Chelsea Manager Antonio Conte believes that his side’s 3-0 loss at Barcelona doesn’t accurately reflect the form of his side. The Blues had no answer for Barca’s Lionel Messi, who’s heroics inspired high praise from Chelsea players Marcos Alonso and Thibaut Courtois.
Conte believes the Blues have been very unfortunate lately, and that his side has shown a lot of development this season; yes in spite of the results. Chelsea have only won two of their last six Premier League games, and just one across all five competitions.
“Luck appears to have turned its back on us this season, even though I don’t like to pin everything on misfortune,” he said in an interview with Italian media outlet Mediaset, but I do think tonight’s result was unfair. They were good and clinical, but Barcelona have players who are used to these games.”
“We are still a young team with a long way to go and we need to gain experience to be competitive all the way in the Champions League.”
The manager of the current reigning Premier League champions believes his job should be assessed on more than just winning or losing, or whether or not the club keeps adding silverware.
“It’s not about winning or not. I think that a coach’s work should be judged on the development of his players and what you see in terms of the value of the squad, not trophies. Chelsea can do better, but the team is growing,” Antonio Conte added.
Chelsea joined Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur as English sides crashing out of the UEFA Champions League knockout round. They are still alive in the FA Cup competition, but find themselves out of the top four right now. They are four points behind fourth place Liverpool with just eight games left to play.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes regularly to WGN CLTV and the Tribune company’s blogging community Chicago Now.
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