You know, in year one, his anger to pull us out of our misery injected us with enthusiasm. In year two, his touch line ban motivated us to run ragged, as did the CL debut under him. But this year, we come in as two time defending domestic champs, couple of other trophies and it's but obvious, the spark is lost a little bit. The players are perhaps, human enough to be a bit comfortable and complacent because of the same formation that we are moving forward with. Somewhere, that cannot be entirely down to the coach, because every player on the team needs to be 100 attentive to ensure there aren't any lapses in the game, but where Conte has gotten it wrong is believing or being complacent enough to believe that the 352 would be the first system teams would've been working to figure out, because Juve play it. He has in that respect, looked woefully short of ideas, to an ameuterish degree.
I can buy the Pepe not being ready idea. And I don't know how little or how much Marrotta was supposed to get him a winger this season, but the fact of the matter is, he had an entire pre-season to figure things out. If from now to the end of season, he is unable to mix things up, then I'm afraid, he will be largely responsible for a trophyless season. Just like he deserves the plaudits for his work here in the previous two.