Three ways Antonio Conte should immediately improve Tottenham Hotspur
By Aaron Coe
Tottenham taking back the flanks
Under Jose Mourinho, the wings were mostly an afterthought. Tottenham played a formation where any width came from the fullbacks, who were supposed to overlap with the inverted wingers at the top of the pitch.
With the frailties of Tottenham’s defense, rarely did the team get the kind of consistent push-up the flanks that provided the service Harry Kane really needs. As a team, Tottenham managed only 332 crosses for the entire Premier League season, which is only 8.7 crosses per match, one of several deficiencies in the squad.
Further, as with the defense, the flanks were incredibly unbalanced for Tottenham all season long. Sergio Reguilon and Son Heung-Min combined for 113 crosses, which was 34% of the team’s total. WIth both Son and Reguilon playing on the left, it meant little real attack from the right and teams could hedge over toward Son defensively.
Heck, the third most crosses on Tottenham came from Harry Kane himself who had 37 crosses.
On the right, Gareth Bale (29), Matt Doherty (24), and Serge Aurier (21), only had 74 total crosses, which was just 15 more than Reguilon alone.
As a point of comparison, Achraf Hakimi – who played the right wing-back position for Conte and Inter this past season had 105 crosses himself. Ivan Perisic on the left had 79 crosses, and Nicolo Barella managed 50. Hakimi is one of several players we have recommended looking at for the right-back/wing position.
With 481 crosses, Inter had 30% more crosses on the season than did Tottenham, averaging 12.6 crosses per match. Given how poor Tottenham was on the flanks this past season, this should be a huge difference, as should the pressure the opposition will face.