Conte | Spurs Manager

Bilbo said:
Conte is surely not going to be judged on whether he can compete with City & Liverpool next season. A good season for him and Spurs would be consolidating a top four place, perhaps even 3rd, and either going fairly deep in the CL or winning a domestic cup. I know a lot of Spurs fans and they would be delighted with that.

I know everyone gets carried away by whoever they consider to be an elite manager these days, but I watch almost every Spurs game and whilst they did finish 4th and deserve credit for that, they flattered to deceive A LOT and needed to rely on Arsenal failing in order to succeed. They have done nowhere near enough to now to be talked about as contenders, or on the other hand for supporters to put unrealistic expectations on what Conte should achieve.
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With the squad Spurs now they should surely aim for the title.

Conte will certainly fancy his chances.

It is a good season to win it. City are changing some players and Haaland is not fully settled.
Liverpool has lost one of the three best players they got and could be much weaker than last year.

For sure I think City likely win it again, but if Haaland struggle to get going they could be weaker if Sterling, Bernardo might go.
 
The holy trinity 68 said:
:lol: What planet are you living on? This is Spurs you're talking about. They will never win the league.

And the hype with Højbjerg, he isn't that good.
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Hojbjerg is solid and a very good player but he went a bit too over the top. He's one of those underrated midfield generals who put in a shift every week.
 
TenonTen said:
Hojbjerg is solid and a very good player but he went a bit too over the top. He's one of those underrated midfield generals who put in a shift every week.
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Pretty much this, a good player, no more, no less, will put a foot in and do the dirty work in midfield, what you expect from any competent DM. But he is never going to be the go to player to drive his team up the pitch like Dembele did or pick out that defence splitting pass like Modric. Im not sure Spurs have that player really, Bentancur on occasion may provide that pass or a bit of skill.

Bissouma is a great signing for them, if either Hojbjerg or Bentancur went down Conte was relying on Winks, who just is not top four standard, or an injury prone academy player in Skip, Skip had done well when called upon but he is one for the future really. Now at least he has a little more cover in midfield.

Still not mounting a title challenge with a 33 y/o Perisic and Bissouma as the additions.
 
Scroto Baggins said:
Pretty much this, a good player, no more, no less, will put a foot in and do the dirty work in midfield, what you expect from any competent DM. But he is never going to be the go to player to drive his team up the pitch like Dembele did or pick out that defence splitting pass like Modric. Im not sure Spurs have that player really, Bentancur on occasion may provide that pass or a bit of skill.

Bissouma is a great signing for them, if either Hojbjerg or Bentancur went down Conte was relying on Winks, who just is not top four standard, or an injury prone academy player in Skip, Skip had done well when called upon but he is one for the future really. Now at least he has a little more cover in midfield.

Still not mounting a title challenge with a 33 y/o Perisic and Bissouma as the additions.
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Agreed. For me Spurs still lack a player to knit everything together in the middle of the park. They may still sign that player this summer, but if they don't I'm not sure I see them being any better than they were last season.
 
Scroto Baggins said:
Pretty much this, a good player, no more, no less, will put a foot in and do the dirty work in midfield, what you expect from any competent DM. But he is never going to be the go to player to drive his team up the pitch like Dembele did or pick out that defence splitting pass like Modric. Im not sure Spurs have that player really, Bentancur on occasion may provide that pass or a bit of skill.

Bissouma is a great signing for them, if either Hojbjerg or Bentancur went down Conte was relying on Winks, who just is not top four standard, or an injury prone academy player in Skip, Skip had done well when called upon but he is one for the future really. Now at least he has a little more cover in midfield.

Still not mounting a title challenge with a 33 y/o Perisic and Bissouma as the additions.
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I'm expecting us to bring in at least another 4 players before the end of the window so let's see what happens.
 
