Antonio Conte switched Chelsea to a 3-4-3 formation after back-to-back defeats to Liverpool and Arsenal in September left people questioning the Italian manager’s future, but the Blues boss believes that Jurgen Klopp doesn’t need to follow him by making any radical changes.
Klopp has been under increasing pressure after only one win in seven games in January as his side falter in the title race, and having been knocked out of both the FA Cup and EFL Cup, in the same week.
Chelsea are in good shape going into the key Premier League title match on Tuesday, but Conte thinks that Liverpool’s style of play isn’t broken and that Klopp doesn’t need to make a change – as he was forced to earlier in the season.
“Liverpool started the season very well, playing attractive football and I think this is the right way,” Conte said at a news conference at Cobham Training Centre. “But when you lose games and you have your idea of football, you have to continue like this and transfer your idea.
“It is important, if this happened to us, and you have a defeat and you start to think is this right? Is this not right? It is normal but when you have an idea of football, when you have your philosophy, I think you have to overcome these negative periods.
“Honestly, I think Klopp’s teams play attractive football and do very well.”
Apart from Swansea City, Conte will have to face the only two teams that he has failed to beat as manager of Chelsea in the same week as Liverpool and Arsenal aim to close the gap in the league table.
Conte thinks that those games against their rivals in September were key as Chelsea put together a club record-breaking 13-game winning run in the league. However, he thinks that his Chelsea side have yet to hit their peak, despite his club holding an eight-point gap at the top of the table.
“This is only five or six months since I started to work with Chelsea, don’t forget this,” Conte added. “I am a coach that when more time passes it gets better as I impart my idea, my philiosphy of football.
“At Juventus, we arrived at one point and we had a really good balance but only after work. In Chelsea we are working a lot in this aspect and in six months we have improved. If you compare our position now compared with this point last season, but for sure, we have room to improve.”
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