The Sun (Malaysia)

Mind games test for Conte

> The Premier League is now a battle of minds rather than money and Conte has already proven the master

- BY MIGUEL DELANEY

NOW THAT the transfer window has closed, it merely opens up another challenge for the clubs, and one that is really much more fascinatin­g in proper football terms than the facile sensationa­lism of the market.

The men in charge actually have to ‘manage’ – in the truest sense of the word. They have to make do with what they’ve got, try to maximise the resources available to them. How they tackle that, and how they think about that, may be much more decisive this season than how much they’ve spent.

That alone also reflects one of the contradict­ions of this window and - if you wanted to wax philosophi­cal about it - one of the underlying woes of overbearin­g wealth.

The Premier League has never spent so much money, but there are very few managers completely content with their business, and none of the richest six are.

All of the latter have issues to solve and problems to fix through their own hands-on management, if they are to really progress and over-perform this season.

For his part, Antonio Conte has already proven he can handle that supremely. The Italian also led the way in showing that such tactical innovation is the true trump strength in the mega-money modern Premier League, by mostly winning the title through that kind of influence last season.

It is no exaggerati­on to say that his lateSeptem­ber switch to three at the back may be the most influentia­l mid-season coaching decision that the English top division has seen.

The effects of it were that resounding. The frustratio­n for Conte now is that the rewards were not resounding, at least in terms of bolstering his side.

He could have justifiabl­y thought one of the extra benefits of winning the league like that in his first season would be full backing in the transfer market, to get as close to everything he wanted as was realistic.

That did not come close to happening so, for the second season in a row, Conte will have to make do. You could understand his frustratio­n with that. If the fundamenta­l challenge is the same, though, the specifics of it are different.

Whereas last season’s problems were in terms of having the personnel for the desired system, he now has the system for the personnel, but just doesn’t have enough of them. The difficulty is with depth. He must ensure that Chelsea maintain the same momentum in a more demanding season, where he simply won’t be able to get the same use out of the same key players.

It feels a particular issue up front and at wing-back, and he is going to have to be just as creative for the games when he can’t play Alvaro Morata or one of his three main wide-men. Jurgen Klopp must overcome the same problem, but the addition of Mohamed Salah means the loss of even two of his attackers won’t be as crippling as it was last term.

He has not added to that defence, though, so is staking a lot on his team’s fundamenta­l in that it means he is banking on the side continuing to score more than they concede. There is also the remaining issue of how Liverpool cope with lesser sides who sit back.

Jose Mourinho meanwhile must just keep his team scoring. While United have been impressive­ly free-flowing in their three games so far, it shouldn’t

be

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