Bilbo said:
Agreed. For me Spurs still lack a player to knit everything together in the middle of the park. They may still sign that player this summer, but if they don't I'm not sure I see them being any better than they were last season.
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We will likely try to get a creative midfielder in so Conte can switch to 3 in the middle from time to time - this is why we were considering Eriksen so if we don't get him I'd imagine we will be looking at an alternative. Having said that, most of the creativity in Conte's system will come from the wing backs and the central midfield generally is about being strong, breaking down the opposition attacks and transitions to the wing backs or Kane as he drops deep so Bissouma should be perfect for that. Having that addition of a creative midfielder would give us more tactical options which can only be a positive though.
 
balaks said:
We will likely try to get a creative midfielder in so Conte can switch to 3 in the middle from time to time - this is why we were considering Eriksen so if we don't get him I'd imagine we will be looking at an alternative. Having said that, most of the creativity in Conte's system will come from the wing backs and the central midfield generally is about being strong, breaking down the opposition attacks and transitions to the wing backs or Kane as he drops deep so Bissouma should be perfect for that. Having that addition of a creative midfielder would give us more tactical options which can only be a positive though.
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I have no idea what Conte's transfer and squad building plans for Spurs look like but the idea that the creativity in his system comes from wingbacks is not true historically. Whether playing 2 or 3 in midfield, he has had brilliant world class midfielders in the middle of the park in his other teams.

At Juventus, he had Pirlo, Vidal, Pogba, Marchisio.

At Chelsea, prime Matic, prime Kante, Fabregas.

At Inter, Brozovic, Barella, Eriksen/Vidal.

Midfield was the creative fulcrum of all these teams, wingbacks with the exception of Hakimi have been more often hard charging system players who provide width and chip in with a few goals but don't stir the drink or provide a lot of creativity. For example, at Chelsea Marcos Alonso and Victor Moses combined for five assists all year in league play. Fabregas and Matic combined for 19 assists.

To me, this is the biggest area where Spurs currently fall short of Conte's other teams.
 
Powderfinger said:
I have no idea what Conte's transfer and squad building plans for Spurs look like but the idea that the creativity in his system comes from wingbacks is not true historically. Whether playing 2 or 3 in midfield, he has had brilliant world class midfielders in the middle of the park in his other teams.

At Juventus, he had Pirlo, Vidal, Pogba, Marchisio.

At Chelsea, prime Matic, prime Kante, Fabregas.

At Inter, Brozovic, Barella, Eriksen/Vidal.

Midfield was the creative fulcrum of all these teams, wingbacks with the exception of Hakimi have been more often hard charging system players who provide width and chip in with a few goals but don't stir the drink or provide a lot of creativity. For example, at Chelsea Marcos Alonso and Victor Moses combined for five assists all year in league play. Fabregas and Matic combined for 19 assists.

To me, this is the biggest area where Spurs currently fall short of Conte's other teams.
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You only need to look at last season with Spurs to see that he played two midfielders not three - Hojberg and Skipp/Bentancur. He may well have gone for all three had Skipp not been injured. The difference with Spurs is that we have Kane who can come deep and fulfill that third creative midfielder in a sense which is why he played in the system we did last year. In that system the creativity outside of Kane tended to come from the wing backs. I would expect Conte to want to continue to use this system next season but also have the added flexibility of having a third midfielder with more creativity in there to change the system against certain teams or at certain times in a match so this is why I think he is likely to try and get one in.

With the addition of Bissouma he will now have a much stronger base in the midfield - Bentancur/Bissouma/Hojberg/Skipp than we had last season.
 
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balaks said:
You only need to look at last season with Spurs to see that he played two midfielders not three - Hojberg and Skipp/Bentancur. He may well have gone for all three had Skipp not been injured. The difference with Spurs is that we have Kane who can come deep and fulfill that third creative midfielder in a sense which is why he played in the system we did last year. In that system the creativity outside of Kane tended to come from the wing backs. I would expect Conte to want to continue to use this system next season but also have the added flexibility of having a third midfielder with more creativity in there to change the system against certain teams or at certain times in a match so this is why I think he is likely to try and get one in.

