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Manager Antonio Conte

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maybe the style is just outdated for the prem now, teams press and attack going forward relentlessly, we have no answer for it hitting hopers to son or kane but forget they are not as mobile as they once were, games we win like wolves, and even leicester outplayed us for majority of the game

and the biggest problem is we have not rejuvenated the squad with successors to these old players

kane could go on a free

and son is slowly on the decline like hazard
would help having wingbacks who can deliver quality and CB's that can pass a ball about properly though.
 
maybe the style is just outdated for the prem now, teams press and attack going forward relentlessly, we have no answer for it hitting hopers to son or kane but forget they are not as mobile as they once were, games we win like wolves, and even leicester outplayed us for majority of the game

and the biggest problem is we have not rejuvenated the squad with successors to these old players

kane could go on a free

and son is slowly on the decline like hazard
Thing is, we don't know if his system really works, or not; because it's missing vital components.

We won't be properly competing until he properly sorts out the WB situation..

Saying that... he needs to stop cunting Spence off and see if there's a spark there.

Shit is now officially ridiculous.
 
I liked Conte's public response to the defeat.

No blame attached (as yet) and his usual calm self in front of the cameras and offering context and perspective.

It's on him as manager but standing back and looking at the overall situation most or many of us would be quite content.

My issue is always the predictable nature of our defeats as in I can often sense their likelihood, and that the team rarely prove my but feeling wrong.

Big week ahead. Need to find the confidence from somewhere.

We lack on-field leadership and mentality and suffer from big game mistakes more than we can bear if we are ever to be successful.

Lets see what part of the rollercoaster we are on by this time next week. Hopefully not full of more horror stories.
 
Its really sad that Conte is too afraid to take a chance on Spence. It's cowardly and un-Spurs-like.

I try my best to support the coach and the club but I really just don't like this kind of football, and don't agree with a lot of his decisions.
 
Its really sad that Conte is too afraid to take a chance on Spence. It's cowardly and un-Spurs-like.

I try my best to support the coach and the club but I really just don't like this kind of football, and don't agree with a lot of his decisions.
Agree with this. I love Conte but he has to take the handbrake off now and get players forward, and pick some pace and energy. Spence could make the odd mistake defensively due to inexperience, but I don’t think the crowd will care if it’s offset by pace and ball carrying
 
He cannot persist with the current tactics. If we do not have any defenders that can do what he wants them to do then it's just pointless to persevere with the same formation and ideas. You can still be solid with a back 4 and 2 holding mids and having an extra player further up the pitch giving you another option to release the ball which is sorely needed right now. Our defenders are too shit and don't have the speed of thought or ability to play make in this conte system.
 
Agree with this. I love Conte but he has to take the handbrake off now and get players forward, and pick some pace and energy. Spence could make the odd mistake defensively due to inexperience, but I don’t think the crowd will care if it’s offset by pace and ball carrying
Ironically I think choosing to play Spence or not is starting to look like the hill Conte will die on at Spurs. I mean I guess he can persist with complete non-production at RWB if he wants. Who am I but a mere farmer to contemplate the logic of such a superior footballing pedigree?
 
Think next couple of weeks before world cup break is key imo. Performances and style are shit then might need a change. He cant call for time and patience when hes stalling on a new deal. For me the style of play under him is dire and when we lose it looks even worse.
 
Think next couple of weeks before world cup break is key imo. Performances and style are shit then might need a change. He cant call for time and patience when hes stalling on a new deal. For me the style of play under him is dire and when we lose it looks even worse.

Can't disagree with much of that. I like to think of myself as pragmatic. Win and I'm happy. I can dissect the performance in slower time.

It's bizarre that he won't sign a new contract because he has been backed and he talks in future terms.

If the play was more progressive it would maybe strengthen his case about wanting even better players and more depth.

Don't get the Spence reluctance.

Conte needs to see us into the last 16 of the CL, next round of the carrot cake cup and oversee at least 6 points from 9 in our 3 PL games before the World cup or it could just lead to a convenient parting of the ways.
 
And this is why stats such as these reported are total garbage without context.

Run the furthest, how dose this actually translate into a football match? Are these jogs or sprints? What is the intensity? Are the KM's spread across the entire team equally or have we sent out 1,2,3(???) players to run like dervishes by pressing the oppo whilst everyone sits back?? Is this running with the ball or without it?

You can work the players mega hard in pre-season to give them a base level of fitness, then dial it back once the season starts.

