Conte: A Coach Like Mourinho

Since his appointment, Antonio Conte has regularly used the word "work" in his press conferences.The daily double session training he had with his players in pre season attests to this. Indeed, the last two games have proven him right, as his players have shown high work rate with and without the ball. The recent Chelsea games against Westham and Watford in which the more industrious Oscar was selected ahead of the creative Fabregas, is also evidence that the Italian prefers strength to creativity. This typifies Jose Mourinho's ideology because the last time the Portuguese was in charge at Chelsea, he shipped out a certain Juan Mata whose work rate was poor compared to the hard working Willian.

Although it is still early days, early signs show that Conte is also a good reader of the game like Jose Mourinho. Anyone who watched each of the last 10 minutes of the Chelsea games against Westham and Watford, would think that Chelsea secured easy wins, but no. It was simply the Italian's introduction of impact substitutes in the name of Batshuayi and Moses in the first game and Fabregas, Moses and Batshuayi in the second game that won the matches for The Blues. This is typically what Mourinho is good at; introduce impact substitutes when chasing a win, searching for an equalizer or defending a lead.

Talk about managers who parades the technical area for majority part of a game and exerting almost the same amount of energy as the players in the pitch, well, the list would not be complete without Conte in it. Talk about managers who don't enjoy their seats in the dugout, the Italian is right up there with the best. Only on Monday, in the game against Westham, we saw the Italian celebrate wildly with the Chelsea fans. Chelsea fans cannot forget Mourinho's celebration of Torres' winner against Man City at Stamford Bridge three seasons ago. Infact, The Special One introduced himself to the English game through his famous run down the byline at Old Trafford in 2004 UCL while celebrating FC Porto's goal against Man Utd.

So, how would the pair fare on their first meeting? It is a question that only time will answer. I for one, would like to see how the two will treat each other, the day their teams meet.