Last season Chelsea shocked the league by switching to Antonio Conté’s 3-4-3 system. Opponents looked hopeless as Chelsea dominated with balls launched from a regenerated David Luiz in defence with a solid defence-minded midfield. The initial shock factor has now disappeared and teams are countering Chelsea’s style of play. Does Conté have another surprise up his sleeve?
•Option 1: 4-2-4
The boss could play a 4-2-4, as he did for a while at Juventus. The left-back and right-back would have the license to overlap leaving a 2 man defence while we are attacking, as Manchester City play, Conté would play Morata, Batshuayi, Hazard and Pedro up front. He would have a defensive midfielder (Kanté/Bakayoko) and a playmaking midfielder (Fabregas). The two centre backs would ideally be ball playing defenders (Luiz & Rudiger). Conté could once again send gasps around the league and have managers waste yet another season trying to counter his system.
•Option 2: 4-3-3
Conté tried playing a 4-3-3 system at the start of the 2016/17 season. It’s failure is what gave him the need for the 3-4-3 system he later had his success with. In the 4-3-3 we could play Morata up front with Hazard on the left & Pedro/Willian on the right. Conté would then have the option to play Musonda in cup games and rest Hazard for the Champions League and EPL. The same could be done with Willian and Pedro. We would have a replacement for nearly every position in this system.
•Option 3: 3-4-3
Conté could choose to stick with what worked last season and see how it plays out for him. Rudiger has the potential to play anywhere across the back line; however, he started as a right-back for Roma most of last season. Alex Sandro would be a excellent upgrade at left-wingback: giving Eden Hazard more freedom to stay in the second third while Chelsea are defending instead of having to track back to help Marcos Alonso. This seems the most likely option as Conté knows this system inside-out.
Only Antonio Conté knows what he has planned for the transfer market and next season. The board, fans & players can’t wait to find out what he has up the sleeve of his Chelsea FC tracksuit though!
-Cameron Wanless (@CameronWanless)
