3 Quick Fixes for Antonio Conte to Get Chelsea Rolling Again

While he's away in France with Italy at Euro 2016 this summer, Antonio Conte is sure to have one eye on his rapidly approaching arrival at Chelsea.

Come July, he will be donning a different shade of blue from his usual azzurri. And if he thinks he has problems with the squad he has picked for the European Championships with Italy, the problems are building up at Stamford Bridge.

Conte will arrive with a stack of issues to sort. He has a thin squad for starters, which means he will need to recruit efficiently to ensure he has everything in place for when the new season starts. Then there is the issue of keeping key players at the club as the vultures circle from on high.

What does Conte do with the youngsters? Does he buy more defenders than he needs immediately, or wait for Kurt Zouma to get back fit after his knee injury to complete the back line?

Whatever way he looks at it, Conte has a big task ahead of him. So where should he start? Bleacher Report highlights three quick fixes that could get Chelsea back up and running again in 2016/17.

Score more goals

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If it was as simple as the subheadline makes it sound, then Chelsea wouldn't be paying Conte millions to be their manager. Indeed, Roman Abramovich wouldn't have paid millions in compensation to the managers he has sacked. But providing a bigger threat in attack is what Chelsea must do next season if they are to transform their fortunes.

Put simply, the Blues were not prolific enough last term. In comparison to when they won the title in 2014/15, Chelsea's return of 59 goals in the league paled with the 73 from the year previous. Even the "little horse" from 2013/14 scored 71 goals.

A big reason for Chelsea's problems in front of goal was an overreliance on Diego Costa and Eden Hazard to score for them. When the pair eventually found form, it proved too late to save Chelsea's season, and throughout their struggles, there weren't enough players stepping up.

	Home	Away
2015/16	32	27
2014/15	36	37
2013/14	43	28

Former manager Jose Mourinho's insistence that he could restore Radamel Falcao to his previous glories was a significant misjudgement on his part. Having the Colombian in the squad meant Chelsea were horribly short of options in attack as he completed the strike force alongside Costa and Loic Remy.

Conte can't repeat that same mistake. When he dips into the market to find Costa a partner—if he plays with two strikers, that is—or players to support him, the manager needs to recruit at least one front man who is proven and can be expected to hit double figures.

Chelsea can't afford to start the season with three injury-prone front men again. The situation is that drastic that it is also detrimental to the youth players coming through. Conte needs to make teams scared of playing Chelsea, and the best way of doing that is giving them a menace in the final third. He can't take chances in the process.

Ian MacNicol/Getty Images

Of course, having proven goalscorers is only half of the solution. If Costa is living off scraps once more in 2016/17, the goals will not be forthcoming. Conte must also address what Chelsea have in behind him by promoting players such as Lewis Baker to support the more senior figures in the squad.

As Hazard showed last season, he can't do it all himself. And when he's struggling for fitness, Chelsea have big problems. Further back, Cesc Fabregas can't be isolated, as so much of what Chelsea do in attack is about him starting things from deep.

Plug the gaping holes in defence

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From not scoring goals to conceding too many, Chelsea suffered badly at the front and back in 2015/16.

To pull up the statistics again to show how bad things were, the Blues recorded their worst defensive record since 1996/97 by conceding 53 goals in the league. The fact 30 of them came at home outlines how fragile they were.

When Chelsea were champions in 2014/15, they leaked just nine goals at Stamford Bridge all season in the league. They more than trebled that total with 30 last year, giving them the joint-third worst defensive record at home.

Only Bournemouth and relegated Aston Villa conceded more goals on home turf than Chelsea did in 2015/16. Sunderland just avoided the drop, but their form at home saw them concede 10 less goals than Chelsea.

That sort of form can't go on. It's one of the oldest facts in football—not just in England, but across the globe—that to win league titles, a team's home form must be exemplary. When teams are conceding goals at a rate of 1.57 per game like Chelsea were, it spells trouble.

	Conceded
1. Aston Villa	35
2. Bournemouth	34
3. Chelsea	30
- Everton	30
- Norwich City	30

Want to know why the Blues eventually finished slap bang in mid-table? That defensive record says it all.

Being so weak defensively put even more strain on Chelsea's struggling attackers. The goals-against average meant, in theory, at least, they needed to score two goals every game to come away with something.

Conte is Italian, so he comes to west London with an expectation that he'll tighten things up at the back. If he doesn't, he will have big problems.

Chelsea were a pushover in defensive midfield, which meant the centre-backs were being worked much too often from the off. Add that to struggles on the flanks and it really was open season, which opponents exploited ruthlessly.

Make Stamford Bridge a fortress once more

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Remember the times when Chelsea would go entire league and cup campaigns undefeated at home?

Until this season just past, Mourinho had only ever lost once at home in the league with Chelsea. From 2010/11 through to the beginning of 2015/16, Chelsea had lost just nine games at Stamford Bridge.

Come the end of the season, they had dropped points in 14 games. Chelsea won a mere five times at Stamford Bridge all season. They had a better away record.

If the league was judged by home form alone, Chelsea would have finished below Sunderland and relegated Newcastle United. They were that bad.

So now Antonio Conte must focus his efforts on returning Stamford Bridge to its former glories. It needs to become a fortress again to give Chelsea a platform to achieve something on the road.

How does he do it? By playing more positively and shocking teams who travel to Chelsea in search of a result. He needs to set Chelsea up in a way that allows them to control games more, but also utilise the attacking talent he has within the squad.

	P	w	D	L	Pts
2015/16	19	5	9	5	24
2014/15	19	15	4	0	49
2013/14	19	15	3	1	48
2012/13	19	12	5	2	41
2011/12	19	12	3	4	39
2010/11	19	14	3	2	45

Too often under Mourinho and Guus Hiddink, Chelsea struggled for a Plan A, let alone a Plan B when things failed. They were sussed out, and from the draw with Swansea City on the opening day of the season right through to same outcome with Leicester City on the final day, they didn't know how to get the better of sides.

Playing at home brings a psychological edge to any team. In familiar surroundings, players should be more willing to break the gain line and seize opportunities. They shouldn't feel pressure like they do in the backyard of a rival.

For Chelsea, it was the opposite. Teams went to Stamford Bridge and sniffed the anxiety that was rife and capitalised on it. They got at Chelsea and preyed on them.

That needs to stop. Conte needs a safe haven to build his foundations to get the feel-good factor back. Without that, he will fail.

Garry Hayes is Bleacher Report's lead Chelsea correspondent. All quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. Follow him on Twitter @garryhayes.