The Blame Game
Don’t Blame Conte
Well here we are, again. All the excitement and potential of the summer seems far, far, far away. ENIC were giving us a cash injection, the manager is elite, Kane and Son are in top form, for the first time since leaving White Hart Lane everyone in the club seemed to be pulling in the same direction…and so on.
So how have we come to this? Back to the ever familiar Levy-out-manager-out-will-Kane-leave-in-summer part of the Tottenham dread-cycle.
The easiest and probably laziest answer is to blame Conte. For large parts of the Tottenham fan base Conte seems to be suffering from nothing more than not being Mauricio Pochettino. Every single poor result has Tottenham fans getting all misty-eyed and thinking back to the Pochettino years, harking on about the 16/17 season. Which of course was a brilliant season but cannot be compared to the Premier League Antonio Conte has to compete with.
Like many people in Tottenham’s recent history Conte has almost everything he needs to be successful but not quite enough; he may have Kane, Kulusevski and Son up front but he has also to try and compete with some of Europe’s elite clubs with a backline consisting of blokes who play like they’ve literally just met in the tunnel. Lloris has made four errors leading to goals this season, more than any other player in the league, how can Conte plan for that?
On the subject of planning – what has Levy spent the past fifteen months planning for?
It seems odd that a chairman who takes pride in examining every single detail of transfer agreements, who prides himself on always thinking about what’s best for the club (allegedly) would see it fitting that a manager who has consistently played three at the back for a number of years could head into a season with only one top-class centre-back.
Tottenham have consistently been a team that if things can go wrong they will, so why did Levy expect a backline featuring a mix of Dier, Davies, Sanchez and Tanganga was ever going to be anything other than a comedy of errors? Levy has kept up his consistency of hiring managers, giving them some of what they need and basically hoping they can make do and mend with a beleaguered squad that in truth has needed a complete overhaul for a good few seasons now. Levy needs to shoulder far more of this criticism than Conte ever should.
There are some legitimate criticisms of Conte; his commitment to wing-backs when it’s evident this is a position our squad is weak in. His late substitutions and his seemingly almost infallible commitment to Emerson Royal but these are not sackable offences, these are problems which could have been avoided had the manager been given what he needed and asked for.
Son’s ability collapsing like a dying star, Hugo putting in performances that would make Huerelho Gomes blush. Wanting Bastoni and ending up with Lenglet on loan, needing an attacking right wing-back and ending up with a player who had one solid season in the Championship; there are so many factors as to why things aren’t going as planned. To sack Conte would just be a rinse and repeat of the same cycle Spurs have been in post-Pochettino.
Conte is not a project manager. He doesn’t specialise in turning unknown players into first eleven starters. He signs grizzled veterans and players who are ready for the right here right now. If you’re not going to give Conte what he asks for you’re setting yourself up for failure. The board and the players are failing a manager who has consistently achieved at every other club he’s been at. Tottenham are rapidly approaching the point where there is no new ways to try it. We’ve tried project managers, that failed, we’ve tried byronic former-special-ones, that failed, we gave a nobody a chance that didn’t last longer than three months, now we’ve got an elite manager in their prime and again the board is sluggish at best to fix the problems on the pitch.
If Conte is sacked or decides to walk, where can we genuinely turn? Back to Pochettino? Is that the best the board can do? Hire the ultimate ENC yesman who will put up with underwhelming transfers and chronic underinvestment? The cycle continues.
Tottenham seem to be consistently on a knife edge, every summer is the most important in our recent history, every January transfer window can make or break us. Every loss is the end of the world and every win is haunted by every loss that should have been a win. No one can really say with any certainty what the immediate future holds for Tottenham. Does our future lie with Conte or do we have another seemingly aimless manager search on our hands?
Win or lose, Conte or no Conte one thing is for sure; the power lies with Daniel Levy, and that’s just the way he likes it.
All views and opinions expressed in this article are the views and opinions of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of The Fighting Cock. We offer a platform for fans to commit their views to text and voice their thoughts. Football is a passionate game and as long as the views stay within the parameters of what is acceptable, we encourage people to write, get involved and share their thoughts on the mighty Tottenham Hotspur.
8 Comments
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18/01/2023 @ 10:10 am
Yes Levy needs to invest or move on but Contes style of football is a complete bore.
18/01/2023 @ 10:12 am
He signs grizzled veterans and players who are ready for the right here right now.
So why didn’t he start Perisic on Sunday ?!!
18/01/2023 @ 10:21 am
Trust me you can blame conte. We lost 2 nld in one season ! Not just lost but completely out played. That’s unacceptable. We haven’t beaten any of the top 5 this season….crazy. that squad should be doing better
18/01/2023 @ 10:42 am
It’s a total cock up from Levy downwards, he wants an upper tier team but only wants to go after bargain basement players.
Conte, as you say, likes ready made off the shelf players who are on the edge of their sell by date. He insists on three at the back with wing backs, yet persists in just two midfielders and the midfield is over run every week! Why can’t he see that when it’s clear see to everyone.
