• The Fighting Cock is a forum for fans of Tottenham Hotspur Football Club. Here you can discuss Spurs latest matches, our squad, tactics and any transfer news surrounding the club. Registration gives you access to all our forums (including 'Off Topic' discussion) and removes most of the adverts (you can remove them all via an account upgrade). You're here now, you might as well...

    Get involved!

Manager Antonio Conte

Latest Spurs videos from Sky Sports

I’ve said for ages our biggest problem is our fan base, not all fans of course but we have a vocal minority that have a ridiculous and fantasy view of where we are as a club. I’m nearly 60, most of my time following Spurs has been bloody hard work, Conte is our best chance in a long time of winning something and consistently challenging.

He inherited an absolute shambles, I can’t think of another bloke who could’ve done what he has in the past 12 months yet we’ve still got people moaning.

Careful what you wish for
 
I understand the principle of setting up teams to be resilient and fortress like in their defending, and to stretch out the opponents to set them up for a fast counter.

This relies on defenders and midfielders retaining the ball and playing passes to our forwards, or into space they can exploit. I have no memory of witnessing any of that control or ability from our midfield on Wednesday. As per The Spur Est's post above, possession doesn't mean everything - but there is one immutable fact - and that is, the opposition can't score if we keep the ball. It becomes much harder for them to score if we actually start passing to people in the same strip as us (that strip on Wednesday is the work of the Devil - it should be burned, buried and never spoken of again) - as opposed to firing the ball straight back at the opposition, maybe everyone in our support section should wave a flag that say's - "Go on, have another go" every time we do it.

Airfix in another post on here (TFC, not necessarily this thread) rebutted Moany Joany I think, by quoting stats about our points against the top 2 last season and decimating 10 man Woolwich at WHL - and whilst I get where he's coming from, that point is broken by the amount of matches we played where we looked like the last game.

I like the (good) results, but hate the method by which we achieve them - we really are starting to look like Stoke, and not even good stoke - I mean relegation Stoke. Yep don't tell me our league position, we are still top 4, but I suspect that it won't be for long. We've been royally found out, and now we are starting to make teams like Manure look like WC70 Brazil, by playing in this hideous "Tortoise mode" and hoping that Lloris got laid before the game.

I love the way people on here are slagging Dier off, as if he is entirely to blame, that guy was being bombarded for 90 minutes by a fast flowing attack that came straight down our throats and he was like a lone sentry for most of the game, is it any real surprise that he didn't deal with every assault with text book precision? He's not prime Bobby Moore or Beckenbauer, but he's not Anthony Gardner or Calum Davenport either, until we stop using him as a flack jacket to protect the goal, and stick a midfield in front of him that can retain and recycle the ball, the poor bastard is going to crack at some point against a constant, unchecked flow of high speed attacks.

We need to change this game plan IMV, we don't have the midfield to make it work, and if we don't supply Kane and Son with good opportunities, then they might as well get a couple of deckchairs and sit and watch the decimation from a point of comfort.
Excellent post!
 
I’ve said for ages our biggest problem is our fan base, not all fans of course but we have a vocal minority that have a ridiculous and fantasy view of where we are as a club. I’m nearly 60, most of my time following Spurs has been bloody hard work, Conte is our best chance in a long time of winning something and consistently challenging.

He inherited an absolute shambles, I can’t think of another bloke who could’ve done what he has in the past 12 months yet we’ve still got people moaning.

Careful what you wish for
The entitlement some people have about what we should be doing is a bit like them up the road when they were whining about not being top 4.
 
There’s a pretty clear dichotomy in this group right now;

1) those that think results will catch up to performances.

2) those that think performances will catch up to results.

I’m the latter. Why? Because we’ve seen some excellent performances under Conte towards the end of the last season. Performances where we looked resilient defensively, but could transition the ball from defence to attack quickly and open teams up with ease.

That there is the huge contrast between Conte and Jose and why those comparisons make no sense. Conte knows we have to be better than this, and has shown very recently he can get this team playing good football.

Jose never wanted nor evidenced that.

This squad is not exceptional, it still contains a number of mid-table players starting in the first XI. What we will be all season is an efficient side who accumulates points without ever being great.


How many times did we all say we were a better side than Chelsea the season Conte won the league there? This is what he does. He maximises the tools he has in terms of points accumulated over a season.

Maybe some of you want more than that. Me, I’m really encouraged by the progress we’ve made in his 12 months and whilst he does things that drive me insane (as has every Spurs manager in my lifetime), I can’t think of anyone better to progress our club further going forward.
 
We all knew that Conte coming on board didn’t exactly mean swashbuckling football. But it did mean he’d improve results and give us a better chance to win something.

He has improved results. Wednesday was a fucking horror show, but we were away from home at a ground we rarely win at, against a really good team. Are we that entitled to think we should always go there and win 1-6?

What we are entitled to is to see our team of top class international players making an effort and getting the basics right. We didn’t get that and it’s now up to Conte to make sure that doesn’t happen again. I believe he’s the right man to ensure that. But he’s not the right man to play thrilling football, just get results. If it means putting up with shite like Wednesday, I’m still in.
 
We're third in the PL and well positioned to qualify from our CL group. All of our games vs top 6 opposition have been away from home. It's not as if we're wading through a disastrous period here.

OK, but it's too early in the season for the table to give any kind of reliable information.

