If Antonio Conte has his team close to
perfect on the pitch, that has also allowed him to get his responses
pitch-perfect for anything controversial off it. Take when another manager’s
spikier comments are put to him, or he’s questioned about anything that could
remotely add a bit of an edge to the hyperactive and hyperemotional Premier
League news cycle.
Conte smiles, speaks
politely and diplomatically, plays a little dumb to it… but then leaves just
enough of something in there so you know he’s thinking about it all in a very
calculated way while ensuring his own side remains fully focused.
Friday’s press
conference ahead of the FA Cup sixth-round tie with Manchester United was a
classic example, as he claimed to entirely reject the idea of - yes - mind games,
before offering one of his own for Jose Mourinho.
Chelsea vs Manchester United:
Five memorable matches
It’s one of the best way to plays it, of course, especially when your team’s results speak for themselves. There’s little reason to needlessly get drawn into anything distracting. Mourinho - his predecessor at Chelsea and opposite number for Manchester United at Stamford Bridge on Monday night - naturally has a different view on all that. He revels in drawing others in, no matter how he is doing, as Didier Drogba has revealed.
“His
provocations were almost like entertainment to him,” the Ivorian wrote in 2008.
“He also believed that the more time opposing managers spent getting angry, the
less time they had to dissect his game. Shrewd of him.”
The
wonder, then, is what Mourinho thinks of Conte in this regard. The Italian
doesn’t get angry, or any way intimidated. Sure, the Manchester United manager
may not have had any direct goes at Chelsea, but there have been enough
indirect mentions: how some clubs are doing so well because they don’t have
European football; how some clubs are supposedly being praised for the type of
counter-attacking football he was one criticised for…
There have also been enough for Conte to be asked on Friday why he
just doesn’t engage in Mourinho’s mind games.
“The
mind games... they're strange no,” Conte initially said. "It's strange to
ask me this. I'm very focused on the pitch. The mind games don't bring you to
win.
“The
most important thing is what happens on the pitch. To prepare the team in the
right way, with good organisation. This is the most important thing. To talk
football, to think about my team, to try through work to improve my players.”
Except, when asked about how United have not been beaten in the
league since their 4-0 defeat to Chelsea in October, Conte seemed to make a
point of saying that Mourinho and Pep Guardiola have something else probably
more important than anything: the best squads in the league.
“In October, before the game, I was sure we'd face a great
team," Conte said. "The same now. I think Manchester United, with
City, have the best squad in the league. They have a lot, a number of great
players with great talent and great experience to win. For sure, it can be a
really tough game, for us and for them. I think that now, for us, it's better.
Conte winning the league in his
debut season would obviously be emphatic on its own, but adding such a
historically significant feat would really be an achievement apart. As such, a
United win couldn’t be waved away as just a cup win. It would mean so much
more.
The
problem for Mourinho is that he could probably do with Chelsea getting some way
distracted. Because, while Conte has a full and fully-rested squad on fine form
to choose from, United are on their way back from the centre of Russia
following their Europa League draw with Rostov, and without the suspended
Zlatan Ibrahimovic. It’s all the more important because the Swede is probably
the one obvious choice in United’s front six, given it’s still so hard to know
what Mourinho’s best team is. He now must reconfigure it, to really convince
against Chelsea.
That is
just another contrast. Conte knows his best XI. Mourinho does not.
The
Portuguese does know, however, he needs to play this one perfectly. It could
set up an actual game far more interesting than any off-pitch pantomime.
“In October we didn't know our future. Now we are in March and
we stay on top of the table. We have a good identity, a good team. So we are
showing good football. But, for sure, it will be a really tough game against
United. We are facing a good team, very strong.”
Whatever the actual reality as to whether mind games do have a
genuine effect, or just end up as a pantomime game of public one-upmanship
between two managers, the comments do touch on an undeniable reality for both
ahead of this FA Cup tie.
Antonio Conte has
so far let his side's football do the talking (Getty)
Conte is over-performing with Mourinho’s old squad, while
Mourinho is under-performing with United - at least in the league. The Old
Trafford club just shouldn’t be sixth. All that, however, makes this game even
more important to the Portuguese. He needs to prove that position really is
unrepresentative, that United genuinely are a better side - and close to title
challengers - than results like a series of draws suggest.
There would be no better way to do that than by winning all of
the cup competitions possible - and doing so by beating his league-leading old
team along the way. It would be the true statement this United side need,
especially since it has become a match all the more meaningful for Chelsea.
With Conte's side having found a rhythm at the top of the league
that means it would take at least another two defeats for them to have another
fixture that feels like it really has something on the line, the FA Cup offers
a rare sense of tension, now that they also have a rare double in their sights.
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