Hugo Lloris has defended Tottenham’s decision to hire counter-attacking managers in Jose Mourinho and Antonio Conte but the goalkeeper admitted that Ange Postecoglou has had a transformative effect on the club since arriving last summer.
Although Lloris was relegated to third choice behind Guglielmo Vicario and Fraser Forster during his last few months at Tottenham, the goalkeeper observed first-hand the impact that Postecoglou made at Hotspur Way.
The former Spurs captain praised the Australian for being able to quickly implement an attacking and aggressive approach even though the players were used to a counter-attacking style.
Lloris told The Times: “Ange has a really good idea about football, he has his own conviction and he has made a huge amount of difference in a really short period of time. He has brought a different style of football to what we were used to in the last four or five years.
“Before it was more about transition, today it’s an aggressive team, about possession football and a really offensive team which the Spurs fans expect. It reminds me of the way we played with Poch [Mauricio Pochettino].”
Hugo Lloris defends Conte and Mourinho hires
Some Spurs fans will feel that the club should not have veered away from their traditions by appointing the likes of Mourinho and Conte, but Lloris insisted that the appointments were made in order to bring success to the club.
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The 37-year-old stated that he learned a lot from the Italian and the Portuguese managers even though things might have not worked for either of them at Hotspur Way.
When asked if those appointments were a mistake, Lloris responded: “You know it’s so easy to say that now but you can’t blame the club for trying a different way to succeed.
“We played amazing football under Mauricio and we were so close to reaching that final step, so the club made I think the right decision to appoint managers that had the experience of winning in different countries. It didn’t work but it doesn’t mean it was the wrong decision.
“I understand it is not the type of football that the club are used to playing and as soon as you get bad results we got more criticism because it’s not the football you want to watch.
“It doesn’t mean it’s the wrong football, football is very varied. For me it was a great experience to be part of the team of José Mourinho and Antonio Conte, I learnt so much, but we didn’t reach what we expected.”
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One can certainly understand why Levy wanted to appoint managers with a track record of winning silverware in an effort to break the club’s trophy drought.
However, the appointments happened at the wrong time, with football at the highest level moving away from a counter-attacking style and moving towards a more progressive approach.
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