Ex-Manager watch: Antonio Conte

[N'Obody]

We've had plenty of the Poch years to watch beautiful football and in the end it got us nothing.. The spurs way needs changing tbh, yes we may have been known for daring and entertaining but it still won't us the square root of eff all.

I'm happy to see a new way being approached. A more steely and physical approach, its not pretty but its definitely effective. I'd take winning games over beautiful performances any day of the week.

I hate playing great and not winning anything. Other than bragging rights, its pretty useless. Don't want to be like arsenal now, play great stuff but not really be challenging for the big titles.

I want us to brute force our way to titles and champs league and Conte definitely has a plan for us to succeed.

 

[mil1lion]

Funny thing is that the times we won trophies since after 91 were not by playing our most exciting football. Yet we are more exciting than we were under Graham and Ramos so if we can win some silverware under Conte it will be special.

 

[littlemandefoe]

@Richard Howlett do one, mate.

 

[ComfortablyNumb]

Fucking hell

Cry more

Cry more? I had to Google that. ‘Coz I’m not twelve. But I think you’ve misapplied the meme…

 

[spurs mental]

Cry more? I had to Google that. ‘Coz I’m not twelve. But I think you’ve misapplied the meme…

 

[ComfortablyNumb]

View attachment 116716

Still don’t get it. Did Richy invent this? What has it got to do with my post?

Actually, that’s rhetorical. Don’t trouble yourself.

 

[carpediem1906]

To those not enjoying the football (succinctly summed up by someone above as because the ball being in our half more often than the opponents) with our 5-4-1 11 men behind the ball when opponent has possession at midfield, I have this counter perspective to offer >>>

when was the last time we watch a spurs team and are totally unworried or indifferent about the opponent trying to attack us?

I noticed that my heart rate is a lot slower during match days when we don’t have the ball nowadays; where before every time opponents attack us, we fear conceding. Nervy defending galore. (spursy as well)

we are so solid at the back now, our players have cut out errors and panicky scrambling by and large and 0.08xg conceded just validated what the eyes and heart rate already showed us - we are damn tough to break down / concede against

AND, on top of this solid defensive base / block, we also know that every time we turn possession over or build up from the back, any moment that our opponent loses concentration or shape or errors of judgment, we can “kill the opponent in a sporting way” and score, so potent is our attack.

and this is before even Sonny or Kane gets to form!

this is all credit to Conte.

Sanchez not conceding a goal in 10 over hours.
Sonny being top scorer
Kane Son top epl combination ever

We also know from historical stats that title winning teams concede the least or 2nd least goals while being in top 3 goals scored and we are well on our way to this stat

What is there not to understand / like?

 

[longtimespur]

To those not enjoying the football (succinctly summed up by someone above as because the ball being in our half more often than the opponents) with our 5-4-1 11 men behind the ball when opponent has possession at midfield, I have this counter perspective to offer >>>

when was the last time we watch a spurs team and are totally unworried or indifferent about the opponent trying to attack us?

I noticed that my heart rate is a lot slower during match days when we don’t have the ball nowadays; where before every time opponents attack us, we fear conceding. Nervy defending galore. (spursy as well)

we are so solid at the back now, our players have cut out errors and panicky scrambling by and large and 0.08xg conceded just validated what the eyes and heart rate already showed us - we are damn tough to break down / concede against

AND, on top of this solid defensive base / block, we also know that every time we turn possession over or build up from the back, any moment that our opponent loses concentration or shape or errors of judgment, we can “kill the opponent in a sporting way” and score, so potent is our attack.

and this is before even Sonny or Kane gets to form!

this is all credit to Conte.

Sanchez not conceding a goal in 10 over hours.
Sonny being top scorer
Kane Son top epl combination ever

We also know from historical stats that title winning teams concede the least or 2nd least goals while being in top 3 goals scored and we are well on our way to this stat

What is there not to understand / like?

Some people just seem to have to moan!!!
If it's not obvious they'll look for something to be detrimental about.

 

[Misfit]

We've never looked under the cosh this season. I'm still getting used to a lifetime of "midfield control/possession is how you win games" not actually being the case anymore.

It makes me nervous as hell during games as I watch them but afterwards on reflection I think about how many decent chances the oppo had and you can comfortably count them on just one hand.

If our forward line starts firing on all cylinders as they did at times last season and take our own chances we'll start seeing games out with comfortable scorelines.

 

[mil1lion]

I feel we're incredibly patient as well so while people may feel we need to start faster I don't think it matters. We seem to be happy to be well organised and keep things tight then get stronger as the game goes on. We seem to win a fair number of games in the last 20 mins now. Fans maybe need to have that level of patience too and relax while enjoying the game.

 

[Richard Howlett]

@Richard Howlett do one, mate.

Apologies, have missed something?

