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Manager Antonio Conte

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Kane and Son.

They are the two biggest culprits IMO. Both in stuttering, at very best, form.

Defenders know they can overrun these two now.

Personally would make Richarlison and Kulu the mainstays, one of Kane/Son with them two. It’s just the amount of angles they create over Son/Kane with dynamism mixed with grit.

Any coincidence Son and Kane are playing like lettuces, with the World Cup looming? Not for me, they are both playing like it’s warm up for something bigger, Son played 30minutes at full tilt, after loosing his place.

Cant IMO carry both, in their differing ways. If Kulu out, go 5-3-2 Richarlison and Kane.
 
I’m a huge Conte fan, he has my full support and I still feel very confident of my pre-season prediction that we’ll come 2nd.

Football hasn’t been great this season but nearly every team has ups and downs during the year. At the end of last season I was absolutely fine with how we were playing and obviously the results that were following. It just hasn’t clicked this season yet but it’ll come, I have no doubt.


There are a few things I would like to see though:-

- The persistence with Emerson is baffling. He’s one of the most limited full-backs in an attacking sense I’ve ever seen, and that limitation is compounded as a wing-back.

We don’t see training, so it’s fair to say we don’t know how Doherty and Spence are performing, but both are infinitely better in an attacking sense than Royal, and suit our style much more. Looking forward to seeing how this impacts our team over the next few games whilst he’s suspended.

- A little confused by the alienation of Bissouma. Neither PEH or Bentancur have been bad this season, but I’ve seen enough of Bissouma over the last 2 seasons to know he’s superior to both. It’s not just that he hasn’t been able to muscle his way into the team, it oddly feels like Conte doesn’t fancy him at all.

- We need to keep Son as far away from our build up play as possible. His touch, ability to protect the ball and passing have all been utterly useless. I’d like to see his ball retention rate this season, I’d guess it’s one of the worst in the league.

Whilst it’s never been this bad, Son has always thrived playing high up the pitch on the shoulder. His off-ball running has always been his best attribute. We need him playing higher and to get Kane linking the play more.

- I have absolutely no issue with 3 at the back, I don’t think it means you play shit footy or have to be negative. We don’t have a CB pair good enough for a 2 IMO.

That being said, he needs to consider 352 particularly in tough away games. It again gets Son playing high and should add a little more control and resilience in CM.

Our wing-backs also have to be wing-backs. Too often they’ve felt like conventional full-backs in a 5 this season.

- Heavily related to the Son comment, Kane appears to be playing noticeably higher this season and less involved in our build up play. I wonder if he’s requested that?

This brings it own issue; both Son and Richarlison aren’t “creative types” or particularly effective in attacking build up play from wide positions. Kulu out and Kane trying to play on the shoulder is compounding our ball playing ability.

All that being said I meant my comment at the start, I see us getting circa 85 points this season and that being good enough for 2nd.

This is far from the perfect side and I think Conte is going to get the most out of them. 👍
 
The Romanian Jack said:
Riiiiight. Then that Conte fella should replace them with some of the world class players we have. Oh wait..........
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This is the logic that I hate. We have good enough players to be winning the games we are drawing and losing. You act like outside of Kane and Son the rest of the team is Championship players.

Son is struggling, when Kulu and Richie were fit they should have played.

Our midfield is constantly outnumbered. Why not change the system since we clearly do not have the wingbacks Conte wants for his system.

Emerson is always making mistakes. Why is he playing still?

So many questions that only Conte can fix. But since we don’t have 22 world class players, I guess it’s not his fault. Is it? We should just be like City and go spend a billion on players this January.
 
Stlducks said:
You act like outside of Kane and Son the rest of the team is Championship players.
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Tell me who you’d replace Son with. When he was struggling, he got replaced eventually, then he scored a hattrick. If Richarlison or Kulusevski would do that, maybe they’d get more chances to play over Son.

Maybe we should try 3-5-2 more, now that we’ve got Skipp back and only 3 attacking players, which means we can sub one of our midfielders and one of the front 2 when needed, but 3-5-2 is slightly more defensive than a 3-4-3, so yeah, can understand why Conte keeps persisting with it.

And why would he change a system he’s worked with at every club he managed and has been successful? Just because our players are on a shit form?
 
The Romanian Jack said:
Tell me who you’d replace Son with. When he was struggling, he got replaced eventually, then he scored a hattrick. If Richarlison or Kulusevski would do that, maybe they’d get more chances to play over Son.

Maybe we should try 3-5-2 more, now that we’ve got Skipp back and only 3 attacking players, which means we can sub one of our midfielders and one of the front 2 when needed, but 3-5-2 is slightly more defensive than a 3-4-3, so yeah, can understand why Conte keeps persisting with it.

And why would he change a system he’s worked with at every club he managed and has been successful? Just because our players are on a shit form?
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I answered your question before you asked it. I already said Richie and Kulu should have started when Son was out of form.

