Antonio Conte knows turning things around at Chelsea will not be easy.
[ MORE: Wenger to coach England? ]
Especially since, well, waving a magic wand around will do absolutely nothing to solve their defensive frailties.
Chelsea’s Italian manager was seething following their 3-0 drubbing at Arsenal last weekend as his team looked all over the place defensively and they’ve now conceded nine times in their last four games.
For a manager of Conte’s ilk who prides himself on setting up his teams to be tough to beat and stingy at the back, it hurt him. Big time.
Speaking to the press ahead of Chelsea’s game at Hull City on Saturday (Watch live, 10 a.m. ET online via NBC Sports) Conte knows the size of the task facing him.“It is never good when you lose, but I think also in these two games we saw and learnt a lot of important things. We must work very hard to recover,” Conte said. “We finished 10th last season - when you finish 10th it means you have problems. Now we are trying to solve this situation, but we haven’t got a magic wand.
“We faced two teams who were very strong (Liverpool and Arsenal) and for me, these two teams are now at the top. We have a lot to improve, but this is the hope we must have. I see the present and the opportunity to improve, it’s not easy. But we know this.”
The Italian also revealed that captain John Terry will not return for this game so he may well have to continue with the likes of Gary Cahill and Branislav Ivanovic in defense, despite both of those long-time Chelsea defenders going through a tough time in terms of their form.
It will be intriguing to see if Conte switches to a 3-5-2 formation this week at Hull. The Tigers usually only play with one man up front, Abel Hernandez, so it would seem unlikely Conte will add an extra man in the center of his defense.
That said, such has been the shocking nature of Chelsea’s defending in recent weeks, the Italian will try anything -- expect from magic -- to turn this slump around and get back on track after three-straight wins to start the PL campaign had many people touting them as title contenders.
