We sacked the other managers. Recreating what they did isn't good. Playing the same way when you no longer have the players to do so is on him. Emerson isn't Doherty and he can't be Doherty. Expecting him to do so is a mistake and it's the manager's fault. A bad workman blames their tools. He's trying to use a hammer as a screwdriver.
He isn’t recreating. He’s already improved us. We were heading for midtable under Nuno, we should be getting European football under Conte. So change the formation then and who plays and who does what differently? Emerson will still provide no outlet down the right, Sessegnon will still be ****, Hojbjerg and Bentancur still won’t be creative midfielders and Lucas runs about as a headless chicken as per. I’m real sure that’s on Conte.
I would add that in certain positions, they do have more quality. Brighton especially. We have to face the cold truth that a number of our first team regulars simply would not get into the starting line ups of teams like Brighton. Emerson and Hojbjerg don't get in ahead of Lamptey and Bissouma, and I would argue that Reguilon/Trossard is a far closer call than many would care to admit. Same for Brentford. Again Hojbjerg doesn't get in ahead of Eriksen and I would argue that Rico Henry would comfortably keep Sessegnon out of a team. So that's the reality as much as it hurts. Where we are is a bang average squad sprinkled with maybe half a dozen genuinely good players. We are lucky that two of those are from the top drawer. Then we have another 3 or 4 players who have severe limitations but happen to have adapted well to the new system, which totals 11 players I'd feel comfortable with entrusting a season: Hugo, the back 3, Reguilon, Doherty, Skipp, Bentancur and the front 3. The rest include players who as I've pointed out wouldn't get into teams who are mid table at best.
People are acting like he's managing Norwich and has their squad. It's ludicrous. We don't know if something else will work, because he won't try something else. I've made plenty of suggestions, but they're pointless as we won't see any of them. We all know how we're going to set up against Leicester and so do they. Whether we get anything out of it will probably depend on their defending and individual inspiration. Eriksen's post-match interview said the same thing. Frank knew what we were going to do. We're predictable, unimaginative and impotent right now. That's on Conte.
Weirdly enough the manager who has shown the most tactical versatility in recentish years was AVB, who ditched his preferred 4231 and replaced it with a 4411 to get the most out of Bale in his first season, then went back to 4231 the next season but it flopped because we spent the Bale money on magic beans. Jose tried changing his system but reverted to type within 4 games. Poch tried it and it got him the sack. Nuno tried it and everything went to pot. The smart thing is to appoint a manager who is familiar with the existing system but has the tools to coach the players to be better. We did that when we eventually replaced AVB with Poch. Typically we didn't do that at all when we replaced Poch with his footballing antithesis followed by a cheaper version of that antithesis and we now have a manager with a system this club hasn't played since probably Hoddle's time in charge and it shows.
I've said this for years. There's no continuity with our managerial selections. Each coach inherits a squad that doesn't suit their preferred style of football. It then takes a massive overhaul to try and match it, then we get rid of them and start again. It's ludicrous. This is one of the reasons that I wanted a Director of Football. Bringing on someone that would have an overall view of the club and it's direction would be a plus. I'm not convinced that Paratici is that man. He appears to just be there to make signings. This is fine and he's made some good ones, but that's not a DoF.
You take a few of our players out and we probably wouldn’t be much better than Norwich - that’s the exact problem we have. The fact that we can look at teams like Brighton and Brentford and comfortably pick around 3 players from each who’d improve our team tells you how much quality we lack for a perceived big six side. We do know if something else won’t work, because the majority of these players have been here for years and under various managers with various ideas and formations… and it’s not worked. We know what Klopp and Pep will do just like we know what Conte will do, doesn’t make it easy to stop them. It’s easier to stop us though because Conte doesn’t have his desired players like they do. Once he gets them, teams will still know what we’re gonna do but they’ll find it incredibly tough stopping us.
You have to back a manager if you want success of any kind. Conte has won trophies everywhere he has been. It’s not him that needs to change his ideas or system if Spurs are to finally win a trophy or get back to the CL
I am sure that whilst Conte is without question married to 3/5 at the back he has in previous jobs changed from 3-4-3 to to 3-4-1-2 and whilst that still leaves us with the deficiency in the wide areas and that is hard to resolve without a transfer window he, could in matches like yesterdays (in game) at least give it a go with Kulu replacing Emerson as wide right option pushing Bergwiin up top with Sonny and dropping Kane into the 1 behind, its not altering the DNA of what he wants long term too much but might have made us more productive in the final third.