 

[SpringHeeledJim]

Definitely agree about feeling more relaxed when we are defending. I get incredibly nervous still for the majority of games (im 42 ffs ) but knowing that Conte drills them and seeing the solid defensive shape coupled with a huge reduction in individual errors is a nice/weird feeling

 

[Richard Howlett]

Apologies, have missed something?

Report removed from your post apologies

 

[Locotoro]

Not directly linked to Spurs but very interesting comments from Ancelloti on possession football.

Ancelotti: Possession football is less fashionable than a few years ago

On Saturday lunchtime, Carlo Ancelotti spoke to the media ahead of Real Madrid's Sunday match against Real Mallorca, but he also reflected on one of the goals the team scored again

www.marca.com

If my Spanish is accurate I believe he actually called possession football at fad that was now going out of fashion

 

[littlemandefoe]

Apologies, have missed something?

Sorry, mate, meant to say 'love you'. x

 

[ComfortablyNumb]

What is it with this obsession with Potter by some on here? Some are convinced he is the Second Coming or at least the Second Poch. He's got zero experience of a team with big egos like Chelsea and will get very little time, their board and fans will be quickly on his back after a few poor results. I wouldnt swap Conte for him in a million years.

Not in a million years perhaps, but maybe in twelve months' time...

 

[mil1lion]

I think it's just a style of football people enjoy, it's common for many to enjoy possession football more than counter football. Potter plays nice possession football but his teams always sort of fade. To be honest I really don't think he's much different to Rodgers. I think Brighton was a good fit for him but I don't blame him taking his chance. The fact is Brighton have gone as far as he can take them really, they'll always lose their best players to prevent them going further. They're a small club with not a huge fan base so what he's done is impressive. If things don't work well at Chelsea he'll go straight into another mid table side anyway. Maybe even with a better budget than Brighton (like a Villa for example).

It's still premature to think about what we do after Conte. He could stay a while like Klopp at Liverpool. When the day comes there will be good options to replace. I would expect us to look at a higher profile manager than Potter now though. It just feels like a pre new stadium type of manager for us. We need to go big in future and stick with proven winners like Conte.

 

[thekneaf]

Could it be as simple as when Conteball clicks, it's very exciting, very entertaining and we love it. Lots of goals. Rapid passing.

And when it doesn't click, we often still win or draw but it's quite a tough watch?

And then to add to that, at the start of the season when the stakes are lower, teams are jostling for position and tension is lower, we're more fixated on how it looks to the eye, and later in the season it's more about results.

 

[thelak]

To those not enjoying the football (succinctly summed up by someone above as because the ball being in our half more often than the opponents) with our 5-4-1 11 men behind the ball when opponent has possession at midfield, I have this counter perspective to offer >>>

when was the last time we watch a spurs team and are totally unworried or indifferent about the opponent trying to attack us?

I noticed that my heart rate is a lot slower during match days when we don’t have the ball nowadays; where before every time opponents attack us, we fear conceding. Nervy defending galore. (spursy as well)

we are so solid at the back now, our players have cut out errors and panicky scrambling by and large and 0.08xg conceded just validated what the eyes and heart rate already showed us - we are damn tough to break down / concede against

AND, on top of this solid defensive base / block, we also know that every time we turn possession over or build up from the back, any moment that our opponent loses concentration or shape or errors of judgment, we can “kill the opponent in a sporting way” and score, so potent is our attack.

and this is before even Sonny or Kane gets to form!

this is all credit to Conte.

Sanchez not conceding a goal in 10 over hours.
Sonny being top scorer
Kane Son top epl combination ever

We also know from historical stats that title winning teams concede the least or 2nd least goals while being in top 3 goals scored and we are well on our way to this stat

What is there not to understand / like?

great post

it’s way less stressful watching us these days

we don’t control the ball and games in a traditional way but we don’t concede high quality chances and teams are scared of our counter attacking so face the dilemma of how many men to overload the attack with.

it seems by far the most likely approach to us winning anything given we don’t have the unlimited funds to sign the best / most glamourous players

 

[Timberwolf]

great post

it’s way less stressful watching us these days

we don’t control the ball and games in a traditional way but we don’t concede high quality chances and teams are scared of our counter attacking so face the dilemma of how many men to overload the attack with.

it seems by far the most likely approach to us winning anything given we don’t have the unlimited funds to sign the best / most glamourous players

Yeah there's next to zero chance of us doing anything big in the league at the moment by trying to play City-style possession football. Given their riches and depth, nobody will do it better than them. Arsenal are trying to do that at the moment, but you can guarantee they'll fall short as they simply don't have the resources, players, or managerial expertise.

Our best bet is doing what Atletico did in Spain and trying to play a style that allows us to consistently get results and being extremely hard to beat.

While we've definitely stunk the place out entertainment-wise a few times this season, I've honestly never felt less worried about us conceding a goal, despite the fact we don't dominate the ball. Under Poch we were fantastic in possession, but all it took was one good through ball and teams were 1v1 with Lloris - that's never ever the case these days.