With the addition of Bissouma he will now have a much stronger base in the midfield - Bentancur/Bissouma/Hojberg/Skipp than we had last season.
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I think buying a creative midfielder would be a very good addition. But realistically even with a CAM player like Eriksen added this is also just an area where Spurs simply don't match up to Conte's other teams. He has always had immensely talented world class players in central midfield and not only when playing with three but also when playing with two CMs like at Chelsea. None of his other teams have been built around a pair of CMs whose primary job is just to break up play. Whether he is doing that now at Spurs out of choice or necessity I don't know. But its a huge difference from his past teams.
 
Powderfinger said:
I think buying a creative midfielder would be a very good addition. But realistically even with a CAM player like Eriksen added this is also just an area where Spurs simply don't match up to Conte's other teams. He has always had immensely talented world class players in central midfield and not only when playing with three but also when playing with two CMs like at Chelsea. None of his other teams have been built around a pair of CMs whose primary job is just to break up play. Whether he is doing that now at Spurs out of choice or necessity I don't know. But its a huge difference from his past teams.
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Bissouma with Bentancur/Hojberg is excellent but yes we would benefit from a good creative midfielder in the squad as well and hopefully we will get one. I think if we get the right one in then that midfield should be more than good enough.
 
Powderfinger said:
I think buying a creative midfielder would be a very good addition. But realistically even with a CAM player like Eriksen added this is also just an area where Spurs simply don't match up to Conte's other teams. He has always had immensely talented world class players in central midfield and not only when playing with three but also when playing with two CMs like at Chelsea. None of his other teams have been built around a pair of CMs whose primary job is just to break up play. Whether he is doing that now at Spurs out of choice or necessity I don't know. But its a huge difference from his past teams.
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Of all the managers in league Conte is very flexible in his tactical set up and mostly get the best from what he got. He will do well in Europe this season in my opinion.

Creating a competitive squad in his image that's very dangerous combination in my opinion. Spurs and levy must do whatever to keep Conte happy. Of course it's not easy but he understood the club and so far his signings are not high end yet improve them slowly and they are not done yet.
 
Powderfinger said:
I think buying a creative midfielder would be a very good addition. But realistically even with a CAM player like Eriksen added this is also just an area where Spurs simply don't match up to Conte's other teams. He has always had immensely talented world class players in central midfield and not only when playing with three but also when playing with two CMs like at Chelsea. None of his other teams have been built around a pair of CMs whose primary job is just to break up play. Whether he is doing that now at Spurs out of choice or necessity I don't know. But its a huge difference from his past teams.
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I think with us the 3-4-3 plan came down to Kante being Kante (Matic wasn't that good by that time, he peaked in 2014) and us having Hazard/Willian/Pedro and no reliable back up to Costa.

It kind of selected itself once Conte decided to move to 3 at the back.
 
Bilbo said:
Conte is surely not going to be judged on whether he can compete with City & Liverpool next season. A good season for him and Spurs would be consolidating a top four place, perhaps even 3rd, and either going fairly deep in the CL or winning a domestic cup. I know a lot of Spurs fans and they would be delighted with that.
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I agree with you here, I think it would be unfair to expect Conte to bridge that gap so quickly.

I think they are making smart signings and look like they will solidify themselves in the top 4 next season and getting into the knockout rounds of the Champions League with a deep cup run would probably be a good season for most Spurs fans(as you said), it wasn't so long ago they were staring into a Kane'less abyss.
 
RacingClub said:
I agree with you here, I think it would be unfair to expect Conte to bridge that gap so quickly.

I think they are making smart signings and look like they will solidify themselves in the top 4 next season and getting into the knockout rounds of the Champions League with a deep cup run would probably be a good season for most Spurs fans(as you said), it wasn't so long ago they were staring into a Kane'less abyss.
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I'm not convinced they'll deliver back to back top 4 finishes. Obviously a lot depends on what they and others do in this window, but I still hold the opinion that they weren't actually that good last season. Having a trendy manager convinced a lot of people otherwise but for me they looked flat a lot more often than I think they'll get away with next season.

Arsenal played the better football IMO but suffered from not strengthening in January. United, surely, can't be any worse. A lot depends on summer business to come
 
Bilbo said:
I still hold the opinion that they weren't actually that good last season.
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Agree with you here, they looked great when teams played a high line and went on to them /allowed them space to counter attack but fairly clueless against low block/ defensively organized sides.

