‘My football is attacking football’ – Conte claims Spurs will try to outscore opponents

Antonio Conte has claimed that, much like his previous sides, he wants Tottenham to create a lot of chances and score plenty of goals.

Perhaps unfairly, Conte is perceived by many as being a pragmatic and conservative manager, with Gary Neville even citing that as the reason why he didn’t want the Italian at Manchester United.

However, the 53-year-old’s teams have always scored plenty of goals and that has also been the case at Tottenham since he arrived.

In fact, the Lilywhites have scored 51 goals in the calendar year so far, more than any other Premier League side including Liverpool and Manchester City (ESPN).

When the stat was put to Conte, he told Football.London: “The stats speak very clearly and in every team that I trained, we were always the first or the second best attacking team. My football is attacking football.

“Our idea is to score one more goal than the other, for sure. I know that to win something important, to lift trophies, you need to have a good balance offensively and defensively.

“Usually the ones who lift trophies don’t concede a lot of goals, usually they have the best defence. For me, in this year to score so many goals it’s ok, it’s ok, because it shows that my team, my players understood what I want, to score with many players is important.

“At the same time to have players like Sonny and Harry, now also Richy, it’s important because you know at the end of the season they are going to score many, many goals and they are vital for a team.

“At the same time, it’s important to involve all the team in our attacking football and we do this and we want to continue to do this, to continue the football I implemented eight months ago.”

Conte said last week that Spurs fans are right to be excited for what he has in store for the upcoming season, although he admitted the club need to be ‘realistic’ in their ambitions (Football London).

The Italian has now reiterated a similar message, insisting that it is about taking things one game at a time for the Lilywhites this season.

He added: “My message [to the fans] is always the same. We will do our best. We do our best for the fans, for the club, and for ourselves. Everyday we work very hard and the game is the final part of the whole week.

“The message is we want to give everything for the game but not only this game. It has to be normality. In every game, we have to give our best and 100 per cent.”

Spurs Web Opinion

I think there is a tendency among fans and pundits to confuse possession-based football with attacking football. A team can set up with a mid-block and be happy to be out of possession while still not being afraid to commit bodies forward when they get the ball, which is the hallmark of Conte’s sides.

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