Three ways Antonio Conte should immediately improve Tottenham Hotspur
By Aaron Coe
Nothing has been made official yet but more and more signs are pointing toward Italian gaffer Antonio Conte becoming the next manager of Tottenham Hotspur. Conte brings with him both a history of success as well as some tactics, which should help the Spurs improve some shortcomings. Here are three ways, Antonio Conte will almost immediately improve the play of Tottenham Hotspur.
Everything starts with defensive organization
There is no doubt Tottenham needs to bring in some new players at the center back position, if for nothing else to think about the eventual departure of Toby Alderweireld. Even, without bringing in new talent, Tottenham should be better defensively using Conte’s traditional back three.
Tottenham mostly played with a back four last season, with both of the fullbacks playing a hybrid fullback/wingback role. This often left only two defenders back, particularly if the midfielders got sucked up.
With only two defenders back – and none with real speed – Tottenham was easy to counter-attack against and was almost always off balance in transition.
Changing to a back three alleviates a lot of these problems found in the transition of offense to defense. Instead of having two center-backs with a large split between them on the defensive half to combat anything that comes across midfield, Conte’s teams have three players back.
When there are three players back, it is much easier to cover defensively, even when one player is stretched by a runner, there are still two more to cover. Not having to rely on one of the midfielders to constantly trackback to cover because Tottenham have more defensive stability should be a huge plus.
Further, having a third of the pitch to deal with versus half of the pitch may improve the play of the existing defenders as well. While it should be Conte’s call on who to keep and not, some organization and structure is a good thing.
Besides a balanced defensive foundation, Conte uses his wings very differently than most and that should benefit Tottenham as well.