In the past few weeks there has been a lot of speculation on Antonio Conte becoming Chelsea's manager next season. First Alessandro Alciato, who wrote a book with Conte recently, stated that the former Juventus manager would replace Hiddink in summer. Two weeks ago Di Marzio listed him as one of the 4 candidates along with Simeone, Allegri and Sampaoli- last Thursday Di Marzio reported Conte was the favorite. In the meantime I have been asked a lot about Conte, a coach I covered extensively at beginning of my "writing career" so I decided to write a series of articles about him. Today we focus on his ability to rebuild and we are going to dispel the myth he only uses a 3 5 2 formation.
Some coaches take you from A to B while others from B to C. That is what I kept thinking when people asked me who is a better manager between Antonio Conte and Max Allegri. For a few weeks, the two were amongst the top candidates to take over at Chelsea next season (Allegri is now out of the running) and while I do think both are outstanding options, Conte seems to suit better a club who needs to rebuild both their squad and mentality.
Conte inherited Juventus after the club was coming off back to back 7th place finishes. The bianconeri had never fully regained their stature in Italy after the Calciopoli scandal, and Conte was tasked with rebuilding the club he once played for. Prior to returning to Turin, Conte had shown the ability to revive struggling teams at Arezzo, Bari, Siena and Atalanta which was also one of the reasons why Conte was the right fit for the bianconeri's rebuilding project.
The rest is history, Conte started the season using a 4 man defense but then switched to the 3 5 2 to utilize more center backs and central midfielders- the strength of his squad. Conte would win his first scudetto going undefeated, the following season he had an impressive run in the Champions League before being eliminated by a historically great Bayern Munich. While many rightfully remember how much Juve underachieved the following season in Europe, it's important to note there is a very limited sample size for Conte in the Champions League, and one of the two seasons his team more than met expectations.
While Conte's departure from Juventus was quite dramatic, there is no doubt he was instrumental in the club's turnaround- he clearly took them from A to B (the contributions of Marotta and Paratici also need to be acknowledged, but Conte was also very involved in picking new players). Allegri deserves a lot of credit for taking that Juve to a new level in the Champions League and for their recent club record 15 game win streak in Serie A, but he likely wouldn't have been able to rebuild like Conte did- Allegri is more of a coach that takes you from B to C- which is equally challenging but not what Chelsea needs at the moment.
But don't just take all this praise of Conte from me, this is is what Pirlo (both he and Buffon have credited Conte as the main factor in Juve's turnaround) had to say about Conte in his book "Penso quindi gioco"- "I am extremely lucky I met Antonio Conte, I had so many coaches to compare him too, and he is the one who surprised me the most. I was expecting a good coach, but not that good. I thought he was a coach with a lot of grit and charisma, instead I discovered that tactically and technically he has a lot to teach many of his colleagues". While Conte is mainly known as a great motivator, he is very much a complete package.
Speaking of tactics, there are so many misconceptions on the way Conte plays. While it is true that at Juventus and Italy's national team he has mainly used the 3 5 2, he has only started doing so since being able to count on Bonucci (a player he developed into one of the best in center back in Europe), Barzagli and Chiellini. As Conte himself has said many times, he believes a good manager adapts to the personnel he has and not the other way around.
Before joining Juventus Conte mainly used a formation he called a 4 2 4, and one of the reasons he left Juventus was that he never had the wingers to go back to that way of playing- interestingly Allegri also switched to the 3 5 2 at Juventus because of the personnel while previously using a 4 man defense. No matter where he goes next, Conte will adapt the formotion and style to the player he has.
Conte could be the right man to revive Chelsea. While the Blues are clearly in a difficult stretch, they aren't in as bad a shape as Conte was when he took over at Juventus. When you consider the recent track record of Italian coaches in the Premier League- Ancelotti, Mancini and more recently Ranieri- there are a lot of reasons to be optimistic for Chelsea fans should Conte get the job.
