Will The Chelsea Challenge be The Biggest One for Conte?

As the 2014-15 season of the Barclays Premier League ended and Chelsea were crowned champions, most of the footballing world must have concluded that Chelsea was starting to become what Manchester United had been since the league’s inception – a dominant force. And this wasn’t an understatement, because they had a tactical mastermind in Jose Mourinho and  Chelsea’s play throughout that season was akin to how the elite clubs of Europe were supposed to play.

Two months later, Chelsea flabbergasted everyone, courtesy of their horrendous start to the season. The deterioration in their performance continued to  grow exponentially.  From the opponent-dominating champions, the Blues were now within touching distance of the relegation zone within a span of about six months. Finally, after 9 losses and just 4 wins from sixteen games, Chelsea parted ways with Mourinho and appointed Guus Hiddink as the interim manager for the season. Though the results have improved for Chelsea under Hiddink, Chelsea are most likely not going to play in the Champions League next season. They have announced that Antonio Conte will take over as the manager from the next season.

Antonio Conte will lead Italy in to Euro 2016 before taking over the reigns at Stamford Bridge. Chelsea fans must surely have heaved a sigh of relief on learning that the current Italian manager has one thing in his CV that stands out : taking over struggling teams and improving them. He revived struggling teams at Arezzo, Bari, Atalanta and Siena,  but his work at Juventus was what was truly exceptional. Having finished in seventh in 2010/11, Juve was led by Conte to the league title without a single defeat, the first club to do so in Italian history since Milan in ’92.

The major problem for Chelsea this season has been the defense. This is in stark contrast to the previous season, as Chelsea ended up being touted as the team with the best defense in England. Terry and Cahill have performed well below their standards while Ivanovic has had many nights that he would like to forget.

The midfield has given dismal performances too. Apart from Willian in a few matches, all other midfielders have hardly played at their true potential. The likes of Fabregas and Hazard, who were one of the best in England the previous season, are nowhere near that form.

The strike force has been blunt too. Falcao is no longer the striker who can send shivers down the opponent defense, whereas Costa is a pale shadow of the Atletico Madrid attacker who was signed by Chelsea. Pedro has had a quiet first season too.

At the start of this season, the tactics went haywire under Mourinho and he was unsuccessful in finding another solution. This happened because Mourinho is a manager who has  a fixed set of tactics, fixed formations and he buys or sells players accordingly. Conte, on the other hand, is quite flexible with his tactics and formations. Conte is not restricted to his 3-5-2 formation, used predominantly at Juventus and with Italy. He has been known to switch to 4-3-3 successfully, a flexibility which has seen him lose just 18 games in his 167 as a manager since starting at Juventus in 2011.

Another feather in the hat for Conte is that he believes that a manager should adapt to his team, not the other way round. He knows that this is the same team that dominated English football for a year and all it needs is the right push to get back on track. His transfer record has been impressive too, signing the likes of Pirlo, Pogba, Tevez, Vidal and Lichtsteiner within a limited budget.

Managing a club like Chelsea which is known to show little patience to managers in the competitive English Premier League is a different ball-game altogether. Antonio Conte will know that he faces an uphill task starting from July 2016. But he surely has the ability to bring the best out of a team and Chelsea fans will be hoping that with his arrival, they won’t be seeing the nightmares of this season, for another season.