As Chelsea fell to a 2-1 home defeat to old adversaries Liverpool on Friday night, the main gripe from home fans came in Antonio Conte’s late subs. It took until the 83rd minute for the Italian to make changes to his side, a decision he defended once the match had ended. “We scored the goal and created chances so for this reason I waited to make the substitutions. In the last 10 minutes I changed three players to try to give freshness and change the result.”
Granted, Chelsea were much-improved in the second half having been overawed in the opening 45 minutes by a superb Liverpool showing, but with the minutes ticking by towards the 90, many felt Conte should have made the adequate changes earlier to draw the Blues level. With six minutes of normal time remaining, Conte threw Pedro, Cesc Fabregas and Victor Moses into the mix for Willian, Nemanja Matic and Oscar in the first instance of a triple sub since Norwich against Chelsea last November.
It proved to be too little too late for Chelsea, whose unbeaten start to the season came to an abrupt end at Liverpool’s expense. It wasn’t just Conte’s decision to make his changes late on that irked the Chelsea faithful either, with the choice to leave Michy Batshuayi on the bench riling supporters and bewildering the neutral. The Belgian’s four competitive Premier League appearances this season have each come from the bench. In his 34 minutes of action, Batshuayi has scored and registered an assist, both of which came at crucial periods that helped Chelsea to maximum points. Moreover, in the 24 minutes Batshuayi and Diego Costa have shared the pitch together, Chelsea have scored three goals. It made sense for the Italian to call on the summer arrival as his side pressed for a crucial second.
Yet, Conte opted against throwing the young frontman into the mix, despite needing to go more direct against a Liverpool side that struggles in defence. Had Batshuayi been introduced, and earlier, the chances of Chelsea bagging an equaliser would likely have increased given the 22-year-old’s impact this season. Conte’s late subs, however, are nothing new. Of course, any manager would resist the temptation to make changes too early as the balance of play could shift, but to leave it so late to alter his side against Liverpool was bemusing to say the least.
As the 90-minute mark neared, Chelsea were in the ascendency and had Liverpool pegged back. However, none of his changes in the league have taken place before the 70-minute mark this term, with the earliest substitute taking place in the 72nd minute when Moses replaced Pedro in the 2-1 win at Watford last month.
Indeed, since the 2011/12 season, Conte has made a total of 397 substitutions in Serie A, the Premier League and in competitive outings for the national team, with 274 of those taking place from minute 70 onwards. Three of the seasons were in charge of Juventus and given the Old Lady’s dominance in Serie A, it comes as little shock that his subs were made late on. Having won 83 of 114 league games during this spell, Conte rarely had to tinker with his team too much in order to chase a positive result, with Juventus more often than not ahead by the latter stages of matches.
It’s a similar case with Italy, where Conte won 10 of the 15 competitive matches he oversaw as manager, thus having little need to really throw players on when chasing the game. For Chelsea, however, he needs to quickly adapt in order to avoid mistakes like that against Liverpool at the weekend. It’s an intriguing predicament for the manager, who must now deal with the fact he once again does not manage a team capable of brushing aside all of those before them.
Granted Chelsea remain one of the dominant forces in the Premier League, with their possession return (56.9%) the second best in England’s top tier this term. However, in the long run, the lack of movement from the bench could have larger implications on the team and their title pursuit. Conte is somewhat fortunate in that he doesn’t have European duties to concern himself about and so, at the time of writing, the club will be playing a minimum of 41 domestic games between now and the end of the season.
This means he’s able to constantly play his strongest starting XI and it's no coincidence that nine players have started all five league games this season. John Terry and Willian would have made up a full starting XI of those to feature in every top-flight match had they not missed meetings with Liverpool and Watford, respectively, through injury. The continuity means Conte has the luxury of a squad capable of playing week in week out and while this has its benefits, he needs to alter his tact from time to time in order to bring out the best in the players at his disposal and keep the team competitive.
While substitutes are rarely afforded a lengthy amount of action, bringing players on with five or so minutes to go means they don’t have sufficient time to affect the outcome of the game, with Chelsea substitutes registering the fewest minutes combined (147) of all teams in the Premier League this season. Conte has the personnel to guide the Blues to domestic glory, but he now needs to manage his players accordingly to improve the club’s chances of success.
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