To chime in on a few points above - on squad management, it’s clear that everyone is suffering this season. Liverpool in particular have had a mammoth few seasons in terms of intensity and number of games played and it’s really showing that their squad is thin. They can turn it on for a big game as any PL team can, but it’s shades of late Poch-era Spurs. That example aside, all the teams with European football are suffering unless they’re getting lucky with injuries right now. I think Conte is largely doing an OK job but could be doing more, that said I think we perhaps got ahead of ourselves this summer. We have a couple of world class players and several more very good ones but some of those have been out of form and the rest of the squad scraped top 4 last season. This is not a squad or first XI of the calibre that Poch had at his peak. We perhaps forgot that with the rush of beating the other lot to top 4 and a summer window that for once was pretty sensible and well thought out. - on the introduction of new players, I’m also frustrated by Spence’s exclusion. That said, Conte sees him every day in training. I do believe he’s a better WB than Emerson though. I think it’s also worth saying that the PL improves every year, the likelihood of a Dele Alli happening again and taking the league by storm as an unproven player is so small. Even compared to when he broke through, the level of coaching and analysis across the board is vastly improved at every PL team. There are very few unknowns now and coaches work out solutions far quicker as everyone is better. I think systemically Spence is a better fit than Emerson and that’s why I’d like him played but by no means will he solve all our problems. Generally, I have a lot of frustrations right now with Spurs but when we put it together and turn it on, we look very good. We just need to be at it more often because there’s too many turgid first halves and we are heavily reliant on a select few players. Hopefully this gets addressed a bit in January and again in the summer but Conte is correct that we need to manage expectations while we make a few more quality additions and while the squad keeps getting mentally tougher.
If you look at the positioning, Hojbjerg and Bissouma are where they should be in a 352 - but Skipp's been told to play as a RW in spite lining up in the midfield three. It's similar to Perisic playing as a LW against Man Utd when we were playing 352, it's a tactical choice and doesn't make sense On a wider scale, it does have to be said that the live fire exercises with 352 are giving remarkably inconsistent results. When we switch to that formation during a game it helps us control opponents better, but when we start with that formation it seems to take us a minimum of 45 minutes and a couple of subs to figure it out
I'm a fan with an opinion about the football being served up this season. I have my opinion on players who I think have let us down. I have an opinion on some decisions regarding team selection and substitutions. I voice these opinions on this forum. However, you can trawl my posts all you like and you will not find any post where I have suggested Conte should be replaced. I don't. He's a top, top coach and a proven winner. However - and again, only in my opinion - that doesn't protect him from criticism.
Slight change in topic but watching the goal celebration were interesting. You never expect the first of ours (in that situation) to be over celebrated but Sessegnon simply grabbed the ball and ran back to the centre spot. Davies did the same for the equaliser. It was only the 3rd that was fully celebrated. Tbh I did like that.
I saw a player run to the fans after the winner and might have known it would be Sonny ,also a nice film of AC greeting Son at the end of the game is doing the rounds
Yep that's what the forum is for and that's what I am doing too. I am not suggesting you shouldn't I am suggesting another way of looking at the situation. I am also trying to provide some balance to the matchday thread which while the game was on was dominated by one point of view. I think it's clearer now that there is a split of opinions on the board and that's a good thing in my view. If we all agreed we would run out of reasons to post on here.
I already axe murder those who put out Christmas ads and food produce in october. Seems that "panto season" will be added to that list ...
