When Antonio Conte was appointed by Chelsea in the summer, the Blues fans here in the Transfer Tavern weren’t sure what exactly what they were going to get from the Italian.
They’d seen him do well at EURO 2016 with Italy and, of course, he enjoyed success at Juventus but there’s always going to be a risk with a manager new to the game in this country.
Nevertheless, it seems they needn’t have worried.
The Blues have been good at times this season, despite losses to Liverpool and Arsenal, and a lot of that is down to the changes the 46-year-old has made to the side.
He seems like a really welcome breath of fresh air after the dour episode of Jose Mourinho’s final half-season in charge and it looks as though the players are doing exactly what he wants.
Our landlord reckons Conte has done a lot better than Mourinho so far and here are the THREE things that have made him stand out most…
Tactical flexibility
Mourinho is not tactically inept let’s make that clear first of all, but there have been suggestions he’s been more predictable in recent seasons.
He’s been playing the same formation for some time and looks as though he’s getting found out whilst Conte has developed a clever 3-4-3 to get the best out of his team.
It’s similar to the 3-5-2 he had for Italy but still needed some tweaks to the Chelsea squad and he has to be commended for getting it done quickly.
Players like him
He seems to have the players onside and that is certainly something Mourinho seemed to lose in the end.
The likes of Eden Hazard and Diego Costa just downed tools and whether that was down to an outright disagreement or just despondency may never be known.
What we can see is, though, are that the players are responding to Conte’s instructions and they’re clearly enjoying playing for him right now.
Far less negativity
The Chelsea press-conferences with Mourinho towards the end of his tenure became miserable affairs whilst he very rarely smiled during that time at all.
That’s largely carried on at Manchester United but from what we’ve seen from Conte, he’s happy to share a joke.
More importantly, though, when Chelsea have lost this season he’s remained calm and centred, something Mourinho just didn’t do.
Agree Chelsea fans? Let us know below…
