How Antonio orchestrated Barca result...
THERE has never been any doubt about Antonio Conte’s ability as a coach and tactician since he arrived in English football in the summer of 2016.
A man who had won three consecutive Serie A titles with Juventus, leading the club back to a dominant position in Italian football, and who had proved a successful and popular manager of the national side, taking them to the quarter-finals of Euro 2016, clearly had pedigree.
And Conte proved it in the Premier League. After an uncertain start, he switched to a bold 3-4-3 system and won the league in his first season here. Chelsea had finished 10th the previous season. This season, as in fact Conte had REPORTS predicted, was to prove more difficult. Public discontent from the Italian over the club’s transfer policy has been constant and results have wobbled, with reports of player discontent at Conte’s tough training regime and with his job seemingly under threat.
But on Tuesday night in the 1-1 draw with Barcelona in the Champions League at Stamford Bridge, the little Italian once more demonstrated just what his club
might miss if he goes, with another tactical masterclass. Barca might have scored in the end, but rarely have they been outmanoeuvred so well.
Here’s how Conte did it. DEFENCE Conte took a bold gamble in leaving out the experienced Gary Cahill in his customary three-man defence.
Instead he showed faith in the more mobile Antonio Rudiger and the young Dane Andreas Christensen, with his wing-backs dropping into what was often, as Barcelona dominated possession, a fiveman back line. It worked well until the 75th minute when luckless Christensen, who at 21 has performed well all season, gave the ball away in a danger area and it led to Lionel Messi’s equalising goal. But expect Conte to continue with this system.
Christensen, cool and controlled on the ball, good in the air and a quick and sharp tackler, has made that central defensive place his own this season, casting David Luiz out into the cold. Conte will him now. not abandon
Iniesta and Messi simply had no room
MIDFIELD This was the key area. Conte’s wing-backs, Marcos Alonso and Victor Moses, doubled back constantly, and with the indefatigable N’Golo Kante everywhere, Barca’s creative men Messi, Andres Iniesta and normally marauding full-backs Jordi Alba – up against the attacking Moses – and Sergi Roberto simply had no room.
Crucial too was the parts played by Pedro, below, and Willian in dropping back to make it a 5-4-1 formation for much of the game. At one point Barca had 81 per cent of the possession but they created almost nothing in attack – until Chelsea handed them that late opening.
Constantly Conte could be seen on the touchline waving his men forward to press and harry Barca as much as they could, not just sit back and soak it up. That was the key difference between this match and Chelsea’s 2012 semi-final triumph against Barca. Conte wanted his team to be able to spring out of their shell. ATTACK Counter-attack was the key. Conte knew the pace and skill of Eden Hazard, Pedro and the reborn Willian could be vital, and he was right.
This Barca side keep the ball well but they are not as quick as Pep Guardiola’s version and, unlike Luis Enrique’s version, they do not have Neymar as another threat. Players such as Sergio Busquets are slower and can be caught by the quick break. Which is why, in a bold move, Conte chose to go with a ‘false’ No9 in Hazard rather than pick an orthodox centre forward in Alvaro Morata or Olivier Giroud. It meant that a lot of the time the ball kept coming back at the Chelsea defence. But it also meant that when they broke, they did so with fearsome pace and skill, with Willian particularly lethal. Twice the Brazilian hit the post, and when he eventually scored it was a deserved goal. WHERE NOW? In the second leg at the Nou Camp in just under three weeks’ time Chelsea can expect about the same amount of possession, give or take a percentage point or two – around 28 per cent.
That ability to break with blistering speed will again be key: stifle the creative men, as Chelsea did on Tuesday, and then go.
Expect Conte to go with much the same line-up and tactics because his team almost played Tuesday’s game as an away fixture anyway.
That away goal gives Ernesto Valverde’s Barca a crucial advantage and it may well prove decisive.
But if Chelsea can score in Catalonia, the game changes. And the breakaway is the way they can do that. Willian’s pace and Hazard’s dribbling will be the way in – again.