I just hope we get that creative midfielder in the summer that will allow Conte to play 3-5-2. Having three in midfield will allow Kulu to play RWB and we will need one or two top LWB's to balance it out. Kostic would be a perfect signing more of a left winger than a wingback . If Conte choses not to playKulu as a wb then I can see us going back in for Traore if Barcelona decide not to keep him. Eriksen / Coutinho in behind Kane and Son. Bissouma / Skipp / Bentacur and Hojbjerg for the two positions behind.
Conte-ball 2022 appears to have been fatally dissected, and here be what is to come : Lesta, and probably Norwich, will have nothing to play for, so they can set up as for the past two Spurs games. Burnley may be in the same position, or can prosper with a draw from the Spurs game. The Poool will have everything to play for, and will not change their MF unless Spurs perform the most clinical display of counter-attacking ever seen. Which leaves the NLD. Which Spurs will have to win anyway for pride, but with possible serious pressure if nothing but a win suffices.
The DoF time line is supposed to be persistent, while managers may be transient. For the former to happen, there must be some notion of how a club wants to play their football. Ajax go with a minimum of "core competence" , which encompasses being able to pass decently, be comfortable in bringing the ball forward from defence etc. Barca went with "tika taka" . Like it or not, the club committed to it fully, So what is the "how" for Spurs ?? I would say : the style of play I saw across the 80s. A style I saw repeated with BMJ up to the end of the 2007 season, with Arry from 2009 to 2012, and Pochettino for the 2016 and 2017 seasons. Pochettino showed that if the attacking + CM talent across the squad is sound, then you can add the few players (Toby, Wanyama) who push you even higher.
According to the Season Compass thread, Nuno got 6 more points than from the 10 comparable fixtures last season whereas Conte has one point fewer from his 23. I still think Conte is a better manager than Nuno, but the data doesn't show he has improved us so far.
The thing is that if you look up from raw data to seeing us on the pitch, you can - not least because the players actually appear physically capable of playing for 90 minutes, something which wasn't true under Nuno as they always wilted around the 70th minute
Weirdly enough, this is again an area where I think we are sorely missing Doherty. Never thought I'd write that and while he is as of yet unproven against the best opposition, what we started seeing from him against weaker opposition is his tendency to drift infield as he did at Wolves utilised effectively. PNP pointed out earlier that it gets more out of Kulu because Doherty's movement drags the FB out of position leaving more space behind. But it also gives us an extra man in midfield when we are on the front foot, which stops us from being overrun by a higher press if they win the ball back and also provides an extra outlet to get the ball to the men who can actually do damage. Emerson by contrast tends to hug the touchline which is pointless as he lacks the control to beat his man and even if he does he can't cross the ball. Passing to him is not too different to kicking it out for a throw in all honesty. Weirdly one of his best games this season came in our thrashing of Newcastle where he mimicked Doherty in many ways and often drifted infield - his positioning for his goal being the clearest example of this. I've no idea why he hasn't replicated this in other games since but I suspect confidence is a huge issue. Currently the only change I'd consider making is introducing that extra body in midfield if games are running away from us but Winks simply isn't an option and as others have said, White is unproven. We miss Skipp terribly and Reguilon better be fit for Leicester or I fear for the worst.
Nuno had a 47.07% win ratio with us. Conte currently has a 54.84% win ratio. In the Prem alone Nuno had a 1.5 ppm ratio with us. Conte has a 1.87 ppm ratio.
Get the team over the CL line this season, if necessary not playing your preferred systems. Then, with the extra money + managerial credit you have, work with the DoF in the summer to get the players who fit your system AND most others. < pragma over dogma >
I think I’d rather keep Kulusevski at RW and try Lucas or Bergwijn at RWB. None of those players are essentially adequate RWBs but Kulusevski is the best RW we have and so I’d rather he stayed there. It feels like we’d be weakening one area to just only possibly strengthen another with no guarantee. If we just put Bergwijn/ Lucas at RWB we’d keep the strength at RW and test how different the RWB would be.
It wouldn't surprise me if this is a significant factor in our "state of the art" academy shuddering to a halt over the past 4-5 years. From the emergence of Winks in 2018 until Skipp this season, we haven't really seen anyone come through to contribute to our first team. And many on here (myself included) would argue that Winks hasn't contributed all that much. Without a clear style and footballing philosophy flowing down from the senior team, what are the youth coaches training their young charges to do? And when those youngsters are ready to step up, they find that their positioning and style of play is at odds with that of the man they are now meant to impress. So most of them end up leaving sooner than many of us would have hoped. Classic example of this is Japhet Tanganga who was so obviously trained to play in a back 4, started impressing as a CB in that system, then worked really hard to impress as a defensive RB, then along comes another manager who has use for neither and suddenly one of our most promising prospects looks shot of confidence and falling down the pecking order. It's one of the reasons I have major doubts about Dane Scarlett's future if Conte sticks around for a while. I don't see where he fits in to the new system.
