More Fab(regas), less Rod(riguez): Antonio Conte should shift to a 3-5-2?

When Antonio Conte joined Chelsea last summer, I found myself debating with a bunch of Juventini. They claimed that the Italian was too tactically rigid to succeed at Chelsea.

He apparently focuses on playing the system – the 3-man backline – he likes regardless of whether he has the players for it or not.

To this day, I find those claims baffling. This is a man that, in his own words, “won two championships with 4-2-4 at Bari and Siena,” He then “started that system with Juventus, went to 4-3-3 and eventually arrived at 3-5-2 because I had players better adapted for that system.”

What’s more arcane was the fact that I was the only one arguing in favour of Conte against 4-5 people.

The Italian Job

Two of the best tactical minds: Antonio Conte and Carlo Ancelotti

Italian manager and tactics is a better love story than the Before Sunrise series. Carlo Ancelotti weaved a winning machine at Real Madrid that won 22 games in a row – a record for the club that still stands – Massimiliano Allegri nuanced tactical variations forged Juventus into a European giant... and then there is Antonio Conte.

The Italian is to tactics what vasectomy is to birth control. While he might be synonymous with the 3-man backline system, former Bari manager Conte doesn’t have a preferred system as his "...preferred system is the one that permits my team to win.”

Last season, when Conte took over the reins at Stamford Bridge, he started off with a 4-3-3. As Chelsea were getting desecrated by Arsenal at the Emirates, trailing 3-0 at half-time, Antonio Conte decided that it was time to put the 4-3-3 where it belonged: in the gutters.

A few minutes into the second half, he subbed in Marcos Alonso for Cesc Fabregas and shifted to a 3-4-3 for the remainder of the game.

It was enough to contain the Gunners, who were looking like the all-consuming God of destruction at the end of Time, for the remainder of the game.

The Italian employed this system for the rest of the season and Chelsea won the title after finishing 10th the season prior.

However, it now seems like it is time to change the system again, but ever-so-slightly.

Chelsea won the league last season after finishing 10th the season before

With the arrival of Tiemoue Bakayoko, Conte has found the proper destructive partner for N’Golo Kante. The tenacity of the duo and their influential robustness while shielding the defence is going to make them the toughest midfield double-pivot to break.

Against tougher oppositions, this duo will become the source of frustration for the attackers of the opponent team. However, they also risk being the source of frustration for their own team’s forwards as well.

For all the industry that the duo possess, they are not creative midfielders. Both of them have the ability to make sudden forward runs and disrupt the opposition’s defence – and they do that more often than not – but when it comes to making slick passes that exudes a sense of unparalleled vision and thoughtfulness, they leave a lot to be desired.

They should, too. You can’t expect a fish to climb a tree, you need a cat for that.

And Cesc Fabregas could be that cat.

Being a cat is not always bad after all

The Spaniard was a starter for Conte at the beginning of last season. However, after Conte’s shift to a 3-man backline, Fabregas found his playing time restrained by the duo of Nemanja Matic and the Frenchman.

It might now seem like his chances have been further cut down with the acquisition of the Monaco man, but it could actually be the revival of his place as a starter.

The lack of a tempo-setting midfielder with the adequate vision would make Chelsea’s system unattractive and difficult to create chances.

Certainly, Antonio Conte didn’t sanction a club record £70 million fee for Alvaro Morata if he wasn’t going to provide him with the best possible scenario that helps him put the ball in the back of the net

This is why shifting from a 3-4-3 to a 3-5-2 is what seems like the ideal thing for Conte to do. Now, I am no tactician – and Conte is a much better one at that than a noob like me – but it seems as though it would be in Chelsea’s best interest to bring in Fabregas for Pedro and play him alongside the duo of Kante and Bakayoko.

In a system like this, Eden Hazard will be playing right behind Alvaro Morata in a role that actually suits his #10 jersey even more. While it might seem like this system doesn’t provide width, the presence of marauding wing-backs proves anything but.

As it is, in Conte’s 3-4-3, the full-backs are half wingers any way. They are the ones that provide the real width as both Hazard and Pedro have a tendency to run inside from the wings.

Last season, both Marcos Alonso and Victor Moses did a fantastic job at widening the system of the Blues, something that stretched the opposition defence while allowing the central players to take advantage.

Their roles in a 3-5-2 will also be the same. Meanwhile, we will get to see Hazard in an attacking midfield role, something that could unleash him completely and send him to the legendary level. With him behind Alvaro Morata, the Spaniard will have one of the most creative players assisting him right from behind rather than from the wings.

This is a system worth trying for Conte as Fabregas presence makes the difference. The former Barcelona man is the essential cog that will inject the necessary flux of creativity in the system, helping his team set the tempo and determining the course of the game.

Who knows, Cesc Fabregas might finally find home in a 3-5-2 this season.