‘Create problems’ – Conte opens up on high-press game plan against Sporting

Antonio Conte spoke about his high press game plan in the post-match press conference this evening, with the Italian opting for a change in tactic in the Champions League. 

Tottenham fell to their first defeat of the season this evening in Lisbon as Sporting smashed two late goals past Hugo Lloris to stun Antonio Conte and his men.

In truth, it had been yet another slow and predictable performance from the Lilywhites, who struggled to create meaningful chances against the home side.

With Spurs seemingly settling for a good point away from home with a couple of minutes left on the clock, Sporting pounced and took advantage of some sloppy defending to score not one but two goals.

Conte revealed the game plan was always to press high and cause problems for Sporting, but Tottenham did not do enough damage once they won the ball.

When asked about the high press on show, he said (Football London): “But the strategy was always the same and to try to put pressure and to create problems and I think we did it because Sporting Lisbon are very good in possession and we won important balls.

“I think we could exploit this after the pressure better than we did. I think we played the game that we prepared.

“We wanted to press high to put pressure for the whole game and we did this in every area of the pitch. Then at the same time when we had the ball we tried to create problems to Sporting Lisbon.”

Spurs Web Opinion:

I think Spurs need to press high more often against certain teams in certain games. Of course, this evening was not a great advert for that, but Spurs did win the ball in some dangerous areas. It could be interesting to see whether Conte develops this in the future.

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