DON’T BE AFRAID
Conte tells players to face up to injury crisis
ANTONIO CONTE has told Chelsea’s players they must play without fear to have any chance of keeping their Premier League title defence alive, starting today.
Conte’s training methods came under fire from within his own camp this week. Players are not happy with the intensity of his tough sessions as injuries pile up.
The champions are without a win in three games in all competitions, lie nine points behind league leaders Manchester City and have only one fully-fit central midfielder — Cesc Fabregas — for the visit of Watford today.
The injuries are a problem Conte saw coming. He begged Chelsea’s hierarchy for reinforcements and labelled himself a ‘ magician’ yesterday for his foresight.
The problems run deepest in midfield. N’Golo Kante and Danny Drinkwater are long-term absentees while Tiemoue Bakayoko could also miss out.
But Conte says his players cannot afford to be afraid as they face up to their growing list of problems. He is refusing to look at the way City are rampaging through the early season and instead called on his players to fight on. It is a mentality Conte is familiar with, having dodged relegation with minnows Bari in the Italian second tier at the start of his managerial career.
‘I was a magician to anticipate these problems, honestly,’ Conte said, puffing out his cheeks yesterday as he considered the state of a squad he says are working ‘ 70 per cent less’ in training compared to last season due to their increased number of games.
‘I’m a person who is not afraid to face the difficulties. My history speaks very clearly. I fought in the relegation zone. I started my career very badly, but I understood and learned a lot.
‘ I have experience, a lot of experience, as a player and as a coach of facing this type of situations. But I was a magician (to predict these problems).
‘We are in October and we have to think about improving. This is the most important thing. To look at ourselves. Don’t find excuses. Always the truth. If you always tell the truth, you can’t be afraid of anything.’
The current injury problems are leaving Conte with few options for rotation as he continues to bemoan a lack of options while players are forced to play three games a week.
With 24 hours to go before today’s lunchtime kick-off, he was unable to even consider what team he would be able to put out against Marco Silva’s Watford.
‘Honestly, at the moment I can say nothing about the starting XI for tomorrow,’ Conte said yesterday. ‘ We have many doubts. I hope in these 24 hours to try to recover some players.’
have been charged after fans were heard making monkey chants towards Chelsea defender Antonio Rudiger. UEFA will deal with the case next month.