Last year, Chelsea lost the English Premier League horribly. Its performance was really bad and the team was not in its form. Even in the beginning of the Premier League 2016-17 season, Chelsea did not perform so well. It got thrashed by Arsenal.
Antonio Conte, the manager of Chelsea, was rebuked for his coachmanship. However six weeks into the latest season of the league, the Italian made the most dramatic turnarounds in his team. Chelsea made its five consecutive victories with 16 goals.
There was no conceded goal after the team was defeated at the Emirates. All thanks goes to the spectacular performance of the team against Everton, where Diego Costa, Marcos Alonso, and Pedro were on target and Eden Hazard netted twice.
Antonio Conte is doing a truly good job with his team. He has brought back the feel-good factor to the Stamford Bridge. However, Conte admits that he felt terrible after his team lost from Arsenal at the end of September.
He said that he was pretty much worried about his team, as they conceded many goals in each game as well as conceded plenty of chances. This is why he changed many things in his team. So, let us have a look at some of the ways in which Conte has made Chelsea one of the best teams of the EPL so quickly.
Formation of three players
One of the most effective and obvious changes that Conte made to his team was the 3-4-3 formation. In this, David Luiz, the player signed in the summer, thrives in the middle and Gary Cahill returns to his best in the back three.
Owing to this set up, Hazard scored five goals in his previous four English Premier League games. Although, Conte says that he wanted to begin this Premier League season with a 4-2-4 formation, since the team has powerful wingers and he wanted two strikers, he actually started with both 4-2-4 and 3-4-3 formations in the pre-season 2016-17 of the Premier League.
Conte said that this was because the squad can play this type of system. But, eventually he changed the 4-2-4 formation to a 3-4-3 formation in order to balance the offensive and defensive situations of the team.
When asked to Eden Hazard as to how the formation change has influenced the game of his team, he said that it gives him fairly more freedom with the ball as well as without the ball. Moreover, he said that he does not have to defend against his right back, since Alonso is behind him. This means that Hazard just have to focus on his position. When he gets the ball, he gets more freedom to go anywhere as well as he can make his own movement decision.
No untouchables
Chelsea’s former manager Jose Mourinho was very dependent on his team’s untouchables. However, for Conte this is not the case. He has clearly said that for him the performance level as well as work rate is more important than the name on the shirt.
Conte is the first manager of Chelsea after Andre Villas Boas to drop Branislav Ivanovic, the awfully out of form player of Chelsea. Plus, the captain of the club, John Terry, has recovered from his injury and placed on the bench of substitutes.
Even Willian, the player who last scored in the match against Hull City in the Premier League, has not got his place back after he returned to Brazil from his mother’s death. This is due to Pedro’s good form, the player who has been sensational in this season of the league along with Victor Moses.
The converted right wing-back player, who spent three of his league seasons on loan under manager Mourinho has been one of the biggest recipients of the equal chances approach of Conte. In fact, Alonso, the player signed in summer, is also a great recipient of this approach. Conte says that players like Pedro, Alonso, and Moses are playing fantastically in this season and he hopes that they continue to get better.
Antonio Conte’s achievements
The 47-year-old Italian manager of Chelsea FC has formerly managed many clubs, including Arezzo, Bari, Siena, Juventus, Atalanta, and Italy. Indeed, Conte was one of the most influential and decorated players in the record of Juventus. He stood out in his leadership, work rate, as well as tenacity as a midfielder.
Conte has won the five Serie A and the Champions League titles as a player. He has also won 20 caps for Italy in 16 years from the year 1994 to 2000. While he was the manager of Juventus, Conte won the title of Serie A 3 times additionally and the Italian Supercup 2 times.
As a manager, Conte captured a third successive title of EPL at Juventus during the 2013-14 season with a record of 102 points in Serie A. It was also the 30th overall title of Serie A for Juventus. However, the Italian also saw some low points too, such as when he was given a touchline ban of four months in August 2012, since he failed to report the strived match fixing when he was the manager of Siena.
Thus, Antonio Conte has really made some great changes to the form of his team, due to which Chelsea FC is performing superbly in this season of the English Premier League.
