Chelsea ace Oscar praises Antonio Conte for positional switch – and admits he has his eyes on domestic treble this season
Brazilian star playing as box-to-box midfielder rather than traditional No.10 and claims he's never felt as confident
CHELSEA star Oscar claims he’s regained much-needed confidence under new boss Antonio Conte – and admits he has his eye on a domestic treble this season.
The Brazilian ace has starred in the new regime at Stamford Bridge, moving deeper to take up a central midfield role in Conte’s new 4-1-4-1 system.
Chelsea have won all three of their opening Premier League games, with Oscar playing a key role alongside new signing N’Golo Kante and powerhouse Nemanja Matic in the middle of the park.
And the 24-year-old insists Conte is the man responsible for his rebirth, explaining that a change in position has given him the confidence to target glory in the league, FA Cup and League Cup after last season’s dismal showing.
Oscar said: “He (Conte) is giving me a lot of confidence and I’m doing very well. Hopefully I can continue to do so.
“In the last few seasons I have played as a No.10 or as a winger. Now I’m going back to my original position of No.8, attacking and defending from box to box, which is my original role and the one I like the most.
“It’s been a very successful time for me here at Chelsea. I won a lot in the last few seasons – the Premier League, League Cup and the Europa League.
“Only last season wasn’t great, not only individually, but as a team. Hopefully this season we will trophies and get back to a winning mentality.
“The objective is not only to finish in the top four, but to fight for the League, FA Cup and League Cup because we have to win trophies.
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“The coach has changed the formation, we are playing a different system to last season. His training method is different to what we had last season, and he’s changed both the players’ mentality and the team’s mentality.
“I think we have improved since he’s come here. I think you can see that last season we were lacking a bit of resilience. We had that spirit in some games, but we weren’t consistent.
“It’s good to have that spirit back and we are looking to improve on that front. If we keep up this team spirit, we will be a threat in the Premier League.”