Chelsea Tactics and Transfers: Conte’s arrival, Koulibaly and the plan moving forward
With Euro 2016 reaching its conclusion, domestic football is around the corner. This week we discuss Antonio Conte, Kalidou Koulibaly and Chelsea moving forward.
The Euro 2016 final is confirmed: a tantalizing match between France and Portugal. The storylines on offer in this years Euros have been thrilling, but we can all be satisfied with both teams for making it this far.
France, not purely because I said they’d win it all, but because they deserve this as the home nation. Les Bleus can reward their fans and give the country something to cheer despite the incredibly difficult year that it has been.
As for Portugal, Cristiano Ronaldo & Co., for the first time in a little under a decade, started to play like a team as opposed to Cristiano Ronaldo & Co. The long-overdue team dynamic has rewarded Portugal with one of their best tournament performances in years.
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As always, the Ronaldo-Messi comparisons are their own sub-plot, particularly given Messi’s spot retirement at Copa America and recent legal woes. The finals of Euro 2016 will play a major role in deciding next year’s Ballon D’Or winner, which may be the last of the Ronaldo-Messi era.
The outcome of the Messi tax fraud saga and how it affects his standing within the game adds one more layer. For years, Ronaldo has been cast as the pantomime villain. Yet Messi is the convicted criminal on a 21-month suspended jail sentence.
Bayern Munich will be incredibly happy with the prospect of Renato Sanches when this tournament is over. He looks to be a world-beater in future.
The young talent has been exceptional. Players like Pogba, Coman, Draxler and Kimmich have all done themselves a lot of good in terms of their reputations in the world game.
All that aside, club football is returning sooner than many people think. Chelsea’s first pre-season match against Rapid Vienna will be taking place on July 16. Chelsea are eagerly awaiting the arrival of new boss Antonio Conte and his impression on the team.
Conte could not have done his reputation much better than he did with his performance at Euro 2016. He and Italy were one of the surprises of the tournament. Italy did more than win games. They won with style and class. All Chelsea supporters have been left drooling at the thought of his management.
One of the most important effects of Conte’s long-delayed arrival at Cobham will be how he drives the first batch of transfers.Though the rumor mill has spun itself almost off the hinges, the only transfer Chelsea have completed thus far has been Michy Batshuayi from Marseille. The never-ending Radja Nainggolan saga took a sad turn when he signed a new contract at Roma, leaving Chelsea to pursue other options.
One signing that has newly been reawakened is that of Leonardo Bonucci. Bonucci seems to have recognized (rightly so) that the best performances of his career all happened under Conte. From their early time together at Juventus to representing Italy at Euro 2016, Conte brings out the best in Bonucci.
According to Metro and The Sun, Bonucci is seeking to follow Conte to Stamford Bridge. A transfer fee of £38 million is being discussed. Though Bonucci is already 29 and that seems like a lot of money, the positive effects he could have on the squad by helping Conte implement his methods may be worth it.
The first play Chelsea should bring through the doors is Kalidou Koulibaly. The player is unhappy at Napoli and has a similar skill set to Bonucci, and is four years younger. Making him a member of the team could help set a platform for the future and allow Chelsea to stop spending such unbelievable sums in the transfer market every summer.
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If Chelsea are willing to offer the player a 5-year contract at a reasonable sum there is no reason to believe he could not be the bedrock of the defense for many years to come.
I predicted that Chelsea would be a lot quieter on the transfer front than was originally thought. Without a good idea of where the current squad stands it would be a waste of money for Chelsea to start spending without a consistent idea of the actual talent level.
Many executives in the boardroom are likely going to wait until Chelsea have at least recovered to Champions League play before a lot of personnel movements happen at Stamford Bridge.
The players won’t leave because they will be too undervalued for their sales to represent good business for the club. Some players won’t come in because Chelsea will not allow themselves to be taken advantage of on account of their relatively desperate position.
Conte’s first job will be to get Chelsea back to a place of respectable standing in the Premier League. Then the pocket book can come out so he can have whatever he wants.
Conte has all the tools to be the manager at Chelsea for a long time. He favors the kind of football and attitude that agree most with Roman Abramovich. He is more of a dedicated club man than Jose Mourinho was. Abramovich did his best to stand by Mourinho during the Portuguese’s last season, and appears to be trying to move in a more patient and long-term method.
The Mourinho firing was as much a symptom of the shameful Eva Carneiro case as Mourinho’s failure to unite the dressing room. Had it been just one or the other, Mourinho could still be patrolling the touchline at Stamford Bridge. The combination simply forced Abramovich’s hand.
Chelsea should be able to sign a few more players this offseason and events can flow more efficiently now that the club has a full-time, on-site manager. Conte has respect for egos or reputations, which is absolutely different to Mourinho who often spoke about his “untouchables”. With Conte the best players take the pitch, end of story.
Chelsea fans can be assured that if the youth really are good enough (and there is reason to believe they are) then they will absolutely get some time out on the manicured lawns of Stamford Bridge.
Chelsea will spend a lot of the upcoming season moving between 4-3-3 and 4-2-4. As tempting as an immediate change to 3-5-2 may be, that transition will be hard for many of Chelsea’s players to do immediately. 4-2-4 is a gateway formation, as it teaches a lot of the necessary prerequisites to play in a 3-5-2 or 3-4-3 (a common Guardiola tactic).
Next: POL Chelsea debate: Belgium, Batshuayi and Conte
With Michy Batshuayi in the door Chelsea will play with two strikers far more often than before. Leicester City showed what a great success that can be in the Premier League, and the winning the title is the standard for Conte and the Blues.