Antonio Conte explains why he made just one substitution against West Ham

Antonio Conte has revealed that he was wary of changing the balance of the Tottenham team in the second half against West Ham.

Some Spurs fans may have expected Conte to have made changes for Tottenham’s trip to the London Stadium, which came just three days after their 2-0 win over Nottingham Forest.

However, the only change that the Italian made was a forced upon him, with Yves Bissouma replacing Rodrigo Bentancur, who picked up knock to his head at the City Ground.

Tottenham dominated proceedings for large parts of the first half and went into the interval with a deserved 1-0 lead. However, the home side gave a much better account of themselves in the second half and got their equaliser in the 55th minute.

Despite Spurs not clicking in the second half, Conte resisted the urge to make changes, with Richarlison being the only player introduced in place of Dejan Kulusevski in the 76th minute.

When asked why he did not make more substitutions, the Spurs boss told Football.London: “I think at that moment I didn’t want to change the balance of the team. Skippy was the first time with us.

“He trained with us for only two days, and I wanted to give him the possibility to come on the bench and breath the atmosphere and risk to play because Hojbjerg received a really bad tackle. Then I wanted to make only one change with Richy because in that moment, we needed energy, strong energy.

“In other situations, I prefer to keep the balance in that moment and also because in two (sic) days we have to play against Fulham and for sure I will make rotations. My players know very well, but they are ready, and we are ready to face this many games in a row, in two or three days.”

Spurs Web Opinion

Richarlison was the only attacking option that Conte had on the bench, with both Bryan Gil and Lucas Moura missing the game due to injury. I also think Conte would have brought Bentancur on if the Uruguayan had been on the bench.

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