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Manager Antonio Conte

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TheSpurEst said:
There was almost nothing new in this piece, was there.

Only thing that caught my eye bit more was "Managing this workload might be doable with a big squad but that is not what Tottenham have. Conte has been operating with a small group of trusted players too, tending to only rotate a few positions while keeping the spine of the team the same. " - I mean, in some instances that has clearly been his choice, not inevitable thing. And some of decisions why some players are in circle of "group of trusted players" is very confusing (like case with Royal and Son who has scored in 2 games out of 18 he has played) and why some others are not (on polar opposite of Son - why were not Richie and Kulu trusted to play together; why haven't Sarr be getting any minutes at all even in game ends where PEH and Bentancur legs are super heavy; why has not Spence been getting some chances to show himself).

Of course has to be said that on that front, injuries have played the part. With Doherty and Skipp coming back from injuries, Richie, Kulusevski and Romero out with new ones.

Maybe to sum my thoughts up - I do not feel, we would have particularly thin squad. Sure, there could be more senior attacking player instead of Gil, someone who could replace Kulusevski to some extent. And there could be another CB instead of Tanganga for example. But other than that, I feel our depth being best it has for long time...
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Not sure if it's your rhetoric or the article's, but I don't understand the comment regarding Kulu & Rich.....

Rich + Son OR Rich + Kulu are both only a 1 x player deviation from the first XI we established last season.
 
Mike81 said:
I don’t get this fetishisation of “goal from open play”.

When did we start viewing goals from corners or free kicks (for example) as somehow lesser?
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It just shows that we haven't been capable of opening teams up this season in open play.

It doesn't mean those goals are of less value, it's just that our attackers aren't scoring freely as they did last season and ones before. We want to score from corners as well as open play goals, not, instead of.
 
Airfixx said:
Not sure if it's your rhetoric or the article's, but I don't understand the comment regarding Kulu & Rich.....

Rich + Son OR Rich + Kulu are both only a 1 x player deviation from the first XI we established last season.
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Sorry, I have to say that I did not catch your idea.
And admit mine might have been phrased weirdly.

What I meant was - there were moments when it was visible - Son is in very poor form AND we had both Kulu and Richie available. But we only saw front-line of Richie-Kane-Kulusevski for one game. There were more moments to use this option, but Conte chose not to.

Now, ofc, this is not an option due to injuries.
 
TheSpurEst said:
Sorry, I have to say that I did not catch your idea.
And admit mine might have been phrased weirdly.

What I meant was - there were moments when it was visible - Son is in very poor form AND we had both Kulu and Richie available. But we only saw front-line of Richie-Kane-Kulusevski for one game. There were more moments to use this option, but Conte chose not to.

Now, ofc, this is not an option due to injuries.
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........I got that part; I just though you were seeking to explain why.
 
Raf said:
VAR gave me one of my greatest moments as a fan in the quarterfinals against City. I have never gone from being so dejected to elated that quickly.
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VAR came to 100% the right decision against City. It was clear that Sterling was offside from the first replay. VAR is now being used to overturn refs decisions with no clear evidence as to why as in the Sporting game. It is being used as an enabler for corruption
 
Tomo said:
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.
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Doh has been nursed in carefully post injury. He starts tonight and probably vs Liverpool too
 
TheSpurEst said:
Far more agreed with first statement.

However I see on bigger issue with xG and I am not sure if or how this could be addressed.
Game dynamics has huge impact of what xG any team ends up on.

