-3 shows just how crucial it can be to getting the best out of the players a manager’s disposal.
Coaching players to a new level
And speaking of doing the best with what you have, Conte deserves huge praise for raising many Chelsea players to a whole new level this season.
If there’s any better illustration of a manager proverbially ‘losing’ the dressing room, it’s the case of Jose Mourinho at Stamford Bridge last year. Remember that Eden Hazard didn’t score his first goal until April, and almost the entire squad looked past its peak, with the likes of Thibaut Courtois, Nemanja Matic, Pedro and of course Hazard himself talked up as potential departures that summer.
Just twelve months on and not only does Conte have players like Hazard, Courtois and Diego Costa back to their best, he’s got Matic, Pedro, Cesar Azpilicueta and Gary Cahill playing some of the finest football of their careers. Marcos Alonso’s late summer arrival didn’t raise too many eyebrows, but he’s now surely up there with the finest wing-backs in Europe. David Luiz’s signing also looked like a risky panic buy, but he’s a player reborn under Conte and made it into the PFA Team of the Year.
Most impressively of all, however, has to be the transformation of Victor Moses. The Nigerian came back to Chelsea after three forgettable years away on loan, his career surely in tatters. Seeing something that no one had ever considered before, Conte moved him to wing-back and one of the finest players in the league has flourished.
Balanced use of his squad
A few people, mostly Jose Mourinho, have been quick to point out that Conte has lived an easy life at Chelsea this season due to the club’s lack of European football meaning he can play the same team week in, week out.
And while it’s true that the 47-year-old has benefited from getting a tight-nit group together on the pitch in most games, as well as the obvious advantage of extra time to work and fine-tune his system on the training ground, he arguably hasn’t had enough credit for the use of his squad.
Sure, Cesc Fabregas’ performances in the second half of the season suggest he could surely have been given more opportunities in the first, but after the long and exhausting career he’s had as a regular for club and country for well over a decade now, you could also argue that Conte’s use of him as a squad player/super-sub has been pretty much spot on.
Willian is another who may not be too happy at no longer being first choice, but Conte has rotated the Brazilian well with Pedro, and even trusted him over Hazard in one of the club’s most important games of the season, the FA Cup semi-final win over Tottenham.
Meanwhile, John Terry has been eased out in the smoothest way possible, which is no mean feat considering his status at the club and amid previous accusations of player-power at the Bridge. Nathan Ake may also have featured more since returning from loan at Bournemouth. Michy Batshuayi has been used sparingly throughout the season but even he had his moment with the title-clinching goal at the Hawthorns. Remarkably, throughout the season no one has complained – a rarity indeed in the modern game.
Handling of Diego Costa
Chelsea’s season looked, albeit briefly, like it could fall apart after the news of a row between Diego Costa and Antonio Conte in the middle of January.
Having just lost their winning run with a 2-0 defeat to Tottenham, rumours emerged that the Blues’ top scorer had had his head turned by a big-money offer from the Chinese Super League.
In fact, these stories haven’t really gone away, and it may well be that Costa will be on his way out of Chelsea this summer, whether it’s to China, back to Atletico Madrid, or to new contenders Paris Saint-Germain.
Never allowing the story to get out of control, Conte played things very cool throughout, and ensured his side’s strength without Costa was the main story as he named Hazard up front in a false-9 role for a convincing 3-0 win over Leicester City.
Speaking about the situation after that game, Conte said: ‘I have read a lot of speculation about this topic and I can tell you if there are problems – and I repeat ‘if’ – with players, I am used to solving them in the changing room, not outside, not in press conferences.’
Unlike Mourinho, who so spectacularly failed to keep hold of the situation at Chelsea last season, Conte was true to his word – he kept the talking behind closed doors, and let the results speak for themselves.
Not falling for the mind games
While Mourinho has aimed dig after dig at Conte and his old club Chelsea this season, it is the latter who will have the last laugh with his side 22 points clear ahead of Manchester United at the top of the table, and 39 points better off than they were at the same stage last season after their nightmare start under the Portuguese.
Martin Keown on Antonio Conte
In an age where quotes dictate headlines and set the agenda, Conte has quietly declined the chance to make a spectacle of himself. Responding to Mourinho’s jibes ahead of the FA Cup clash between the two teams, Conte said: ‘I’m very focused on the pitch. The mind games don’t bring you to win – above all if you face a team who is focused. We must talk during the game on the pitch, not before.’
Some will say Conte hasn’t had to lose his rag as things have gone all his own way so far, but it’s easy to forget he dealt with difficult defeats to the likes of Arsenal and Spurs with good grace, and, as already mentioned, brushed aside speculation over Costa’s future when others may have hung the player out to dry.
Conte is the single reason Chelsea’s re-branding has been so successful, whether it was intentional or not. No longer do they present the image of the tactless nouveau riche, but of a closely-knit group where the team trumps any individual. In stark contrast to Mourinho, Conte is a humble individual who plays down his own considerable managerial prowess with platitudes on the basics of hard-work and passion.
‘I know I have players ready to fight, to play good football, to transfer our passion and emotion to our fans,’ he said in his first press conference. ‘This is the most important thing this year. Win or lose … if we are able to transfer our passion and enthusiasm to the fans, that will be a great victory for our fans.’
It’s safe to say he’s done that. Bravo, Antonio.
Metro.co.uk
