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Manager Antonio Conte

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Juno said:
it’s hard to escape the conclusion that Coach Conte really should have had this procedure done in London rather than going back to Italy for it.
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Yeah why did he travel back to Italy? Assume he was in the U.K. when it flared up. Also strange he went for routine post op check whilst in Milan for 2 days. Normally team fly back after game. Did he already have the check up planned? Surely he could have had a check here in london. Doesn’t sit tight.
 
ShutUpPatrik said:
I said it further up in this thread. In my opinion it is mainly a matter of coaching.

Dier and Davies played well out of the back last season under Conte. And have done it under Jose and Poch as well. Can they both be upgraded on? 100%. But the collective downturn that our team has taken this season screams coaching issue to me.

The players probably like Conte the person and Conte the manager. But they don't seem to believe in his system at all anymore. And that's going to lead to a downturn in performances.
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Issue with say Dier is he always has these little peaks of performance then reverts to type. He did it under pretty much every manager he has played under, so I think Dier has to play at 110% to be able to pull it off which isn’t sustainable.
 
Richard Arlison said:
Rewatched some of the Leicester game because I missed it (yes, also into S&M) and it's not just the passers. Hoj isn't able to receive passes on the half turn, Son is useless at receiving back-to-goal and teams just get away with coming through the back of Kulu. Kane gets kicked all afternoon if you play short into him and he was actually late arriving for several passes that could have been good.

We really really need another competent receiver with back to goal when Kane doesn't fancy getting kicked all afternoon. It could be Kulu but prem refs have clearly decided he hasn't earnt his "respect" yet because players are allowed to just go through him. It has to be Richy for Son because he's a 9 that has some ability to receive the ball and bring others in. Also has enough smarts to make a huge meal out of any contact.
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Good point we do have some players not able to take the ball under pressure in tight situations which means we lose the ball more than we should. Low press resistance in certain places.
 
Richard Arlison said:
Rewatched some of the Leicester game because I missed it (yes, also into S&M) and it's not just the passers. Hoj isn't able to receive passes on the half turn, Son is useless at receiving back-to-goal and teams just get away with coming through the back of Kulu. Kane gets kicked all afternoon if you play short into him and he was actually late arriving for several passes that could have been good.

We really really need another competent receiver with back to goal when Kane doesn't fancy getting kicked all afternoon. It could be Kulu but prem refs have clearly decided he hasn't earnt his "respect" yet because players are allowed to just go through him. It has to be Richy for Son because he's a 9 that has some ability to receive the ball and bring others in. Also has enough smarts to make a huge meal out of any contact.
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There's a lot that needs to improve. We have very little cohesive off the ball movement when we do have the ball. Against Milan you could see Lenglet looking to pass the ball up field multiple times but having to hold off because no one was in a position to get it. Both when it came to longer passes and shorter passes. That's a collective issue that needs to be adressed.

We can complain about sideways or backwards passes all we want. But if the players don't get in positions to get the ball then there is not much that the player with the ball can do.
 
I've probably spent way too much time contemplating various Conte replacements.

But my current pick is Philippe Clement at Monaco. Smart manager, player developer, used to fighting for titles and playing in Europe. Attacking football. Ticks a lot of the boxes that we as fans would want.

 
KaneIsAble said:
I think we should get Poch in now so that he can help us salvage the season and get a proper look at the team and begin planning for the summer.

Stellini may be a decent assistant manager, but it's not good for team morale to have the manager out in italy for a long time while his subbordinate actually manages the club.
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If Poch came in now we would finish the season right up there i reckon. The mood would just change instantly.
 
ShutUpPatrik said:
There's a lot that needs to improve. We have very little cohesive off the ball movement when we do have the ball. Against Milan you could see Lenglet looking to pass the ball up field multiple times but having to hold off because no one was in a position to get it. Both when it came to longer passes and shorter passes. That's a collective issue that needs to be adressed.

We can complain about sideways or backwards passes all we want. But if the players don't get in positions to get the ball then there is not much that the player with the ball can do.
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Noticed this with Sarr as well. A couple of times he had the ball and was looking to play forward but threw his arms up in frustration presumably at the lack of movement ahead of him and he ended up passing backwards. The team are just not playing as a cohesive unit
 
poch taking us right back up the table...


with Eric Dier, Sanchez, Tanganga, Lenglet, Forster, Perisic, a permantly half dead sessegnon as his options at the back?

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NewZealand_Spur said:
I personally don't want him back as the last year of his reign was pretty rough.

But I guess the difference between Poch and anybody else (including Conte) is that he genuinely wants to be here. Who else is lifting their skirt for the Spurs fans? Conte certainly isn't.
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Poch has no chance of being appointed at a top 20 European club other than Spurs. Not averse to him coming back as Conte's position isn't sustainable but he needs us more than we need him.
 
matspur said:
Noticed this with Sarr as well. A couple of times he had the ball and was looking to play forward but threw his arms up in frustration presumably at the lack of movement ahead of him and he ended up passing backwards. The team are just not playing as a cohesive unit
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Yeah. There's a few players that link up well but there's nothing cohesive going on. And there can be multiple factors towards that.

Low confidence due to bad results, Conte's lack of commitment trickling down to the players, overall fatique due to the tight schedule and so on.
 
Super Jan Fan said:
If Poch came in now we would finish the season right up there i reckon. The mood would just change instantly.
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Agree. Top 4 is very gettable, Newcastle arent any great shakes. We'd probably need another 30pts or so with most of our tougher games out of the way. A new manager bounce would go a long way to getting that. FA Cup not the toughest either. If they want to wait to appoint someone else in the summer then fine but if we just plod on now only to appoint Poch in June that would be madness. So i fully expect that's what we'll do.
 
ShutUpPatrik said:
Good read. But I do still think that it comes down a lot to the coaching.

De Zerbi is playing this style of football with Lewis Dunk and Adam Webster in the backline. Neither are exactly known for their passing.

And all three of Dier, Romero and Davies are competent passers. They did it well last season.

My take is that something has changed in regards to the coaching compared to last season. Because an entire team doesn't suddenly forget how to play a certain way over a summer.

The tighter schedule also plays a part. But again, then it is up to the coaches to find a solution.
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I think that's incredibly harsh on Dunk.

Must be one of the most underrated centre backs in the league when it comes to ball progression.

I reckon we'd look alot better if we had Dunk at CCB and someone like Kilman (as an example) at LCB just simply because they're both confident and comfortable in progressing the ball forward without aimlessly knocking it long.
 
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