He’s totally stubborn in his tactics, which are boring to watch and the players don’t seem to understand what he wants.
He moans about right wing back but won’t try Spence(can’t be worse than Royal), he didn’t want to play Sarr but he’s a revelation.
The persistence in playing Dracula(Lloris can’t deal with crosses), yet Fraser is a decent keeper who doesn’t get a look in.
Sorry for the ramble, had to get it out there! ;-) COYS
18/01/2023 @ 10:47 am
I don’t understand why if most of us can see it’s mostly the defence that is the problem, why wasn’t this made a priority? Our summer business seemed ok at the time but it was obvious to me that we needed at least 2 quality CB’s. The question I keep asking is how are we playing so much worse than we did last season? The tactics/formation were the same but seemed far more effective, now we only turn up once we’re already out of the game and it’s too late. I agree that Levy must now shoulder most of the blame but Conte isn’t fully blameless in this. Quicker starts and defending a goal or 2 lead would be preferable to chasing it the other way around so why can’t we play our second half game in the first half? I also think the defence suffers from Hugo’s erratic form. He needs to be replaced. The confidence at the back stems from the keeper and if you’re constantly scared that he will make a howler or give you a hospital pass or kick it straight back to the opposition then everything you do will be tainted by this fear.
It’s a horrible feeling having all these questions and no answers, I think we need to start addressing problems one at a time and working through them because the approach at the moment is a bit scattergun as your blog eludes to. The Tottenham dread cycle.
I don’t think Conte should be sacked but I think he will walk in the summer. He will just get frustrated with our lack of clear direction and leadership and we’ll be back to square one. The cycle continues.
18/01/2023 @ 10:53 am
He has no emotional tie to spurs. He blackmails the board with threats to leave and he has, in two windows, spent more, much more, than Poch did in many windows (Poch has three windows with not a a single incoming player). He says he does not understand why the team start so deep, he is the coach, he either tells them to or they ignore him, neither reflects well on his abilities. Please name one player, other than perhaps Ben Davies , who has improved under conte’s coaching: the ultimate test of a coach. Gary Neville was right two years ago when he said utd fans would never stand for conte’s style of play. This season is a bust. He cannot be given a penny in January, that has to be saved for the next coach when Conte leaves (his wife and teenage daughter are still in Italy, they never moved here, that is the commitment that 17 mill pa has bought us
18/01/2023 @ 12:16 pm
I put it to you, sir, that the easiest and probably laziest thing to do is to excuse Conte by blaming the players he has at is disposal and their form. You can bemoan his lack of options, or the fact that supposedly elite players like Llloris and Son are misfiring, but ultimately, he, as the coach, is responsible for performances and getting results, both of which of late have been dire – if you’re going to be kind. He, as the coach, is responsible for getting the best out of his players, many of whom are internationals, even captains of their teams. Does de Zerbi bemoan his options? Howe? Silva? No, yet their sqauds are signifcantly inferior and performances signifcantly superior.
Now, think back to previous managers and whether they could get the best out of their players and who they improved. Redknapp – lots. Poch – even more. Mourinho – hmm, maybe Kane and Son, but overall many went backwards. Conte… ? Conte….. ? None that I can think of. Maybe Bentancur, but he arrived recently and already looked like an elite-level player. The rest have either stalled or are going backwards. Others are not even getting a look in at all because he’s so wedded to his boring 3-4-3 system.
Let’s talk about that as well, while we’re at it. Spurs’ performances this season have been almost univerally dreadful. We’ve relied on remarkable come backs, which for sure shows we have great determination and fitness, but equally is a very poor reflection on the coach and his tactics – from a supposed “tactical mastermind”. We underwhelm against the top teams and we struggle agains the weaker teams. And he refuses to abandon his 3-4-3, despite the fact teams can so easily predict what’s coming and our midfield is always overrun. Fine, I will give him some slack for this, but then he refuses to accept any culpability after the matches – either refusing to accept the peformances were poor, or shifting the blame. The final nail in the coffin for Conte, is that he won’t sign a bloody contract. He doesn’t want to commit, because he doesn’t believe in the future of the club or his ability to acheive anything at it.
So, is it lazy to blame Conte? Is it lazy, when week after week, fans witness dismal displays, a frsutrating lack of any adaptation in the line up or the tactics, and soul-destroying press conferences where Conte always plays down Spurs’ potential and shifts blame to the board and the players? All the while, he has no long-term contract, so neither he nor the players can have a vision for the future. I put it to you, that it’s not lazy, it’s sensible, pragmatic and full of foresight. Conte is not the person to give Spurs fans what they want – positive performances and a long-term plan for the club, including the prospect of winning trophies. Defending him contstantly because he’s been highly successful at other clubs and because the current players are crap – i don’t agree with this argument anyway – is lazy.
19/01/2023 @ 11:15 pm
First half = second half. Second half = first half.i think you all know what I mean.