I've had two mates that we professional Tri-Athletes, their taring was all meticulously worked out on spreadsheets for the entire year, broken down to every day of the week, it was tailored around the dates of the competition. It's very, very complicated and turns them into utter boring wankers to be around. But this is the nature of elite professional sports.

I have no idea how this translates into a whole team, I can only guess that the players might not be aware of the program they are actually on, they just do what they are told. Again, the actual specifics day to day are 100% managed as Poch (and it's well documented that it's been done with other managers) did with us, all the training he did was focused on us peaking in the Christmas and New Year. We smashed teams in this period, whilst also starting slowly and finishing weakly (there was always much criticism of his style of football caused his teams to fall away at the end of seasons, the same too was directed at Bielsa teams).

Are we geared to run at a steady competitive pace throughout the entire season, or peak in Christmas/New Year (like Poch) or are we geared to finish on a tsunami of high-pressing football and blow teams out of the water during the run-in??? Or Conte doesn't believe in this. The truth is no one knows other than a key group at the club.

Interesting post, just commenting to say that after the Leicester title season we actually started finishing seasons much stronger so it was obviously something that Poch had took in to account and worked on.

Hopefully Contes methods in the summer and during the season will have us peak after the WC whilst those around us tail off - we can then revisit the criticism that is flying around atm and see whether or not it was warranted.
 
And this is why stats such as these reported are total garbage without context.

Run the furthest, how dose this actually translate into a football match? Are these jogs or sprints? What is the intensity? Are the KM's spread across the entire team equally or have we sent out 1,2,3(???) players to run like dervishes by pressing the oppo whilst everyone sits back?? Is this running with the ball or without it?

You can work the players mega hard in pre-season to give them a base level of fitness, then dial it back once the season starts.

I've had two mates that we professional Tri-Athletes, their taring was all meticulously worked out on spreadsheets for the entire year, broken down to every day of the week, it was tailored around the dates of the competition. It's very, very complicated and turns them into utter boring wankers to be around. But this is the nature of elite professional sports.

I have no idea how this translates into a whole team, I can only guess that the players might not be aware of the program they are actually on, they just do what they are told. Again, the actual specifics day to day are 100% managed as Poch (and it's well documented that it's been done with other managers) did with us, all the training he did was focused on us peaking in the Christmas and New Year. We smashed teams in this period, whilst also starting slowly and finishing weakly (there was always much criticism of his style of football caused his teams to fall away at the end of seasons, the same too was directed at Bielsa teams).

Are we geared to run at a steady competitive pace throughout the entire season, or peak in Christmas/New Year (like Poch) or are we geared to finish on a tsunami of high-pressing football and blow teams out of the water during the run-in??? Or Conte doesn't believe in this. The truth is no one knows other than a key group at the club.
I want to say that I read something after the United game about there being a fitness/training plan in place focused on us hitting our stride post world cup. I think it was a Alasdair Gold piece.

Hopefully that is true.

We had a similar rough patch like this under Conte last season, and bounced back from it. Hopefully we do so again.
 
the trouble with setting up fitness and training for post WC is we don't know who will be injuried due to the WC we have many players going to the WC some teams have few that will impact on the teams (maybe good maybe bad)
hopefully Conte now understands its important to use the squad and the 5 subs (shame he didn't understand it at the start of the season, something I've been on about since last season)
remember how poor most of our players were post the WC 2018, (don't think anyone has got to the bottom of why the players were out of form post WC)
 
Whilst we have Lloris, Dier, Davies, Emerson/Doherty regularly starting with little alternative (ok, maybe Spence, Lenglet seems on a par with Davies), I will back Conte. The football isn't great, but he's never been known for that. These individual players are not good enough, it doesn't matter who we hire as coach. The players I just named all need replacing.

Does Levy want to actually compete, or was Conte hired just to buy some time?
 
Whilst we have Lloris, Dier, Davies, Emerson/Doherty regularly starting with little alternative (ok, maybe Spence, Lenglet seems on a par with Davies), I will back Conte. The football isn't great, but he's never been known for that. These individual players are not good enough, it doesn't matter who we hire as coach. The players I just named all need replacing.

Does Levy want to actually compete, or was Conte hired just to buy some time?

What were your expectations going into the season and where did you have us finishing?
 
There was a lot of old men whining in the crowd they want Conte sacked last night.

I think they're going through the menopause or something.

We were the better team on the whole yesterday. We were the team trying to play football. Inidviudal errors led to goals, had nothing to do with tactics.
Newcastle spent the vast majority of the game playing Bruce-ball. The ref was a pathetic fucking joke who needs sacking as well.

