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Manager Antonio Conte

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Our fans are spoilt. There were fans calling for him to be sacked at half time.

This is Conte's first full season, we are still a few players short of being a Conte side. 2 more windows, Hakimi and Bastoni would turn this side into a Conte team.

PSG just called btw......

They said they're definitely gonna sell their RB mid-season..... I said "are you sure?" and they said "Yeh, we're not worried about replacing him... It's all good bantz, innit monsieur".



Job's a good'n. :tanguythumb:
 
Our fans are spoilt. There were fans calling for him to be sacked at half time.

This is Conte's first full season, we are still a few players short of being a Conte side. 2 more windows, Hakimi and Bastoni would turn this side into a Conte team.
And it doesn't even have to be Hakimi. It just needs to be a competent, quality, RWB with pace and the ability to cross the ball. Both Emerson and Doherty aren't good enough to be in a squad challenging for top 4. Doherty is too slow to play as a wingback at the absolute highest level of football.
 
And it doesn't even have to be Hakimi. It just needs to be a competent, quality, RWB with pace and the ability to cross the ball. Both Emerson and Doherty aren't good enough to be in a squad challenging for top 4.

- Emerson is sub-par attacking wise.
- Doherty is decent, but not great.
- Spence presumably is a bit of a wild-card defensively.

We need a substantial upgrade to get where is being demanded....

..........Not just a "competent", "better than what we already have"-type.

World class is likely not for sale, but the notch below that is necessary.
 
- Emerson is sub-par attacking wise.
- Doherty is decent, but not great.
- Spence presumably is a bit of a wild-card defensively.

We need a substantial upgrade to get where is being demanded....

..........Not just a "competent", "better than what we already have"-type.

World class is likely not for sale, but the notch below that is necessary.

At Chelsea he managed with Marcos Alonso & Moses. They suited to the setup but were very, very far from world class. I'm very suspicious of the whole 'if we just had a world class wing back the football would be much better' stuff. It's reminiscent of Jose to me.
 
At Chelsea he managed with Marcos Alonso & Moses. They suited to the setup but were very, very far from world class. I'm very suspicious of the whole 'if we just had a world class wing back the football would be much better' stuff. It's reminiscent of Jose to me.

.......But we already have "ok" in Doherty & Sess.

....Your comments about Moses & Alonso (add Young to your list too!) also reinforces the idea to me that, rather than political, he sees something fundamentally lacking from Spence.

Just to hark back to what I said over-and-over since the beginning of last season...... We should have done a conversion job on Bergwijn (and there's a few prototype performances under Jose that back this up).


Given his track record with converting WBs you'd expect that this is one of the ways he'd truly earn his money.... The fact we're no further forward in this respect is extremely frustrating.
 
Twat, posted around 5 mins into the second half yesterday, got some agrees too!! 🤦🏻‍♂️
Why am I twat? Conte set up the team disgracefully for the first hour yesterday against newly promoted, relegation candidates that Citeh, Woolwich and Dippers put 4, 3 and 9 past without conceding. The handbrake came off belatedly when we were 2-0 down and Bournemouth were a poor enough team to overhaul.
 
.......But we already have "ok" in Doherty & Sess.

....Your comments about Moses & Alonso (add Young to your list too!) also reinforces the idea to me that, rather than political, he sees something fundamentally lacking from Spence.

Just to hark back to what I said over-and-over since the beginning of last season...... We should have done a conversion job on Bergwijn (and there's a few prototype performances under Jose that back this up).


Given his track record with converting WBs you'd expect that this is one of the ways he'd truly earn his money.... The fact we're no further forward in this respect is extremely frustrating.

We do. I think he wants something very specific and then can work with it. Alonso was essentially an upgraded version of Doherty, very good at getting in goalscoring positions but better at finishing it off, a more technical player. Not particularly athletic or defensively good but he put numbers up.

Moses was a workhorse RWB who Conte was able to mould in to being effective defensively. His crossing was mediocre but he could take a man on and the delivery was still far ahead of say an Emerson. He can turn disciplined right wingers/right midfielders in to RWB's but someone as erratic as Lucas? Nah .. and I just think Emerson is too technically deficient to do much with.

But yeah, he shouldn't need someone like Hakimi for us to be good. Should be able to mould a talent with the right assets, which is why what is happening with Spence is so disappointing.
 
Oh for fuck sake... talking about moving goalposts.
Lets leave everything else aside and talk about cold facts.

Video was posted about Chelsea build-up play. From the game that took place in previous day.
You responded with clip from last season (!) .

It is painfully obvious that I will not provide some videos about Chelsea games. I don't follow Chelsea, I follow Spurs. It is quite funny that while you post video that is half a year old, you come and ask to be provided any other examples from recent games, after you have provided none at all. What are we even arguing about here.

From some point I felt it was obvious that discussion went wider, because we have played quite poor football and have not been direct enough. And I pointed this out, you brought forward some data about stats from start of the season until now ?!? And then you come back to this video question in the beginning.

I feel that all of this is bit nuts and I think we should just leave it there.
I stand by what I said - we play shit football and our build up play is shockingly awful recently. Something that has been backed by the fact that within past 450 minutes of football we have scored 2 goals from open play (!) (that is PEH against Everton and Sess yesterday) and from last 4 games we have only one win, in which we also failed to create quality chances to break down bottom half team.
Bollocks.

