Steven Gerrard: “Antonio Conte made this mistake against Roma”
Steven Gerrard has criticised Antonio Conte following Chelsea’s shock 3-0 loss to Roma on Tuesday night, and highlighted one mistake from the manager which he felt cost the Blues the game.
Whilst speaking as a pundit on BT Sport, the former Liverpool and England manager criticised the Italian’s team selection, which he felt was “disrespectful” towards Roma and perhaps motivated them to win the match.
Conte lined up with three forward players, with just Fabregas and Bakayoko in midfield leaving them short in the middle of the park. Often for European away matches you would expect a more tactile approach.
“I think Conte’s disrespected Roma today. He showed Atletico Madrid fantastic respect by just going: Hazard behind Morata and having a lot of bodies behind the ball, packing the midfield.” said Gerrard.
“Today he went with a very, very bold team selection and it’s backfired.”
Conte seemed to be in agreement with the BT Sport pundit, and accused his team for a lack of fight whilst also praising Roma for their excellent performance.
“In the second half, it was a really bad performance,” he told press after the game.
“Roma showed more will to fight and more desire to win the game. I’m very disappointed with our second half. For this performance, we all have to take responsibility.”
“When you concede three goals, you must be worried. It means something doesn’t work. It’s very difficult now, but we have to analyse the game. We need to work on the tactical aspect. We are working less on this aspect this season. We have to look at ourselves.”
"Conte has disrespected Roma tonight…"
Steven Gerrard thinks the Chelsea boss had his bold team selection "backfire." pic.twitter.com/KtATwQS8E3
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) October 31, 2017
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