Inter coach Spalletti has led the Nerazzurri, from being a side that has failed to play in the Champion’s League for large part of the past decade, to returning to the competition two years in a row, but it has been anything but smooth sailing.
In the first part of this article series, the argument as to why Spalletti must be sacked was presented. In this piece, one of the main candidates to replace him, Antonio Conte, will be analyzed.
Conte’s Strengths And Weaknesses
Being a disciple of the unorthodox 4-2-4 formation, Conte mastered the ability to find a formation best suited to the players at his disposal. During his tenure as Juventus manager he led the team back to consecutive league titles by relying on a 3-5-2 formation, leveraging all three top defenders in Chiellini, Bonucci and Barzagli and hiding the disadvantage the team had with a lack of a proper left-back.
Champions League Failures And Disagreement Regarding The Transfer Market
Despite tremendous success domestically, his three-man defense repeatedly failed in Champion’s League competition as other top teams exploited the ample space behind the wing-backs. He failed to adapt his style and tactics to set Juventus up for success despite having one of the best midfield’s and defense’s in the competition. He refused to shift away from the 3-5-2 formation which led to the Bianconeri being knocked out of the competition back to back years.
After repeated failures, he recognized the need to switch to a more balanced 4-3-3 formation and requested players to better fit the style he wanted, to take Juventus back to European success.
However, he fell out with the club management as they refused to provide him players he demanded. At the time, recognizing the need to strengthen the team, the management were entertaining the idea of selling both Pogba and Vidal, and Conte requested both of them to remain at the club long term.
Seeing the difference in direction he was proposing, and one club wanted to go in, he quit on the team two weeks before the new season was scheduled to start and accepted to become the new manager of the Italian national team.
Early Success With Chelsea
After his stint with the national team, he wanted to return back to club football and the opportunity came up to manage Chelsea, whom he joined before the start of 2016 season. He led Chelsea to immediate success, after they had a disappointing season where they had failed to retain the Premier League title and did not even qualify for the Champion’s League either.
With Mourinho’s lackluster pre-season preparation after winning the title having the set team up for disappointing season, Conte’s demanding training methods and push for high energy performances, were exactly what the doctor ordered, and it showed. The team tasted instant success.
Self-inflicted Diego Costa Disaster
After winning the title, Conte expected the club to give him more authority in transfer market dealings, however that was far from the reality. Despite Diego Costa being an instrumental figure in leading Chelsea to a title win, Conte notified him over text message that he was not part his plans going forward.
Costa was upset over the move and went public with the text and was removed from first team for disciplinary reasons. Conte over-played his hand despite not having management’s support and the team struggled to find an adequate replacement for the prolific striker. His incoming replacement Alvaro Morata failed to be the physical presence that Costa provided in the title winning season and his goals tally was not impressive either.
Public Feud With Chelsea Management Regarding The Transfer Market
The players Conte requested were denied by the club and he often voiced his frustrations to the media openly. Even though his wishes weren’t granted, the team did a lot of business in transfer market, and strengthened the team with the additions of Antonio Rudiger, Davide Zappacosta, Danny Drinkwater and Tiemoue Bakayoko.
However all struggled to live up to expectations. To make matters worse, some of the first team players started getting injured resulting from Conte’s rigorous training methods. When players pushed back, Conte didn’t appreciate the criticism of his methods and players started turning against him.
Stubbornness Led To Lost Trust From Players
Towards the end of the season, Conte had distanced himself from the players and only stayed close with his staff. Chelsea finished the season in fifth place, qualifying for the Europa League and winning the FA Cup. Despite the struggles during the season, Conte remained stubborn and blamed the club hierarchy for the team’s failures, refusing to change his ways stating: “after two years, the club knows me very well, I can’t change.”
Going from being league champions, to terribly overplaying his hand with his star striker, to losing the dressing room, and not even qualifying for the Champions League, he highlighted how out of touch he was with reality when he made the delusional comment in his final season as Chelsea manager: “I think after a difficult season like this, I showed I’m a serial winner.”
In the next two articles in this mini series, a detailed analysis of José Mourinho will be presented, before finally answering the question who best would fulfill the needs of Inter ahead of the 2019/2020 season.