If recent reports are to be believed, Chelsea is immensely close to signing AC Milan’s center back Alessio Romagnoli. It is quite obvious that Conte would be highly acquainted with Italy’s young crop coming up the ladder and as per talkSPORT, he is a great admirer of the 21- year old Italian and is looking to bolster his squad in the winter transfer window. Conte is known for engineering a defensive team, who are good on the counter-attack. With only 54% percent possession on average Chelsea has conceded 9 goals in their last eight games. Hence, the defensive woes at Chelsea have failed his strategy.
Conte is known for engineering a defensive team, who are good on the counter-attack. With only 54% percent possession on average, Chelsea has conceded 9 goals in their last eight games. Hence, the defensive woes at Chelsea have failed his strategy which worked so well both at Juventus and the Italian National team.
Romagnoli has been likened to Alessandro Nesta and Thiago Silva before and is highly admired by Europe’s big clubs. His passing accuracy has been improving every season with a good average of 2.1 interceptions per game in the 2015-16 season.
With Terry now old living on single contracts renewed yearly and Ivanovic showing ample signs of flaw, it is quite known that Conte has been looking to import quality defenders. Experts are of the opinion that
The Italian started the season with four defenders at the backline- Cahill, Ivanovic, Terry, Azpilicueta. Soon, Terry was replaced by David Luiz for obvious reasons. After Chelsea’s humiliating defeat at Emirates to Arsenal, where Ivanovic’s weakness was badly exposed, Conte further cut down his defensive line.
He now plays with 3 at the back with no place for Ivanovic in the first team at the moment. Kante and Matic have been assigned duties to cover gaps seeping into the back three. It was essentially why Fabregas lost his place in the starting line-up. His lack of physical prowess when falling back has given chance to Moses to prove his worth as a starting player in this team.
With an assured left foot and good reading ability, which compliments his good passing accuracy and positioning, Romagnoli might be the perfect personnel for Conte’s perfect three-man defense system. Romagnoli has made more interceptions (149) than any other player aged 21 and under in Serie A since the start of last season. He is also tremendously difficult to pass having been dribbled past just 23 times in his last 65 league appearances.
While at 21, he is still to reach his peak physical abilities, his technical ability seems more than good to fit in Chelsea’s transfer list. For the £49m that Chelsea is rumoured to pay AC Milan for the defender, it might just prove to be a masterstroke for Conte.
