A temporary thread for any discussion of next season not related to transfers or other hard news such as stadium plans. Will kick it off with an open question: what formation do we expect to see Conte deploy next year. His Juve 3-5-2? A cavalier 4-2-4? Do we expect him to start with a cautious approach or look at the squad and think he has to start out aggressively. What are people's expectations of league position next season? I'm feeling 5th/6th with the current squad but signings could (should?) put us back into Champions League reckoning again.
i think he'll play a back 4. his juve formation was a result of the players he had. perhaps he could play a back 3 at times but i don't think it will be the base. his 4-2-4 is an extremely interesting and effective formation. lots of triangles. could be interesting. however, as a preference, i just don't see how we haven't tried to play a more dedicated 4-3-3 this past season and would like to see it in the future. not sure it's in Conte's tactical toolbag or not though. with the current squad we can't really play a 4-2-4 in my opinion. 4-3-3 line's up rather well though. so the signings will have a huge impact on this. as for league position, again signings will be important. but with little distractions i'll honestly be upset if we're not looking to finish in the CL spots. and at a personal level would like to see a title challenge with the right players coming in. but it has so much to do with what players can actually re-discover their quality and which can't. and of course, the other teams signings will have a lot to do with this too. so many things could change in the next 90 days.
We are absolutely in it to win it next season. I am going to use two negatives to paint a positive picture. Negative one: Our play during our title win was absolutely sub par after the first 4 months. Truly uninspired. A very good Hazard and a good slice of luck got us to the finish line. A LOT of those 1-0 games could have been losses yet we still managed to win the title. Negative two: Barring an absolute horror start this season we would have been comfortably inside the top 5 spots. Even after that our OK play under Guus saw us do fairly well given the circumstances.. I mean really, we managed that many points despite Hazard being non-existent and our midfield and defense looking, imo, the worst they've looked in as long as I can remember. What does this say? For me it says despite crap form, uninspired play and a general lack of leadership we are still a top 5 team. Comfortably a top 5 team. With Conte here, Hazard suddenly having his shit together and a couple of decent signings, I have faith that winning the title is a realistic goal.
Not going into formations as that will bring up players we need but from an expectation point of view, it all depends on how we approach the transfer season. United will strengthen with Jose, City will buy anyone on sight, even teams like West Ham are looking at players like Lacazette. So it will only be tougher next season. It is clear our squad needs changes. Not a complete makeover but needs at least 2-3 top players in different positions. There is a chance we will not get any of the A-list transfers because there are CL sides who have a lot more money unless we go gung-ho right from the start. That means NOW. We need to hit our targets ASAP and try to tie them down before the other big sides start to put their plans in motion. If not, we would have to go to our B-list which might not be a bad thing if we manage to identify the next high-level players (someone like Suarez when Pool got him). But those are bigger risks so could go either way. Finally our youth. I know others are high on RLC but I can see why both Guus and Jose gave him limited time. He looks lazy when on the field. I remember Jose mentioning he expects other players to win the ball for him which is just not acceptable at his level. I saw that in the last game he played. I will probably loan him out and see how he progresses. I have more expectations from Traore and Kenedy and both would be really good squad players to have. If we go into next season with the same squad plus another Papy or Pedro (whom I actually think is a good squad player to have), we will be looking at another 7-8 finish. With the right signings, we would be able to break top 4 again.
The bad thing about RLC is we are still somewhat left wondering about him. We just had a good opportunity to give him 6-7 games in a row to see if he really had anything, but instead we trotted Mikel out there. Now here we are done with the season and really don't know what we have with him. I agree with the above that we should loan him out so he can get a full season Sign the right couple of players and we can easily compete for title. Hazard just playing like Hazard will be a boost by itself. Defense will be better next season with Zouma back
The league is poor enough that a lot of teams can win it next season. 71 points was second after all and wouldn't have been good enough for 4th in some seasons gone by.
Would be interested in seeing the 3-5-2 as I think it could cause some problems against a few other Premier League sides, but as has been pointed out above, I think that will require a decent amount of new personnel. What I really hope happens as far as formations go is that Conte is willing to take a risk and switch things up at times rather than rigidly sticking with one formation (like we have with the 4-2-3-1 for so long now). A 4-3-3 would definitely be a welcome change as it would work well with our current players and give us a different looking attack which I think has been needed for some time now. Biggest immediate concern for me ahead of the season is the effect of the Euros on Conte and our transfers. Really hoping he can give the board a wish list of sorts, and we start sorting things out early. Thought Nainggolan was going to be the start of this, but perhaps we're waiting for other domestic leagues to wrap up first. I've got no doubt that Conte is keeping next season in mind at the same time he prepares for the Euros, but let's hope that the tournament doesn't hinder preparations too much. Think a top 4 finish should without a doubt be the starting goal before we start talking about a title push, not that I don't think it's possible mind you
RLC - Would love to see RLC be the next great Chelsea player. Homegrown, young and English and all of that. . .BUT I just don't feel it yet. I have not seen him do enough [yet] on the pitch. In fact I have much higher expectation on Kenedy who I feel is an exceptional player but neither Jose or Hiddink figured out where to play him. I see Kenedy as that strong attacking mid - really a striker - in that Gareth Bale type of way - fast, direct, but also skillful. Next season could be his chance and I hope Conte figures him out and where to play him.
i'm really surprised when Kenedy has come on, he's only been used on the left. i think at his previous clubs he played some on the right, and he could be HUGE asset on the right cutting in with that left foot he has. i think he'd have the opportunity to make that spot his home. as for RLC, it really is a shame we didn't get to see more of him. it's such a frustrating waste of an opportunity. the club had nothing to play for and couldn't get him game time. for me he shows flashes of really being a brilliant player. his touch and technique is superb for such a big frame. but he just hasn't showed a consistent desire. he looks shy. maybe he just needs time and confidence. he needs first team football i think. consistently.
Speculation Ends. 60 million a year deal with Nike. That buys us 20 Papys. Woohoo http://www.telegraph.co.uk/football...gn-60m-a-year-kit-sponsorship-deal-with-nike/
Great deal. If we don't spend big correctly this summer then I will be pissed. We have to sign 3 first team players if we want to win the league next year and one of them better be Griezmann.
It's a huge deal. We raised our profit on the deal 100% in a year we absolutely need it. Thrilled with this offer TBH.
Nike gear tends to be a little cleaner and less template-based than adidas imo too so this is a win all around
How realistic would it be to pull back AC from Gladbach? ... at the very least I can't fathom the defense getting worse by such a move.
It's a 2 year loan so I imagine there's a penalty if we terminated early. But I think the player has some say. At his age, I think it's more valuable to stay at Gladbach. This year, he got the experience of helping a team qualify for the CL and next season, he'll play in the CL. If Zouma comes back (big IF) 100%, that's a CB pairing for the next 8-10 years.
What Brock said. It would be more detrimental to bring him back than have him continue on this path with CL football.