They were also absolutely atrocious against a fairly shit United side.

Bilbo said:
Arsenal played the better football IMO but suffered from not strengthening in January.
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Yup agree with you here too, Arsenals squad depth (or lack thereof) was badly exposed after the injuries to Partey and the fullbacks (especially the fullbacks because Tavares may be the worst fullback in world football and Cedric is average at best).

If they manage to get Jesus in I think they will have one of the best Frontlines in the league with him combining with Martinelli, Odegaard and Saka (With Smith Rowe coming in and out)so a bit of investment in the rest of the squad and they will definitely put up a better fight.
 
Powderfinger said:
I have no idea what Conte's transfer and squad building plans for Spurs look like but the idea that the creativity in his system comes from wingbacks is not true historically. Whether playing 2 or 3 in midfield, he has had brilliant world class midfielders in the middle of the park in his other teams.

At Juventus, he had Pirlo, Vidal, Pogba, Marchisio.

At Chelsea, prime Matic, prime Kante, Fabregas.

At Inter, Brozovic, Barella, Eriksen/Vidal.

Midfield was the creative fulcrum of all these teams, wingbacks with the exception of Hakimi have been more often hard charging system players who provide width and chip in with a few goals but don't stir the drink or provide a lot of creativity. For example, at Chelsea Marcos Alonso and Victor Moses combined for five assists all year in league play. Fabregas and Matic combined for 19 assists.

To me, this is the biggest area where Spurs currently fall short of Conte's other teams.
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Spot on.

Also: he doesn't want an associative midfield. In all those line ups there's 1 guy that's very good as keeping possession and tempo but all the others are direct-vertical mids
 
Bilbo said:
Agreed. For me Spurs still lack a player to knit everything together in the middle of the park. They may still sign that player this summer, but if they don't I'm not sure I see them being any better than they were last season.
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Kane dropping deep means they shouldn't go for a 10 type really, instead someone better in one of the half-spaces. Eriksen obviously makes sense. Barella too, but I imagine he'd cost too much. No rumours to this effect, but Malinovski looks like a good fit.
 
He’s probably the best ‘defensive’ manager around but football right now rewards offensive teams - Conte draws too many games to challenge City and Pool & any bad injury to Son or Kane and they drop out of the top four running for me. It’s probably enough for top four though, United will no doubt have another howler of a season and Arsenal are bang average.

Will be impressive if he can secure back to back top four - he’s typically awful in the CL so no expectations there.
 
Bilbo said:
Conte is surely not going to be judged on whether he can compete with City & Liverpool next season. A good season for him and Spurs would be consolidating a top four place, perhaps even 3rd, and either going fairly deep in the CL or winning a domestic cup. I know a lot of Spurs fans and they would be delighted with that.

I know everyone gets carried away by whoever they consider to be an elite manager these days, but I watch almost every Spurs game and whilst they did finish 4th and deserve credit for that, they flattered to deceive A LOT and needed to rely on Arsenal failing in order to succeed. They have done nowhere near enough to now to be talked about as contenders, or on the other hand for supporters to put unrealistic expectations on what Conte should achieve.
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Yes, Spurs finished only 2 points above Arsenal. On the other hand, they had +29 goal difference to Arsenal's +13. And the team that Conte inherited from Nuno was dispirited and hopeless. It will be a completely different story next year. My guess is that Liverpool will be worse than last year and Conte will battle with Klopp for 2nd place.
 
I think they will be hard to beat and break down with that workmanlike midfield. But what do they do against those teams that just want to sit 11 players behind the ball and play out 0-0 draws?

I just don't see enough going forward from a midfield of defensively minded DM/CM's. Granted they can try getting it wide and firing in crosses from their wing backs to fashion something, but the box will be crowded with defenders making it a bit of a lottery.

They definitely need a creatively minded player in that midfield.
 
Scroto Baggins said:
I think they will be hard to beat and break down with that workmanlike midfield. But what do they do against those teams that just want to sit 11 players behind the ball and play out 0-0 draws?

