‘Not working’ – Alasdair Gold highlights change in Conte’s strategy before Man United

Alasdair Gold has suggested that Antonio Conte has changed his strategy concerning the way he discusses Tottenham’s ambitions in the hope it will get a better response from his players.

So far in his managerial reign at Spurs, Conte has been hesitant to spell out that qualifying for the Champions League is an objective for the club, hinting that finishing fourth would be a bonus this season (Daily Mail).

However, that changed following Tottenham’s 5-0 thrashing over Everton on Monday, with Conte admitting in his post-match press conference that his players have to take responsibility in the race for fourth (Football.London).  

The Tottenham head coach added that while he is used to aiming for silverware, he and his players needed to view securing fourth place like winning a trophy this campaign.

Gold believes that the 52-year-old has changed his rhetoric since his previous strategy was not working.

The journalist admitted that he prefers Conte’s words on Monday rather than the Italian’s previous non-committal answers regarding the club’s aims for this season.

Gold said on his YouTube channel: “He’s (Conte) very much replaced the time and patience rhetoric which just hasn’t brought any consistency and it’s been replaced by this very different thing.

“(Conte’s words regarding top four) That’s a change. That is a change. Whatever you want to say about Conte, he’s very much been about the time and patience angle, playing the top four down really, saying almost pretty much this team isn’t good enough.

“And I wonder whether he’s just thought that’s not working. That way of attacking this is not working.

“Whether it’s just a hindsight thing or whether it’s obvious because it wasn’t working, but if you’re constantly going to tell a team they’re not good enough to get top four yet, maybe that’s going to start to seep in there and get into their way of thinking.

“Maybe when I talk about strategy, maybe that’s what this is now. Maybe Conte just thought to himself ‘look, we’ve gone out there, we’ve played exactly how I want us to play, I’ve seen my work out there on the pitch, maybe we can do this. I prefer this strategy, I do.”

Spurs Web Opinion

I think Conte previously did not want to put pressure on himself or the players by publicly admitting the team’s top-four ambitions. However, I suspect that, privately, the Italian would have always told the squad that they can qualify for the Champions League this season.

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