Gary Neville has hailed the energy and application the Tottenham players showed in their 2-2 draw against Liverpool and insisted the performance from Antonio Conte’s men will make their top-four rivals fearful.
Tottenham had more than enough chances to win the game comfortably as Liverpool struggled to cope with the home side’s counter-attacks.
Harry Kane got his elusive goal in the Premier League, netting Spurs’ opener with a smart first-time finish after being played through on goal by Tanguy Ndombele but the England captain had enough chances to score at least a couple more.
Son Heung-min was also uncharacteristically wasteful in front of goal but several of Tottenham’s fringe players, including the likes of Harry Winks, Dele Alli and Ryan Sessegnon put in impressive performances after being handed opportunities.
Neville admitted the tactical changes that Conte has brought in are now evident and insisted the Italian would have realised on the back of Sunday’s performance that he has got a talented group of players at the club.
Speaking on the Gary Neville Podcast on Sky Sports, the former Manchester United defender said: “He’s (Conte) a great manager, you can see the influence he’s had on this group.
“The energy compared to how they were before, the stadium is electric, and it was brilliant in here all the way through the game. You can see him on the touchline. The emotions. He cares passionately and is desperate to win.
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“He’ll be disappointed with the chances missed because I think he set up his team perfectly, but also proud and realise he’s got a good group of players here. We started to question that over the last 12-18 months.
“Were this team over the hill and were they spent under Mauricio Pochettino and as good as it can get? But they’ve shown a performance today that can tell us they can really be competitive and push for the top four.
“It will strike a little bit of fear into Chelsea, Manchester United, Arsenal, West Ham, all the others with aspirations to be up there. This Tottenham team are going to be real in the next four to five months.”
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Fans are often quick to write some players off and call them ‘rubbish’ without realising that it can be hard to come into the team and perform well when one does not get a regular run of matches in the side and is low in confidence.
The likes of Alli and Winks proved that they are talented players and have attributes that can prove quite useful in the right system. While it is still early days under Conte, what is apparent is that all the players have a better understanding of their roles in the system than they did either under Jose or Nuno.
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