We really miss Oli Skipp. Sounds like he'll be out until next season though. With him, I'd predict top 4 with some confidence. Without him, not a chance.
He made a name for himself and became one of the most decorated managers in the modern game by utilising a particular system. The club was well aware of that before they hired him, most of all Paratici who saw that system in action first hand twice in Italy. Much as Levy has made baffling decisions over the years, bringing in Conte was surely done on the understanding he'd be given time and money to at least making an attempt of building the squad in line with his preferred and proven system? Let's not forget he's had one window so far and it was January which is notoriously tricky to do business in yet we added two quality players to the squad who at first glance clearly 'get' the system more naturally than players who were already playing under Conte for 2 months before they arrived. I'm bitterly disappointed by our past 2 performances and more importantly results but I do swing back to an argument I made when things looked far worse when we went on that awful run of 3 straight defeats shortly after being completely schooled by Chelsea in the Carabao semis: Like Poch did in his first season, back then he stuck to the system he knew and trusted (4231) despite the fact that the whole squad contained around 8 players who looked suited to it and 2 of them (Kane and Eriksen) were still very young and inexperienced. But he stuck to it nonetheless, then shifted Dier into midfield, dropped Dembele in with him, added Toby to the defence and Son to the front line followed shortly by Alli, and the rest as they say was a brief moment of sunshine in our otherwise gloomy PL history. For what it's worth, Poch's final downfall came when he tried tweaking things to create a brand new system which saw us experimenting with all sorts of peculiar diamond formations in midfield and inverted wingers. My tuppence is he realised within weeks of signing them that Sess, Lo Celso and Tanguy were nowhere near as good as he'd hoped they were, and so he made the cardinal error of adjusting the system to suit them. The result was catastrophic and ended up costing him his job and a great deal of credibility. Conte MUST be given carte blanche to do a 'Poch 2015' this summer. Emerson, Sess, Ndombele, Lo Celso, Lucas, Bergwijn, Rodon and Winks all need to go. They clearly have no future at the club while Conte is in charge and tbh we can say with confidence that all of them bar Rodon who we haven't seen enough of just do not fit his system. Lucas and Bergwijn are not consistent or intelligent enough to play in that front 3. Winks doesn't protect the defence or progress possession well enough to play in midfield, Sess has been an injury plagued disaster since day 1, Emerson isn't a RWB and as we now know, Tanguy and Lo Celso probably aren't suited to the league full stop irrespective of the system. So we could adjust the system to accommodate bang average players many of whom have flattered to deceive under four managers with four different systems, or we can jettison them once and for all and give the manager the tools he needs to deliver what we hired him for.
You don’t see Pep or Klopp change the way they play…same ol tiki taka and gegenpress or whatever it’s called. they just get the players to make it work that’s what we need to do for Conte
Often you hear fans saying a player needs a run of games to get up to scratch surely it’s the same for a system or are some people seriously suggesting that if Conte requires to change the formation for the next 10 games to accommodate the opposition then he should? Don’t think the players can cope with that tbh
Following two very disappointing games is not the best time to write serious stuff about the future of Spurs but then neither is it following victories. In other words it's always difficult to make objective comments without the emotion of being a fan playing a big part, so here we go. For the whole season Spurs have been madly unpredictable. Lose to Brighton, Burnley and Southampton, but beat City, twice and draw with Liverpool then lose 3 times to Chelsea. The wonder is that we are in contention for top 4 at all but in those results is a clue. The whole league is madly unpredictable How did City manage to lose to us twice for example and how can Chelsea wipe us off the park and then lose 4 - 1 to Brentford? First I suspect Brentford are better than I give them credit for, maybe a draw there is a good result? I remind myself how last season ended and how this one began with Nuno and the excitement of signing Conte just as we were all sinking into a slough of despond with Nuno and his lovely smile. Anyone with the name Holy Spirit is always going to promise more than they can possibly deliver and sure enough we ended up in a hole. As Dave Allen recounted when he was 6 years old attending funerals, he heard the priest as the coffin was lowered into the ground say 'In the name of the father the son and the holy ghost' Except of course Dave thought he said 'In the name of the father and the son and in to the hole he goes' We appoint Conte and we were all delighted but we also knew that this was to be a season of transition and while the January window might yield some players most of us expected it wouldn't be until the end of the season and the summer window when Conte could sort out the squad in his own image (provided Levy backed him) making next season the big move forward. This season? we would be lucky to make top 6. Then we make a couple of decent signings in January and they hit the ground running which immediately takes our expectations upwards. Now we begin to see the chance of 4th and CL football and suddenly we are judging Conte on a different basis. This is what I remind myself of when I watch a game like yesterday 4th is still possible but just look back at our results this season and our chances cannot be that great so I am lowering my expectations, or trying to, because no doubt if we win the next game against Leicester then up, once again, will go the hopes. We only have to beat Arsenal etc etc. Right now one team is showing a turn around and becoming consistent in its results and that team is not Spurs.
We can't jettison them now. He needs to get results with what he's got until that can change. Being unable to create a single chance against Brighton and Brentford is unacceptable.
