It is hardly going out on a limb to suggest for example that Jürgen Klopp and Liverpool may see a clearer path to the shiny stuff in the Champions League this season than at home where they are already miles off the paceWhen Antonio Conte said at the start of the week that English clubs had a great chance of Champions League success this season he was possibly trying to gloss over a less than favourable draw that left Chelsea with the unenviable task of advancing past Barcelona. The draw was generally kind to English clubs, though Tottenham may beg to differ, and in pitting Real Madrid against Paris Saint-Germain it guaranteed the removal of at least one of the...
At Anfield the Chelsea manager again favoured a 3-5-1-1 formation but while it provided solidity it did not expose Liverpool’s vulnerabilitiesTo stand still, as Peter Reid once observed, is to move backwards. There is need for permanent revolution, constantly to be battling the twin demons of familiarity and complacency, stimulating your own players while preventing your opponents ever being quite sure what you will do next. No team can ever rely on one tactic forever: a withdrawn winger won Alf Ramsey’s Ipswich the league in 1962; it almost got them relegated once everybody had worked it out a year later. Related: Antonio Conte: ’We dominated the game – Liverpool were lucky to draw’ Related: Eden Hazard sparks recovery as Chelsea...
You might not know it listening to José Mourinho but United are having a great season while Antonio Conte does not even seem to know his best teamTo correct a misleading impression that has been slowly building up over the last few weeks, largely because a certain resident of the Lowry hotel has been busy expressing dissatisfaction at every available opportunity, Manchester United are having a really good season.They are practically through to the knockout stages of the Champions League already, having won four games out of four. They are second in the Premier League and are unbeaten at Old Trafford, where Burton Albion remain the only team to have scored a goal against them all season. They have the...
Recruitment, injuries and the sale of Nemanja Matic are among the reasons why Antonio Conte’s side have fallen away so spectacularly. At board level there is some sympathy for the manager but patience is finiteA few of the locals called out to Antonio Conte as he trudged up the ramp towards the Chelsea team bus post-match, head bowed to avoid eye contact and hands sunk deep in his pockets, but most had sensed it was no time to bid a fond farewell. The Italian had that thunderous look about him, the kind that sets in when his team have been beaten. Except this had been a humiliation, and an occasion which had left him publicly questioning the most basic qualities...
The champions picked up more knocks in the 3-3 draw with Roma but it is the mood of their manager that must be most vexing for the Stamford Bridge boardWho says the Champions League group‑stage games are boring? Anyone who does should have been at Stamford Bridge on an evening when the early scent of smoke in the air preceded a firecracker of a match between teams who sit fifth in their respective top flights. Six goals and enough passages of enthralling play to leave everyone in attendance giddy on the spectacle of it all.Or perhaps not, if Antonio Conte’s reaction to the final whistle was anything to go by. While the majority caught their breath, the Italian grimaced, politely...