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3 Quick Fixes for Antonio Conte to Get Chelsea Rolling Again
- Updated: June 5, 2016
While he’s away in France with Italy at Euro 2016 this summer, Antonio Conte is sure to have one eye on his rapidly approaching arrival at Chelsea.
Come July, he will be donning a different shade of blue from his usual azzurri. And if he thinks he has problems with the squad he has picked for the European Championships with Italy, the problems are building up at Stamford Bridge.
Conte will arrive with a stack of issues to sort. He has a thin squad for starters, which means he will need to recruit efficiently to ensure he has everything in place for when the new season starts. Then there is the issue of keeping key players at the club as the vultures circle from on high.
What does Conte do with the youngsters? Does he buy more defenders than he needs immediately, or wait for Kurt Zouma to get back fit after his knee injury to complete the back line?
Whatever way he looks at it, Conte has a big task ahead of him. So where should he start? Bleacher Report highlights three quick fixes that could get Chelsea back up and running again in 2016/17.
Score more goals
If it was as simple as the subheadline makes it sound, then Chelsea wouldn’t be paying Conte millions to be their manager. Indeed, Roman Abramovich wouldn’t have paid millions in compensation to the managers he has sacked. But providing a bigger threat in attack is what Chelsea must do next season if they are to transform their fortunes.
Put simply, the Blues were not prolific enough last term. In comparison to when they won the title in 2014/15, Chelsea’s return of 59 goals in the league paled with the 73 from the year previous. Even the “little horse” from 2013/14 scored 71 goals.
A big reason for Chelsea’s problems in front of goal was an overreliance on Diego Costa and Eden Hazard to score for them. When the pair eventually found form, it proved too late to save Chelsea’s season, and throughout their struggles, there weren’t enough players stepping up.
Former manager Jose Mourinho’s insistence that he could restore Radamel Falcao to his previous glories was a significant misjudgement on his part. Having the Colombian in the squad meant Chelsea were horribly short of options in attack as he completed the strike force alongside Costa and Loic Remy.
Conte can’t repeat that same mistake. When he dips into the market to find Costa a partner—if he plays with two strikers, that is—or players to support him, the manager needs to recruit at least one front man who is proven and can be expected to hit double figures.
Chelsea can’t afford to start the …
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