I just don't see enough going forward from a midfield of defensively minded DM/CM's. Granted they can try getting it wide and firing in crosses from their wing backs to fashion something, but the box will be crowded with defenders making it a bit of a lottery.

They definitely need a creatively minded player in that midfield.
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This is how I see it as well. More time in Conte's hands plus a good summer transfer window should make them a strong favorite for top four. But they aren't a lock by any means and I don't see them challenging higher than 3rd with this kind of tactical setup.

It's easy to forget that they had a good number of uninspiring, toothless performances against weak competition in the second half (Brentford, Brighton, Wolves, Southampton, Burnley, the FA cup match against Boro). If you want to compete with the likes of Man City, you get maybe 2-3 of those matches a season. Especially juggling European football, needing to rotate their star forwards, deal with tired legs, I can't see them generating chances consistently enough for that.

They beat Arsenal to fourth and deserve credit for doing so. But if Arsenal hadn't had an injury crisis or had found a way to beat a midtable Newcastle, they'd probably have finished fifth and people would be looking at their season differently.
 
Rajiztar said:
Of all the managers in league Conte is very flexible in his tactical set up and mostly get the best from what he got. He will do well in Europe this season in my opinion.

Creating a competitive squad in his image that's very dangerous combination in my opinion. Spurs and levy must do whatever to keep Conte happy. Of course it's not easy but he understood the club and so far his signings are not high end yet improve them slowly and they are not done yet.
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His supposed flexibility hasn't helped him do well in the CL till now. That's not going to change at Spurs of all teams.
 
Scroto Baggins said:
I think they will be hard to beat and break down with that workmanlike midfield. But what do they do against those teams that just want to sit 11 players behind the ball and play out 0-0 draws?

I just don't see enough going forward from a midfield of defensively minded DM/CM's. Granted they can try getting it wide and firing in crosses from their wing backs to fashion something, but the box will be crowded with defenders making it a bit of a lottery.

They definitely need a creatively minded player in that midfield.
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Who has been Liverpool's creative midfielder for the past 4-5 years?
 
Bale Bale Bale said:
Who has been Liverpool's creative midfielder for the past 4-5 years?
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When you have full backs as good as Robertson and TAA you don't need much else, a combined total of 27 goal contributions from these two last season. Phenomenal.
 
Spurs side looks well balanced, but they need the attackers to be on fire if they want to win it.
 
Does anyone else feel like they will have a title competing season (similar to Conte at Chelsea) this time around?

Liverpool have lost Mane, and Salah has been average (by his standards) recently. Even City might end up losing Bernado, and Pep might struggle at times to fit in a traditional 9 in Haaland.

I feel like they would end up being the top 3, with Chelsea, Arsenal and us competing for that fourth spot.
 
Rajiztar said:
Of all the managers in league Conte is very flexible in his tactical set up and mostly get the best from what he got. He will do well in Europe this season in my opinion.

Creating a competitive squad in his image that's very dangerous combination in my opinion. Spurs and levy must do whatever to keep Conte happy. Of course it's not easy but he understood the club and so far his signings are not high end yet improve them slowly and they are not done yet.
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Conte has never really done it in Europe though so I'm not sure. And I actually think being in the CL and have the demands of extra games will hinder them in the league. Look at his Chelsea team in 16/17, no European commitments so they focussed on the league and walked the league.

Have to give credit to Spurs for the turnaround though - Paratici has a clear vision and is delivering the players Conte wants (as he knows he will sulk and be off if he doesn't!)
 
balaks said:
We do on the left side now with Perisic and hopefully we will be bringing in a high quality right wing back before the end of the window.
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Yeh but it remains to be seen if those players will have the impact of Trent and Robertson which is a massive ask.

I agree with the wider point though that there’s more than one way to inject creativity into a team. Sometimes it can be done through the middle, other times down the sides and just depends on the squad makeup. With the players spurs have it probably makes sense to opt for creativity out wide as Kane already provides so much quality in his central hold up play.
 
TrustInJanuzaj said:
Yeh but it remains to be seen if those players will have the impact of Trent and Robertson which is a massive ask.

