Antonio Conte hits back at Jamie Redknapp's 'anti-football' criticism after Chelsea's defeat at Manchester City

Redknapp had been scathing of Conte’s approach on Sky Sports, and the comments were directly put to the Chelsea manager

Antonio Conte, left, lost to Pep Guardiola and Manchester City (AFP/Getty Images)

Antonio Conte has hit back at Jamie Redknapp over criticism of his approach against Manchester City as “anti-football”, saying pundits need to “use their heads” and that it would be “stupid” to play any other way against the Premier League leaders. Chelsea played a hugely defensive game against Pep Guardiola’s side but the Italian argued that any other approach would be to “lose 3-0 or 4-0”.

Redknapp had been scathing of Conte’s approach on Sky Sports, and the comments were directly put to the Chelsea manager.

“Yeah, but I think you have to accept every criticism but I am not so stupid to play against Manchester City open and to lose 3-0 or 4-0,” the Italian said. “If I remember well, two days ago, Arsenal played twice against them and then you criticise a lot Wenger because they concede three goals in only 30 minutes. The pundit has to use the head to understand when you speak about tactics because I think you must have knowledge to speak about tactics and not only to speak in a stupid way.

“They follow my instructions. We prepare the game in this way. Don’t concede space between the lines. When you play against City you have to use your brain, otherwise you risk to finish the game in a bad way and to lose 3-0 or 4-0. I think we tried to don’t concede the space to Manchester City for a long part of the match was good. For sure to concede the goal after 30 seconds of the second half was a pity because then it was v difficult for us to come back.

Conte had also been asked about the odd situation whereby Alvaro Morata’s substitution was delayed.

“I tried to wait because the substitution was with Hazard and you hope until the end that a player like Hazard can invent something but we were unlucky on this aspect and I decided to do this substitution, I don’t know, a bit late. In the last game, against United, I did this sub before with Hazard and didn’t change.

“I tried to do something with the substitutions but I tried. For sure when we decided to play with Pedro, Hazard and Willian, there is a bit of difficulty to have on the bench players to change the game. We tried to change the game with two strikers. We played against a strong team, an important team. It is v difficult to keep the balance of last season with Hazard as a number-10. We needed in this position two players with quality and to run defensively. I thought Pedro and Willian played a fantastic game.”

Chelsea have now lost four of their last five and are in big danger of missing out on the Champions League, as they lie five points off the top four.

“I think that we must have a big regret for the defeat against Bournemouth and against Watford, against United but I don’t think today because I think we played against a team that shown to be a strong team. I think today they showed the difference between them and us in this moment. 25 points is a big gap and I think that we can have regret for the other games but not for this because I think the effort of the players was an important effort. When you play against Manchester City, this kind of team, they are showing fantastic quality but at the same time fantastic mentality. When you match quality and mentality you become unstoppable.”