You tried using the Chelsea clip to highlight how good they were in comparison to us.

They're not, they don't move the ball quickly every game, hence my saying to show me other examples.

Every single team can take one passage of play in isolation to prove how "good" they are.
It means shit.

This was the original exchange;



I get your point but if you watch those clips side-by-side you see that it is not quite at the same pace.
No one in the Chelsea clip took even half of the time on the ball that Hjojberg needed for example.


But you continually try to deflect from this fact and move the goal posts.
When your assertion that they moved the ball from one end of the pitch to the other quicker than us proved to be complete bullshit you moved the goal posts to "more players" being involved.

Where was Chelsea's lovely, free flowing, end to end football yesterday ?
Non existent is the answer.


To reiterate my point ;

Taking one clip in isolation to prove anything is complete and utter bollocks.
 
We do. I think he wants something very specific and then can work with it. Alonso was essentially an upgraded version of Doherty, very good at getting in goalscoring positions but better at finishing it off, a more technical player. Not particularly athletic or defensively good but he put numbers up.

Moses was a workhorse RWB who Conte was able to mould in to being effective defensively. His crossing was mediocre but he could take a man on and the delivery was still far ahead of say an Emerson. He can turn disciplined right wingers/right midfielders in to RWB's but someone as erratic as Lucas? Nah .. and I just think Emerson is too technically deficient to do much with.

But yeah, he shouldn't need someone like Hakimi for us to be good. Should be able to mould a talent with the right assets, which is why what is happening with Spence is so disappointing.

....But once again; maybe Spence doesn't have the right "very specific" attributes (however, between Alonso & Moses you've listed quite a broad set of attributes).

Bergwijn did though....... To me on paper he's pretty much the same profile as pre-Conte Moses:

- Athletically sound
- Decent with the ball close at his feet,
- Got a decent cross on him
- OK but not great in terms of scoring, but good for a handfull of poaches at the back post per season.


Classic winger attributes but with enough physically to not get bossed about at our end of the pitch.



"Get over it Airfixx!!!" - Yeh, fair enough.
 
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....But once again; maybe Spence doesn't have the right "very specific" attributes (however, between Alonso & Moses you've listed quite a broad set of attributes).

Bergwijn did though....... To me on paper he's pretty much the same profile as pre-Conte Moses:

- Athletically sound
- Decent with the ball close at his feet,
- Got a decent cross on him
- OK but not great in terms of scoring, but good for a handfull of poaches at the back post.


Classic winger attributes but with enough physically to not get bossed about at our end of the pitch.



"Get over it Airfixx!!!" - Yeh, fair enough.

Yep Bergwign seemed perfect for wing back, physical but with attacking ability. I think Conte is world class but the hill he is dying on with Emerson is bizarre like Poch with the diamond. It feels more like he is saying to the board back me in the market otherwise this will happen.

Spence and Doherty are wing backs, Royal isn’t, it fucks up the team. Doherty and Spence must be absolutely and totally appalling at defending to justify the situation.
 
....But once again; maybe Spence doesn't have the right "very specific" attributes (however, between Alonso & Moses you've listed quite a broad set of attributes).

Bergwijn did though....... To me on paper he's pretty much the same profile as pre-Conte Moses:

- Athletically sound
- Decent with the ball close at his feet,
- Got a decent cross on him
- OK but not great in terms of scoring, but good for a handfull of poaches at the back post.


Classic winger attributes but with enough physically to not get bossed about at our end of the pitch.



"Get over it Airfixx!!!" - Yeh, fair enough.

I dunno about Bergwijn. Not sure he'd ever have wanted that role anyway (especially when Ajax turned up wanting him as a goalscoring forward) but he probably didn't get a fair shot.

And all I'm saying with regards to Spence is that, for whatever reason, it's been really disappointing. I dunno why, probably because he isn't doing what Conte wants in training. But given our issues in that position I don't think anyone could say they'd have expected Spence only to have got a few minutes at the end of a few games at this point.
 
I dunno about Bergwijn. Not sure he'd ever have wanted that role anyway (especially when Ajax turned up wanting him as a goalscoring forward) but he probably didn't get a fair shot.

And all I'm saying with regards to Spence is that, for whatever reason, it's been really disappointing. I dunno why, probably because he isn't doing what Conte wants in training. But given our issues in that position I don't think anyone could say they'd have expected Spence only to have got a few minutes at the end of a few games at this point.

He ripped Woolwich and Leicester apart and was great in defence in those games as a wing back last season. Maybe it’s personality, he might have pissed in conte’s chips because no one can tell me Spence is a worse wing back than Emerson, I have to close my eyes to make it happen.
 
He ripped Woolwich and Leicester apart and was great in defence in those games as a wing back last season. Maybe it’s personality, he might have pissed in conte’s chips because no one can tell me Spence is a worse wing back than Emerson, I have to close my eyes to make it happen.
I'm surprised no one has told you that you arent on the training ground or a world class manager yet for making such an arrogant observation.
 
I'm surprised no one has told you that you arent on the training ground or a world class manager yet for making such an arrogant observation.

I get he might not be performing on the training ground but removing Spence. Doherty performs better in that role and is an actual RWB so something is odd to say the least.
 
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