I agree with the wider point though that there’s more than one way to inject creativity into a team. Sometimes it can be done through the middle, other times down the sides and just depends on the squad makeup. With the players spurs have it probably makes sense to opt for creativity out wide as Kane already provides so much quality in his central hold up play.
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Every transfer is a risk and it would be asking a lot for any player to come in and have the impact of Trent and Robinson however - Perisic is proven quality and from what I hear we are looking at Djed Spence who is young but looks like a potential monster so I'd have high hopes for him over time. Our creativity comes from Kane in the centre as you say so the width we get from the wing backs is also very important - Doherty did really well for us before his injury when finally played in his natural position - is he a world beater? No but he is quite effective.
 
I think Son is going to have another huge season, he'll be in contention for the golden boot again. Expected him to flourish under Conte an that's exactly what happened.
As far as Conte's European record is concerned, I've mentioned this earlier in this thread, although it does make poor reading, but he's had just 4 seasons in the CL, and that is with 3 different clubs.
Not sure if he'll improve that in the coming season, or with Spurs for that matter, but I'm fairly certain that he will improve that record.
 
kthanksbye said:
I think Son is going to have another huge season, he'll be in contention for the golden boot again. Expected him to flourish under Conte an that's exactly what happened.
As far as Conte's European record is concerned, I've mentioned this earlier in this thread, although it does make poor reading, but he's had just 4 seasons in the CL, and that is with 3 different clubs.
Not sure if he'll improve that in the coming season, or with Spurs for that matter, but I'm fairly certain that he will improve that record.
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He's had 5, been dumped out of the group stage in 3 of them and only won one knockout game which was against Celtic almost a decade ago.

It's beyond bad for a manager of his calibre. He has everything to prove in the UCL.
 
Paul_Scholes18 said:
With the squad Spurs now they should surely aim for the title.

Conte will certainly fancy his chances.

It is a good season to win it. City are changing some players and Haaland is not fully settled.
Liverpool has lost one of the three best players they got and could be much weaker than last year.

For sure I think City likely win it again, but if Haaland struggle to get going they could be weaker if Sterling, Bernardo might go.
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I really don't think they have a good squad. They are so heavily reliant on kane and son. Wonder what their % output was last year in goals and assists. If kane and son stay fit for the entire season then they'll probably get 3rd or 4th with others contributing.

In summary Spurs always flatten to deceive. Its in thier DNA. When it matters they don't deliver despite historically having better teams than they have now. Thier defence is OK but not title winning especially with Dier at the back. Midfield solid enough but not creative enough. Wheres the goals in that midfield.

I rekon they'll start the season well. But when ucl kicks in let's see.
 
Reddevildans said:
I really don't think they have a good squad. They are so heavily reliant on kane and son. Wonder what their % output was last year in goals and assists. If kane and son stay fit for the entire season then they'll probably get 3rd or 4th with others contributing.

In summary Spurs always flatten to deceive. Its in thier DNA. When it matters they don't deliver despite historically having better teams than they have now. Thier defence is OK but not title winning especially with Dier at the back. Midfield solid enough but not creative enough. Wheres the goals in that midfield.

I rekon they'll start the season well. But when ucl kicks in let's see.
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I think they have the best attack in the league, but agree the depth is not as good. When I said squad I talked mainly about the first 11. I think players like Romero and Davies for example are really good players. Dier they could replace though.

It looks though that City might sell some big attacking names and put more faith in Haaland. If he do not perform as well as Kane then Spurs got a chance.

The difference is the attacking midfield City got that is the best in the world with KDB. The front 3 for City aren't that good I think at least Spurs is better. Pep always rotates them, but it is since he has no clear star before they got Haaland.
Sterling and Mahrez Pep do not fully trust. They are good, but not Son good.

Yes UCL might be a factor if Kane can't cope with all the games. I think he can though, but we will see.

I think Haaland might struggle more in terms of fitness, but he got no world cup so can recover then. KDB has had injuries so this season could be hard for him, but likely Pep will rotate him in CL and still qualify from the group.
 
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