For example - let's assume that there is a game that ends 0:0. Both teams have their good spells and not-so-good-spells, but no one manages to break the lock. - in such situation xG is pretty good metric to estimate, which side had better chances.
but lets take another - say Tottenham plays whatever side from bottom 10. They score lucky goal from corner on 5th minute mark. And for reminder 85, we are pushing them bit more but not creating vey clear-cut chances. But we fail to actually get the ball into the net. Until maybe in 90+2 we finally score one half-chance.
What will the xG be like in such game - lower half side took one (rather unlikely) chance, and we tried and tried and tried - could be well like 0.25 vs 2.5. So based on xG we seem to have been 10x better, but in reality we were pushing it hard because we were in behind. If this game would have stayed 0:0 for first half for example, OR we would have got one goal back, very likely that our xG for the game would have been lower while our actual conversion of chances would have been better.
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It doesn't matter if it's a lower half side for starters. It's based solely on the situation of that specific shot.

In your example, a "Lucky Goal" should reflect this with a low XG score. If they then sat back the rest of the game them their XG would be unchanged and remain the same with their "lucky goal". If we aren't creating anything then this too will be reflected in a low score, be that no chances are created or an accumulation of a handful of low chances.

It's up to those that viewed the game to decide who was the better side by playing better football. XG is only the measure of who had the better chances in the game.
 
TheSpurEst said:
Far more agreed with first statement.

However I see on bigger issue with xG and I am not sure if or how this could be addressed.
Game dynamics has huge impact of what xG any team ends up on.

For example - let's assume that there is a game that ends 0:0. Both teams have their good spells and not-so-good-spells, but no one manages to break the lock. - in such situation xG is pretty good metric to estimate, which side had better chances.
but lets take another - say Tottenham plays whatever side from bottom 10. They score lucky goal from corner on 5th minute mark. And for reminder 85, we are pushing them bit more but not creating vey clear-cut chances. But we fail to actually get the ball into the net. Until maybe in 90+2 we finally score one half-chance.
What will the xG be like in such game - lower half side took one (rather unlikely) chance, and we tried and tried and tried - could be well like 0.25 vs 2.5. So based on xG we seem to have been 10x better, but in reality we were pushing it hard because we were in behind. If this game would have stayed 0:0 for first half for example, OR we would have got one goal back, very likely that our xG for the game would have been lower while our actual conversion of chances would have been better.
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I get your point. But not creating clear cut chances does not equal a 2.5 xG.

2.5 xG is TONS of chances or a few sitters that we somehow missed.

But I agree with your point that the dynamic of an early goal can affect xG. However if a team goes up 1-0, then sits back and maintains the lead while giving up 2.5xG and creating nothing, then they are getting lucky and it’s a bad strategy that will fail more than not. That’s not sustainable.
 
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Shadydan said:
What if wants the club to give Emerson a new contract :gallashmm:
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max von sydow priest GIF
 
Week in week out some of the worst football (style wise) I've ever seen. I'm sure with an elite squad he can get very good results.....we don't have an elite squad. At least a forward thinking manager and we might see some nice football
 
No doubt this will get downvoted to oblivion but I want him gone.

Every week is the same shit. Negative, backwards, boring, ineffective football. We only ever seem to set up to invite pressure on our frail defence and despite some fortunate results at the start of the season, we're now finding ourselves losing games we should be winning and struggling to beat relegation-fodder like Bournemouth.

Get him out. Bring someone in who sets us up to play football. Our club is turning into a fucking joke again.
 
yes said:
No doubt this will get downvoted to oblivion but I want him gone.

Every week is the same shit. Negative, backwards, boring, ineffective football. We only ever seem to set up to invite pressure on our frail defence and despite some fortunate results at the start of the season, we're now finding ourselves losing games we should be winning and struggling to beat relegation-fodder like Bournemouth.

Get him out. Bring someone in who sets us up to play football. Our club is turning into a fucking joke again.
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And what are we gonna do about the same group of players who have played the same since the end of the Poch reign?
 
candrews said:
And what are we gonna do about the same group of players who have played the same since the end of the Poch reign?
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Get rid of the ones who aren't good enough.

But the fact is that the group of players that we have (aside from the obvious few), aren't as bad as they're being made to look. Set your team up to play attacking football and you ease the pressure on the defence who will no longer have to sit back and defend for their lives for 90 minutes.
 
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