How do you think we look as a team? Do you enjoy watching us play? Do you think the way we're performing is sustainable across an entire season?

You might genuinely think it is. But regardless of what a league table in October shows me, I believe my eyes. Chelsea are 3 points behind us with a game in hand and they sacked their manager a few matches ago.
 
OK, but it's too early in the season for the table to give any kind of reliable information.

How do you think we look as a team? Do you enjoy watching us play? Do you think the way we're performing is sustainable across an entire season?

You might genuinely think it is. But regardless of what a league table in October shows me, I believe my eyes. Chelsea are 3 points behind us with a game in hand and they sacked their manager a few matches ago.
I'm not in love with the way we're playing, but I don't think the way we're playing merits as much worry as it's provoking. Personally think we've been fairly mediocre, but the players and coach have dug in and ground out results which were ultimately deserved in 7/10 PL games. Performances vs Fulham, Leicester, Southampton were ultimately good. Fairly comfortable winning away vs Brighton and Forrest. Worrying that we were crap in away games vs Chelsea, Utd, Ars and WHU. Think Kulusevski injury is a killer, he's our most natural link footballer and without him we have nothing to duplicate him on that right side.. an alternate for him is essential, whether it's a more central creative midfielder or a RW. We won't challenge for the league this year, no chance. But we'll be in strong contention for top four and hopefully battle for a cup. We're not a great watch most weeks, but we can be with Kulusevski in the team and improvements to wingbacks , midfield and cb positions which I'm sure is on the cards in coming months from within and the transfer market.
 
I'm not in love with the way we're playing, but I don't think the way we're playing merits as much worry as it's provoking. Personally think we've been fairly mediocre, but the players and coach have dug in and ground out results which were ultimately deserved in 7/10 PL games. Performances vs Fulham, Leicester, Southampton were ultimately good. Fairly comfortable winning away vs Brighton and Forrest. Worrying that we were crap in away games vs Chelsea, Utd, Ars and WHU. Think Kulusevski injury is a killer, he's our most natural link footballer and without him we have nothing to duplicate him on that right side.. an alternate for him is essential, whether it's a more central creative midfielder or a RW. We won't challenge for the league this year, no chance. But we'll be in strong contention for top four and hopefully battle for a cup. We're not a great watch most weeks, but we can be with Kulusevski in the team and improvements to wingbacks , midfield and cb positions which I'm sure is on the cards in coming months from within and the transfer market.

A very reasonable take, cheers.
 
I'm not in love with the way we're playing, but I don't think the way we're playing merits as much worry as it's provoking. Personally think we've been fairly mediocre, but the players and coach have dug in and ground out results which were ultimately deserved in 7/10 PL games. Performances vs Fulham, Leicester, Southampton were ultimately good. Fairly comfortable winning away vs Brighton and Forrest. Worrying that we were crap in away games vs Chelsea, Utd, Ars and WHU. Think Kulusevski injury is a killer, he's our most natural link footballer and without him we have nothing to duplicate him on that right side.. an alternate for him is essential, whether it's a more central creative midfielder or a RW. We won't challenge for the league this year, no chance. But we'll be in strong contention for top four and hopefully battle for a cup. We're not a great watch most weeks, but we can be with Kulusevski in the team and improvements to wingbacks , midfield and cb positions which I'm sure is on the cards in coming months from within and the transfer market.
In Jan, could we look to recall Udogie early, so Perisic can be rotation option for Kulu and Son instead?

Just fearful Perisic doesn’t appear to have the legs to be PL WB, but he may have the creativity to contribute in attack.
 
There’s a pretty clear dichotomy in this group right now;

1) those that think results will catch up to performances.

2) those that think performances will catch up to results.

I’m the latter. Why? Because we’ve seen some excellent performances under Conte towards the end of the last season. Performances where we looked resilient defensively, but could transition the ball from defence to attack quickly and open teams up with ease.

That there is the huge contrast between Conte and Jose and why those comparisons make no sense. Conte knows we have to be better than this, and has shown very recently he can get this team playing good football.

Jose never wanted nor evidenced that.

This squad is not exceptional, it still contains a number of mid-table players starting in the first XI. What we will be all season is an efficient side who accumulates points without ever being great.


How many times did we all say we were a better side than Chelsea the season Conte won the league there? This is what he does. He maximises the tools he has in terms of points accumulated over a season.

Maybe some of you want more than that. Me, I’m really encouraged by the progress we’ve made in his 12 months and whilst he does things that drive me insane (as has every Spurs manager in my lifetime), I can’t think of anyone better to progress our club further going forward.
I'm the latter too. Partly because I don't really see any other options, and partly because Conte has been very open about needing more windows. Which implies he is committed. If the fans split and half of them boo his team at half times then we deserve everything we get unfortunately.
 
In Jan, could we look to recall Udogie early, so Perisic can be rotation option for Kulu and Son instead?

Just fearful Perisic doesn’t appear to have the legs to be PL WB, but he may have the creativity to contribute in attack.
I'd finish out the year with lwb as it is.. think we'll probably see better from Perisic as the season goes on. Hasn't much history of playing 3-4-3 and the spacing seems very different to his wingback role at Inter. Think he's maybe our best option 3-5-2 and Sess for 3-4-3.. but every game is different.. we often put too much emphasis on the most recent one. Bissouma will probably improve as well.
 
Back
Top