Let's not forget that the team that started consisted of 8 players Conte inherited.
3 of the 4 that came on were also players he inherited.

Missing Romero (£50m) Richarlison (£60m) and Kulu (£40m) would lead to absolutely any team struggling. - AND Hoijberg was out who has been probably one of our 3 best players all season.
We're in the midst of an injury crisis folks. All 3 of those players were signed so we didn't have to rely on dumbasses like Sanchez, Moura etc.
 
And I want Newcastle hung out to fucking dry over that "performance" yesterday. It was the epitome of terrible, truly awful football.
We may sit deep to wait for space to attack. Those wanks just dived and dived and dived and dived, time wasted over and over and over. It's exactly the same turgid shit Pulis, Mowberry, Hughes, Hodgson, Bruce, Moyes etc etc play.

If Spurs ever spent a whole match doing that I'd take a month off work and stand outside the managers house every day with a sign until he got sacked or I got banged up.
 
He cannot persist with the current tactics. If we do not have any defenders that can do what he wants them to do then it's just pointless to persevere with the same formation and ideas. You can still be solid with a back 4 and 2 holding mids and having an extra player further up the pitch giving you another option to release the ball which is sorely needed right now. Our defenders are too shit and don't have the speed of thought or ability to play make in this conte system.

Well, considering everything, I feel like we are royally fucked up. And there is no obvious solution in sight.
I mean, there would. But I have my doubts referees would let us play 5-3-3 ... :D .

I mean -
IN DEFENSE -
- we do not have defenders who could both defend AND play it out from the back. Romero seems like only one who can do both. So there will be this component missing.
- we surely do not have central defenders available who could do it in CB duo - once more - Romero seems only one capable of doing that. I mean at some game MAYBE (but very unlikely) we could try Dier-Romero CB partnership, but I doubt it works. Davies, Lenglet and Sanzhez nor Tanganga are not just dependable enough to play with 2 CBs. So from that side our hands are so tied.
- but while we cannot play with CB duo and are forced to play trio, we do not have fullbacks who would be able to consistently carry the ball forward and create/score goals. FFS yesterday could have been very different if Sess would have done something with all the room he had. But he did not. I will not even mention Royal.
IN MIDFIELD -
- we do not have proper, press-resistant CM who could hold the ball AND find a pass. Have been saying this for ages but Benta and PEH are JUST NOT GOOD ENOUGH. It is always visible against decent opponent - they can steal the ball back and block shots, but they cant keep it in tight areas, they cannot beat the opposition press. So we cannot really have much control of the game if our CMs look like losing possession when they have to have ball more than 1,5 seconds. And this is 100% down to Conte and his priorities. Almost ALL of the fans were screaming for such player in summer window. But he never wanted it. He seemed happy with just technically limited workhorse-like CMs. So thats what we have - those who can chase the ball but not dominate it.
IN ATTACK -
- but while we cannot play the ball through midfield in a way that we could take a moment and then pass forward / switch wings, and no chances are created from the fullback positions, we cannot use long-ball-tactics either, cause we do not have a striker who could win long balls and keep the ball upfield. Son never-ever wins a header and unfortunately within past 2 years, Kane cannot take ball down either anymore. If we'd have someone like Toney upfront to pair with Kane and / or Son, it would be whole different story. But it does not work.
- and as last part - in the attack we rely on good finishing by fast players... but our fast players cannot finish chances this season. If Son does not score, he is often contributing very-very little. Against ManU we played really 3-5-1. And right now there are no alternatives either. Richie has not really clicked with other attackers and he tries too much one-touch-football and loses it. I feel that if we use Son and Richie as wingers pair, we can have threat in terms of finishing, but not that much of ball control and creativitiy. Unfortunately most creative forward in Kulusevski is out injured.

So literally all of those pieces of our trouble-puzzle impact each other.

I think best we can hope for until transfer window opens is that Kulusevski would be back ASAP and Bissouma can step up a bit OR Richie would come back and actually be able to link up with Kane properly. And NO ONE ELSE GETS INJURED... EVER.

I see us surviving with lineup of -

--Son--Kane--Kulu--
--PEH--Bissouma--
-Perisic----Doherty-
-Davies-Dier-Romero
----------Lloris---------

But then, we HAVE TO buy a CB who can defend and pass + CM/AM that has good passing and ball control + RWB.
In winter, if we want to actually do anything (TOP4 finish, getting past 1st or 2nd round of CL play-offs, getting to SF of domestic cup) without such purchases I feel we will fall short on all of these.
 
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