Why would Conte change his system? Because our attack is shit. We have no creativity from midfield and only one wingback can create chance.

A top manager changes to fit his players best style. He doesn’t try making every player play his style when they clearly can’t.

No way Skip gets playing time. Conte will continue running out the same XI until we fall apart and he blows up.
 
Raf said:
Still backing Conte, but he needs to earn that extension.

Not really expecting improvements until after the world cup. The next month will be a weird period.
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Can’t see why any tottenham fan doesn’,t, he’s the best manager we’ve had in a generation and what exactly is trying compete against runners-up to fucking Leicester in a league campaign that won’t happen again in our lifetimes, a flukey champions league final & a few other random cup finals that we didn’t even bother turning up for…..but no some are happy with that cos we played all singing all dancing football thats what important not the end product success….
 
GDG said:
I’m a huge Conte fan, he has my full support and I still feel very confident of my pre-season prediction that we’ll come 2nd.

Football hasn’t been great this season but nearly every team has ups and downs during the year. At the end of last season I was absolutely fine with how we were playing and obviously the results that were following. It just hasn’t clicked this season yet but it’ll come, I have no doubt.


There are a few things I would like to see though:-

- The persistence with Emerson is baffling. He’s one of the most limited full-backs in an attacking sense I’ve ever seen, and that limitation is compounded as a wing-back.

We don’t see training, so it’s fair to say we don’t know how Doherty and Spence are performing, but both are infinitely better in an attacking sense than Royal, and suit our style much more. Looking forward to seeing how this impacts our team over the next few games whilst he’s suspended.

- A little confused by the alienation of Bissouma. Neither PEH or Bentancur have been bad this season, but I’ve seen enough of Bissouma over the last 2 seasons to know he’s superior to both. It’s not just that he hasn’t been able to muscle his way into the team, it oddly feels like Conte doesn’t fancy him at all.

- We need to keep Son as far away from our build up play as possible. His touch, ability to protect the ball and passing have all been utterly useless. I’d like to see his ball retention rate this season, I’d guess it’s one of the worst in the league.

Whilst it’s never been this bad, Son has always thrived playing high up the pitch on the shoulder. His off-ball running has always been his best attribute. We need him playing higher and to get Kane linking the play more.

- I have absolutely no issue with 3 at the back, I don’t think it means you play shit footy or have to be negative. We don’t have a CB pair good enough for a 2 IMO.

That being said, he needs to consider 352 particularly in tough away games. It again gets Son playing high and should add a little more control and resilience in CM.

Our wing-backs also have to be wing-backs. Too often they’ve felt like conventional full-backs in a 5 this season.

- Heavily related to the Son comment, Kane appears to be playing noticeably higher this season and less involved in our build up play. I wonder if he’s requested that?

This brings it own issue; both Son and Richarlison aren’t “creative types” or particularly effective in attacking build up play from wide positions. Kulu out and Kane trying to play on the shoulder is compounding our ball playing ability.

All that being said I meant my comment at the start, I see us getting circa 85 points this season and that being good enough for 2nd.

This is far from the perfect side and I think Conte is going to get the most out of them. 👍
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I love your optimism and I agree that 85 points may be enough to get 2nd this year- but we aren’t getting them. Even in 2016-17 when we were on fire for a lot of the season and only lost 4 matches we only managed 86 points and we aren’t a patch on that team. I would love to be proved wrong but with Emerson in the side and the abilities of Bissouma strangely not yet explored I see our wingbacks continue to struggle to provide crosses for Kane and Son and a midfield that will continue to be overrun by good sides. 70 points is probably closer to the mark unless Conte changes tactics and personnel
 
The Romanian Jack said:
How? It worked just fine last season.
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It's still working. Last I checked we've had one of our best starts since our glory Pochettino days.

The doomsday on here is funny.

Adjustments will be made when necessary. The rwb position is a concern, but it was a concern this summer that wasn't addressed. Conte will adapt as needed. I suspect Doherty is simply not fit enough yet - he certainly played him over Emerson last season.
 
GDG said:
I’m a huge Conte fan, he has my full support and I still feel very confident of my pre-season prediction that we’ll come 2nd.

Football hasn’t been great this season but nearly every team has ups and downs during the year. At the end of last season I was absolutely fine with how we were playing and obviously the results that were following. It just hasn’t clicked this season yet but it’ll come, I have no doubt.


There are a few things I would like to see though:-

- The persistence with Emerson is baffling. He’s one of the most limited full-backs in an attacking sense I’ve ever seen, and that limitation is compounded as a wing-back.

We don’t see training, so it’s fair to say we don’t know how Doherty and Spence are performing, but both are infinitely better in an attacking sense than Royal, and suit our style much more. Looking forward to seeing how this impacts our team over the next few games whilst he’s suspended.