So where does that leave you? Getting drunk on Blue Curacao? No I'll stick to the Rioja I'm drinking it, by the way, not wearing it.
Completely agree with vast majority of this. Top 4 will be tough but let's be real - you were in a far worse predicament in 09/10 when you had to face Arsenal, Chelsea and Man City (all of whom were better sides at that point) and win all of them to get 4th. Regardless of the circumstances Arsenal have shown great character this week to respond from 3 bruising defeats to convincingly beat Chelsea and Man Utd sides who have far more individual talent.
Completely turgid performance for the 2nd time in a week. I have read the discussions on the merits of the manager and the system and the lack of options, and I can see all sides of the arguments It cannot be denied that we lack the players to play Contes preferred system and we lack general quality in wide positions and possibly in central midfield, but in all honesty in the system Conte prefers Bentancur and Hojbjerg should be adequate as their main purpose is to win the ball and move it on to the either the wing backs or the forwards. My issue is that in the last 2 matches the opposition have nullified the way we want to play and the manager does not have a plan B for when his preferred plan A is not working. Yesterday was crying out for us to change the formation and do something different, Conte needs to spend this week working on plan B because if we set up like this with these players for the rest of the season then we will keep seeing these results, we have been worked out; this system with these players does not work against teams who sit in and invite us on to them, the strange thing is the 2 teams we have left to play that it might work against are Arsenal and Liverpool.
apart from the badges worn on the shirts of the two teams you can’t compare 09/10 to our situation now I mean there’s always a chance of anything happening. it’s all about minerals and bollox now nowt to do with formations…no matter how we position the 10 outfield players they still won’t pass through teams sitting deep…been watching this for years under different managers. We need a Danny Rose rocket from 30 yards and we win yesterday…that’s nowt to do with formation. id like to see our results that season against teams sat near the bottom who play to stifle etc.
Both WBs having bad days at the office had a lot to do with yesterday, as neither seemed to be able to control a single pass to them all game, thus putting pressure on other players to make up the slack This is where we've sorely missed Skippy, as he would open up midfield in a way that Hojbjerg and Winks can't and create channels through the middle
very true wingbacks are the super weapon of this formation we’ve got it loaded with Nerf gun bullets that is our problem. We relying on Skipp to sort us out…he’s great with what skill sets he possesses…wingbacks though imo need a midfielder who can find them…all ours at best can drive forward…we need someone classy in there too imo…ours seem a bit industrious heavy and their lack of panache gets found out when we have a team who isn’t playing too expansively. The only way I see our mids finding our wingbacks are with sideways passes…they can’t play a slide rule which allows the wingback to run further forward before receiving the ball. Sideways passes means the wingback still has lots of bodies to go past which obviously makes his task that much harder.
Personally I don’t buy into the idea of Plan B’s that some have mentioned, I don’t think any manager has a Plan B. They have a Plan A and simply alter it with personnel, their style/ system rarely changes. Klopp, Pep, Jose etc will almost certainly never change their’s, they’ll just change personnel, whether that be during games via subs or in the transfer markets by upgrading on players. That’s what Conte/ Paratici done in the winter, Kulusevski is a massive upgrade on Lucas/ Bergwijn and Bentancur is a massive upgrade on Winks (and a sizeable one on Hojbjerg) and both fit his system nicely but we still lack a number of Conte-quality players. I think Emerson is a very good defensive RB but he’s a terrible attacking RWB. Sessegnon is utter tripe, I’ve really wanted it to work for him as he’s such a likeable guy but he’s reaching Winks levels of performances and needs canning in the summer. With Reguilon struggling with injuries - which have affected his form too - Conte doesn’t have two adequate components for such a key part of his system. And whilst some can say “so don’t play 343 with WBs” - what’s the solution? Go 4231 and bring Lucas in with his massive two league goals this season? We’ll still struggle getting the ball forward without a creative midfielder and we’d still need our now WBs-turned-FBs to provide an occasional attacking outlet out wide which they just won’t, whilst Lucas (or Bergwijn) doesn’t have the history to suggest he’d improve our goal output. I think since Conte’s come in he’s improved most starting XI players by around 5-10% which has shown with the fact we’re fighting for top four now instead of being mid table under Nuno but ultimately we still lack the desired quality to be where we want to be. I think we need 3 players for our XI (but about 7-8 overall for the squad) to be properly competing but if just for instance Eriksen was in purple yesterday, we almost certainly get three points, likewise against Brighton too. That’s the huge difference just one more quality player could make in a Conte team. It’s the players that need changing and upgrading, not the manager and his system.
Play Kulusevski, Bergwijn, Son or Moura centrally and our midfield won't be so overrun. Give White a shot in a 4-3-3 or 5-3-2. Coach the team into being able to play his tactics. Pick Scarlett alongside Kane. Conte's tried nothing and he's all out of ideas. All managers make mistakes. We have to expect that. Repeating the same ones over and over? Didn't accept it from Pochettino, Mourinho or Espirito Santo. Why should I accept it from Conte?
