Antonio Conte has urged his side “to be more clinical” after he was left frustrated at his side’s 0-0 draw away at Eintracht Frankfurt, in which his side had many chances to put the game to bed.
Tottenham’s normally clinical partnership – Kane and Son – both missed numerous big chances.
“Then at the same time I didn’t think we risked a lot, taking big risks. We created chances to score, but if I have to find a situation that we need to improve on after this game for sure we need to be more clinical.”
A message that was echoed from Spurs midfielder Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg after the game:
“I think the last bite needed a bit more”
However, if Spurs do want to improve, they must start taking more points while on their travels, with the Lilywhites only having won one game away from home, this season.
A record that has recently translated to Europe as well, with Spurs without an away win in their last six European games. A record that includes losses to minnows such as NS Mura and Pacos de Ferreira.
“I think that it’s important for us to understand that play at home or away it has to be the same way. The personality maybe when you stay away has to be stronger. Tonight, in this aspect I’m really happy because I had a great response from my player.”
Many fans were surprised to see a cameo from Bryan Gil who got his first minutes of the season after Conte claiming he “trusted” the Spaniard earlier on in the week. Despite the player seeming off the pace, most Spurs fans would have been happy to see the youngster get a shot.
“Today I made substitutions and played Gil, and Gil is a young player, and we have to try to involve all the players. We have to try to do our best. And then go step by step to improve and become stronger as a squad.”
Despite, the disappointing draw Spurs still sit second in the group, two points behind leaders Sporting Lisbon- following the Portuguese’s side surprising 4-1 loss to Marseille.
Conte still remains still hopeful of Spurs’ chances of reaching the knockout stages:
“Until the last game, we don’t know what happens, in my opinion. For sure now we have two games at home. Like today in our stadium, there is an amazing atmosphere. Our fans have to play a big role in these two games because for sure we are going to play for qualification in the next two games.”
Is it Conte? Is it the players?Is it our weak captain? Is it Levy? Is it Paratici? Is it our training methods? Is it bad luck?
a)Conte is not a good fit for Spurs.He is defensive in his approach and this is not the typical Spurs way. Our players look frustrated and irritated..Kane yellow carded.. Royal red carded (unluckily), Kane and Dier squabbling on Saturday blaming each other, Sonny and Richarlison unable to control the ball, sideways and back passing, ghastly distribution from Lloris, no creativity in midfield, 3 forwards feeding off scraps and errors.
Conte is not stupid..just stuck in a rut. Rather not lose than win.
b) We are short of quality players in midfield and right wing back. It is not really the players fault. We have to play with what we have. Our bench is totally uninspiring dominated by defenders.
c) Our captain is another poor fit. Does not communicate or cajole. Often makes silly mistakes and one of the worst at distribution putting defenders in dreadful positions creating panic.
d) Levy chooses the coach and most of the players. He keeps a tight rein on expenditure not wishing to offend his bosses. Often misses out on good signings by procrastinating.
e) Paratici..not sure what he does.
f) Players are being trained to be safe and unadventurous. If in doubt pass the ball back.
g) No.
Other than that .. we are still 3rd. But oh so boring.
Funnily enough, I actually thought we played well against Frankfurt. We created lots of chances and we just finished poorly.
Even against Arsenal, the 3 goals we conceded we down to a “1 in a 1000” long range shot (a speculative, low probability effort which you would normally be quite happy to restrict the opposition to), a bad individual mistake from Lloris and a silly mistake from Royal which led to the overload for the 3rd goal.
In other words, at 11 v 11 in the first half, Conte’s tactics were working quite well and without the individual mistakes, we may have gotten something out of the game. You can’t really coach for individual mistakes.
I respect wentworth’s opinion that he doesn’t think Conte is a fit for us. I personally don’t agree with it, but that’s fine. We’re all entitled to our opinions.
In my view, we have tried winning things playing expanive football under MP and we failed. There is no indication that even if the club hired a more expansive coach to play more open football, we would even have the right players to dominate possession and outpass/outplay the opposition. At best it would be an expensive, lengthy rebuild.
I think Conte took some time earlier this week to answer the critics. He touched upon his system, his team selection – and he was quite definitive. He believes his methods are tried and tested, and he’s not going to change them. To be fair to him, it’s hard to argue with his results overall. We can all second guess but which manager has won more, more recently? You can count them on one hand and all of them have been backed more than what Spurs could afford.
His team selections are down to what he sees every day in training. We can all rue Emerson starting, but if Doherty isn’t fit and Spence isn’t ready (and let’s face it, Conte is probably a better judge of that than any of us fans), what else can he do?
Part of the answer is probably more recruitment, but we’re stuck with what we have until January 1st, 2023 at the earliest.