- A little confused by the alienation of Bissouma. Neither PEH or Bentancur have been bad this season, but I’ve seen enough of Bissouma over the last 2 seasons to know he’s superior to both. It’s not just that he hasn’t been able to muscle his way into the team, it oddly feels like Conte doesn’t fancy him at all.

- We need to keep Son as far away from our build up play as possible. His touch, ability to protect the ball and passing have all been utterly useless. I’d like to see his ball retention rate this season, I’d guess it’s one of the worst in the league.

Whilst it’s never been this bad, Son has always thrived playing high up the pitch on the shoulder. His off-ball running has always been his best attribute. We need him playing higher and to get Kane linking the play more.

- I have absolutely no issue with 3 at the back, I don’t think it means you play shit footy or have to be negative. We don’t have a CB pair good enough for a 2 IMO.

That being said, he needs to consider 352 particularly in tough away games. It again gets Son playing high and should add a little more control and resilience in CM.

Our wing-backs also have to be wing-backs. Too often they’ve felt like conventional full-backs in a 5 this season.

- Heavily related to the Son comment, Kane appears to be playing noticeably higher this season and less involved in our build up play. I wonder if he’s requested that?

This brings it own issue; both Son and Richarlison aren’t “creative types” or particularly effective in attacking build up play from wide positions. Kulu out and Kane trying to play on the shoulder is compounding our ball playing ability.

All that being said I meant my comment at the start, I see us getting circa 85 points this season and that being good enough for 2nd.

This is far from the perfect side and I think Conte is going to get the most out of them. 👍
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Excellent, reasoned, patient analysis. Thank you.
 
matspur said:
I love your optimism and I agree that 85 points may be enough to get 2nd this year- but we aren’t getting them. Even in 2016-17 when we were on fire for a lot of the season and only lost 4 matches we only managed 86 points and we aren’t a patch on that team. I would love to be proved wrong but with Emerson in the side and the abilities of Bissouma strangely not yet explored I see our wingbacks continue to struggle to provide crosses for Kane and Son and a midfield that will continue to be overrun by good sides. 70 points is probably closer to the mark unless Conte changes tactics and personnel
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I hear you. I think 85 is optimistic, especially since we had a very strong start, but 70 is pessimistic. We're certainly better than last season and our start reflects that. I suspect closer to mid to high 70s, finishing either 2 or 3.

Unless Chelsea or United really pick it up, I don't see how we battle for 4 or 5 unless we really drop in form.

One lost NLD away on a really questionable red does not make a season.
 
Pzabbythethird said:
I hear you. I think 85 is optimistic, especially since we had a very strong start, but 70 is pessimistic. We're certainly better than last season and our start reflects that. I suspect closer to mid to high 70s, finishing either 2 or 3.

Unless Chelsea or United really pick it up, I don't see how we battle for 4 or 5 unless we really drop in form.

One lost NLD away on a really questionable red does not make a season.
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I actually meant closer to 70 than 85 if you reread my post. The only really difficult games we have played so far have been Chelsea and Woolwich away and we were lucky to get 1 point from 6. We have played 5 of the bottom 6 so far and the other game being Fulham. We haven’t really been convincing in any game so far. As I said I hope I am wrong but we’ll see
 
Pzabbythethird said:
It's still working. Last I checked we've had one of our best starts since our glory Pochettino days.

The doomsday on here is funny.

Adjustments will be made when necessary. The rwb position is a concern, but it was a concern this summer that wasn't addressed. Conte will adapt as needed. I suspect Doherty is simply not fit enough yet - he certainly played him over Emerson last season.
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Adjustments have been necessary for some time. The concern was addressed because he bought Spence but won’t play him
 
This is not working, "Antonio Conte says Tottenham Hotspur need “more transfer markets” if they are to compete at the highest level in the Premier League and Champions League."

How many transfer windows?
We are making slow progress being generous while our rivals are making strides. We need to catch them at least to be able to compete, WTF, it will never happen with this setup and hierarchy. Hopeless.

He is not saying how long will it take because he doesn't know and am sure he will give up sooner or later.

Let's be honest, we need at least 5 players to compete in the PL today. That's £250m or so of decent players. We are better of buying 2 £50m player every window rather than cheap and cheerful addition to warm the bench and hoping to come good one day.
 
Hrytn said:
Let's be honest, we need at least 5 players to compete in the PL today. That's £250m or so of decent players. We are better of buying 2 £50m player every window rather than cheap and cheerful addition to warm the bench and hoping to come good one day.
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Inflation, basically driven by the doped oil clubs and high-revenue spenders like United, over the last decade is ridiculous.
Look at what we paid for Hugo and Eriksen versus what their replacements are likely to cost. Unless you’re getting someone at the end of their contract, a world class keeper or midfielder, it’s a 500% increase.
 
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