Tottenham Hotspur had the opportunity to create some distance between themselves and Arsenal in the race for a top-four finish. However, Antonio Conte’s squad laid an egg as they dropped points to Brighton & Hove Albion.
Spurs fell 1-0 to The Seagulls, who have become a thorn on the side of both north London clubs considering they defeated Arsenal last week. Nonetheless, with the chance to have a stranglehold of fourth place, former Gooner Ian Wright was confused by Conte’s tactics.
During an appearance on Premier League Productions (via Express), Wright stated that he was stunned by the Italian tactician’s approach, noting that Spurs played like an away side.
“I can’t understand the tactics today; they played like an away side,” Wright said. “They weren’t passing through the lines, Harry Kane wasn’t coming short, they weren’t pressing Brighton high to win the ball in the last third, to win the ball in those high areas to then attack them and it was very confusing when you consider what they’ve done leading into this game.”
Tottenham will hope to rebound next weekend when they head on the road to the Brentford Community Stadium and face Brentford. The Bees are coming off a win against Watford this weekend. Tottenham will have their hands full against a squad riding a three-game Premier League win streak, including a victory over Chelsea.
Well depending on your point of view on how you see things, with respect the Titanic had an inevitable conclusion, but this was a football match where the manager had ample time to try and work out a solution of sorts. I’m not saying it would have worked, but you have to try something different, even gamble with twenty minutes to go.
I’m starting to think Conte purposely didn’t change anything because he felt that the players’ effort wasn’t there and he didn’t feel they deserve to be bailed out by changing formation. I mean, you can move around the deck chairs on the Titanic and the result will still be the same.
Also, Conte didn’t change anything I could see that visibly changed things, we know the lack of alternatives but no pressure on their defence was poor. The overall performance was frighteningly inept with nothing positive at all, then the goal conceded was badly defended from Romero and Dier.
For me the m/f area lacks a player that is more attack minded by taking players on instead of the routine type we have, not sure that is the Eriksen now though.
Yup – Hoddle pointed out this after about 4 minutes 😔
Once again Conte has no idea how to cope with 5-man midfield. Saints and Wolves the point in question
what a pile of crap that was no guts no glory no shots on target dream on top 4
A rare visit DD,welcome back.
It was an awful watch yesterday and you would have thought we were playing away to a top side the way we performed.A little more pressure on Brighton in the second half was about the only change I could see second half.
They had a game plan that worked perfectly,so that we didn’t muster one shot on target,at home.That is unacceptable.
I know fans are split on the idea of Eriksen returning,but according to the BBC he was MOTM for Brentford again yesterday.However the way Levy treated him before it’s very unlikely anyway.But he is the type of player we desperately need,along with several others.
Mike excusing Conte because of Covid is no excuse!!
Credit Brighton for making Spurs look ordinary which in truth they are an average side heavily reliant on both Kane and Son who were anonymous together with the rest of the team. What’s there to be confused about against supposedly inferior opponents whose master game plan worked to perfection against an abject Spurs side huffing and puffing throughout quickly running out of ideas resorting to hopeful long balls from Dier failing to reach their intended target. Given constant criticism levelled at both wing backs offering nothing I blame cautious Conte for not selecting Tavernier from the start or bringing him on at HT together with Bergy!!
Conte had covid, so he might not have been heavily involved in the planning of the match and/or might not have been so effective in that planning as usual. The team have been playing well lately… but they’re not of a standard yet to go unbeaten for 50 games. A poor match… but lets hope it is a one-off