Conte repeating mistakes of past managers at Tottenham Hotspur
By Aaron Coe
As Middlesbrough was outplaying Tottenham Hotspur in another poor performance, Antonio Conte was repeating past managerial mistakes with Spurs again paying the price.
Upsets typically occur when a favoured team fails to take command and offers their opponents belief. Time and again over the last two seasons we have seen Tottenham Hotspur play down to the level of their opposition and lose again and again to teams Spurs should not lose too.
Whether the opposition has been Mura, Burnley, Middlesbrough, or Dinamo Zagreb, Tottenham has failed to play like the superior side and has paid for it with defeats. In all of those games, Spurs should have been in command but instead were a passive, defence-first team giving hope to those who did not need it.
Adherence to a defence-first philosophy, which both current gaffer Antonio Conte and former coach Jose Mourinho possess, has cost Spurs greatly over the last couple of seasons. Ultimately, whether Conte, Mourinho or Pochettino a devotion to their beliefs and approaches as a coach is letting Tottenham down.
Pochettino would not defend first at Tottenham
Regardless of everything that transpired on and off the pitch from the Champions League final forward, if there was a real criticism of Mauricio Pochettino‘s coaching at Tottenham Hotspur, it was his fidelity to his high octane approach.
While the constant pressing and pushing overwhelmed many a team, a thinning squad needed a plan B which Pochettino never developed. The idea of playing a 5-4-1 – as Conte has done most of 2022 – was antithetical to Pochettino’s beliefs. Ultimately, like his mentor Marcelo Bielsa at Leeds, an inability to adopt an alternative approach cost him his job at Spurs, who have been chasing his overall success ever since.
And while Pochettino would never willing to come into a match with a conservative, defensive-minded game-plan, that is all we have seen since and it is killing the team.
Conte leaving Spurs in the same shell as Mourinho
Interestingly, under both Mourinho and Conte, Spurs have had runs where they were high flying. For Mourinho, most can recall the blown lead at West Ham as the turning point in his tenure. Not playing it conservative in the second half cost Spurs two points and Mourinho coached the team differently the rest of his term.
As Tottenham attacked less and defended more, mistakes mounted and so did the dropping of points as Mourinho was let go. Now, less than six months into his reign at Spurs, Conte has Tottenham playing with a similar approach, which is getting the results one would expect – more losses and dropped points.
Tottenham need to be adapting to the opposition
The idea that Spurs sat in a 5-4-1 for most of the game against both Burnley and Middlesbrough is the most frustrating part for me as a fan. To have a team that is supposed to be better and to play as if they are not is only zapping the confidence from the team leading to poor performances.
It is one thing to defend like your life depends on it for ninety minutes against Manchester City. It is quite something different to ask your club to do that against Burnley, or Wolves, or Watford. Sure Spurs got a late rescue against Watford but lost six points in the other two matches.
As a fan, I’d rather Spurs go for it and lose every game 4-3 than hiding and dropping matches 1-0. We can blame the players sure enough but ask yourself how you would feel if you were being asked to go out and defend for 90 minutes against a Championship side and hope Harry WInks or Pierre Hojbjerg connect on the counter?
Again, against a team like City where Spurs are overmatched from the start, I get it. Against teams, Spurs should overmatch it is a recipe for defeat. Serial winner or not, if Conte cannot adapt the team tactically for the competition they face, Conte cannot fix the problems at Spurs.