Cesc Fabregas made a guest appearance on Sky Sports’ Monday Night Football with Jamie Carragher and Ed Chamberlin, discussing multiple things such as incoming manager Antonio Conte, former manager Jose Mourinho and his Premier League Team of the Season.
Fabregas was a key piece in last season’s Premier League-winning side under Mourinho and was one of the players that many fans blamed for Mourinho’s departure away from Stamford Bridge.
As reported by the Telegraph, the Spaniard proved his loyalty to Mourinho, saying:
A lot has been said [since Mourinho left] but I love Jose.
I consider him a friend and we still keep in touch now. Some of the things said were unfortunate, but I still have huge respect.
Fabregas admits however that the Portuguese was let down by the players:
I think Jose’s problem was that he trusted us too much. He gave us more holiday because we were champions, and we let him down — the whole team.
The central midfielder went on to say that Conte is exactly what Chelsea need:
I’ve been studying his previous teams to see what he does and it’s interesting because you can see he loves offensive football and his teams are so well-organised.
He is a winner and a competitor and that’s what we need: someone to push us and motivate us.
He wants to win and win and we will have to be prepared for that.
He then commented on Conte’s style of play, which many accuse the Italian as being obsessed with the 3-5-2 formation. Fabregas said:
At Juventus he played different systems. He played four at the back with two strikers even sometimes.
At the end of the day, systems are a little bit, in my opinion, overrated.
You can play three at the back, plus one midfielder and two interiors with wingers. You can play four at the back and be very defensive.
At the end of the day, it is about the players that you have and I am sure he will make the best team he can considering what he wants to do.
As a bit of a side note, since this would be a good time to dispute many fans’ belief of Conte being married to the 3-5-2, David Amoyal has written two fantastic pieces over at Di Marzio on Conte, his systems and how he can adapt to the players he has at his disposal.
Fabregas later went on to pick his team of the season during the show, which includes: David de Gea; Hector Bellerin, Toby Alderweireld, Robert Huth, Ryan Bertrand; Riyad Mahrez, N’Golo Kante, Dele Alli, Dimitri Payet; Jamie Vardy, Harry Kane.
The appearance of zero Chelsea players led to a bit of comedic banter when Carragher (jokingly) said: “you’re not going to be very popular in the Chelsea dressing room tomorrow, are you?” To which Fabregas asked why, and Chamberlin interjected with “you can’t pick from your own team.” “You can,” replied Carragher. “He’s on Monday Night Football — he can do what he wants!” Fabregas answered:
Listen: we have to be honest. None of us deserve to be there. So I’m sure they will not be too upset.
The Spanish midfielder later went on to say that Willian has been the most consistent Chelsea player when asked who Chelsea’s player of the season should be.