As to whether Conte is the right fit or not, I can accept that there is a club ethos at Spurs and that some fans are attached to it. But I think there is more than one way to win a football game/be successful and we ought to remain open-minded on the methods. Pragmatically, which other manager could we bring in in the short term who would both match Conte’s results and guarantee more attractive football?
We can all moan and rehash the same complaints over and over, but while we are 3rd in the PL, second in our CL group, it feels a bit premature to throw out the baby with the bath water.
Conte’s biggest mistake to date is complaining that he isn’t stupid. As soon as he opened his mouth for these words to exit he invited the word stupid to be associated with him forever. That was evidence on it’s own for a certain level of stupidity.
It’s almost like a supporter calling himself a total knobhead. Who couid be so stupid?
At least Conte could have moaned that he’s no knobhead. But, of course, a knobhead would have brought in a creative midfielder by now so that a tactical alternative is available.
Knobheads and self-proclaimed not-stupid types? What a clash. London Calling.
Bring on Perfidious Albion.
I wish Poch had been able to bring in as many fresh faces as Conte has been able to do.
Do you think Conte can take us to a CL final without new signings?
TK – it is fairly well documented that MP had funds available at his disposal but chose not to use them because he didn’t feel he could bring in anyone better than what he had at the club already.
I have long accused Levy of failing to back managers and I am probably among his harshest critics, but even I will say that MP dug his own grave, to a certain degree, when it comes to recruitment.
And when MP finally did decide to sanction moves for players, he spent the money on players like NDombele.
Who knows how far Conte can take us. But what’s clear is that he certainly has done more in his first 9 months in charge than what MP had done after 9 months. Some perspective. And I think he has certainly done enough already to merit more time.
It doesn’t really matter what Conte says, or any PL manager for that matter – what they say will be held against them regardless, whether fair or not. That just comes with the territory. If he hadn’t addressed the criticism at all, people would have said he was aloof.
I just find it disheartening that he is having to defend his methods at all, when the reality is that he is off to one of the brightest starts in club history this year, so soon after having snatched top 4 from the jaws of defeat last season.
As a fan base, we don’t deserve a top class manager, it seems.
Of course he has to defend his methods because he demands a defensive, boring style of football.He knows the players and fans are not happy even though we are currently top 4.
Do the players even look happy on the pitch, do we have team spirit
BS, you suggest that we as a fan base don’t deserve a top class manager of the ilk of Mr. Conte.
An alternative perspective: Perhaps ENIC the capitalist owners don’t deserve us as a fan base?
As to Mr. Conte: What kind of idiot proclaims that “I am not an idiot.” Such an invitation to abuse from the person who proclaims his fabulous greatness in such a way. Saying something like that is an invitation to be verbally abused, is it not?
I haven’t gone into the archives to check my memory, but I remember Poch complaining that he wasn’t getting the refreshment of the squad that was required. Yes, he did bring in Ndombele, which turned about as sour as can be, but no worse than Bryan Gil looked yesterday. I’ll grant that Gil seems to be trying, but he looks to be knocked off the ball by a spring breeze. And yes, Gil cost less the Ndombele.
To be honest, my feelings about Mr. Conte stem from the increasingly boring style of play he insists on playing, even though it does have us in the upper parts of the table today. Being as deadly dull as we were in THE North London derby is difficult to forgive, though. And this was followed up by a CL match in which the number of shots on goal by THFC was ZERO. Should I repeat that number for emphasis? I suspect I do not, for it stands on its own as a shocking indictment of where we are now.
There is nothing pleasing in the way Mr. Conte has this team playing. We almost lost sight of this with the magic 13 minutes that Son gave us a wee while ago, but that was 13 minutes out of how many matches that are we into the season?
The word of the season so far is: BORING, and that’s not an adjective I want associated with OUR TEAM. And it is OUR team. Mr Conte is only a leaf the the wind brought in, and the wind will carry away. We stay through manager after manager, and Mr. Conte will be off to Italy or the West side of London or somewhere other than THFC soon enough.
His loyalty is to himself, and he himself has brought terribly boring football to OUR club. And he had the gall to proclaim himself “not an idiot.” How idiotic was that?
Two successive matches in complete embarrassment led by Mr. “not an idiot” Conte.
No thank you.
I’d support naming BelgianSpur as Mr, Not-an-Idiot’s replacement. Surely BS could manage the team to a successful shot on goal in his first match.
Spot on TK. I am beginning to lose faith in Conte and his rigid tactics and lack of man management.
Our players seem irritated and frustrated with the way they are told to play. Very rarely do we see a telling forward pass or decent cross from the wings.
A lot of histrionics on the touchline but dull and defensive, boring play on the pitch.
If we start to drop down the table, I can see Conte moaning that he will be off to Italy in the summer.
We need to start looking for a more progressive coach/ manager now rather than Levy knee jerking at the last minute.