Pundit predicts three Spurs stars may be questioning Conte’s style of play

Speaking after Tottenham’s game against Frankfurt in the Champions League on Tuesday, Ally McCoist claimed that the likes of Harry Kane, Heung-min Son, and Dejan Kulusevski will be frustrated by Antonio Conte’s style of play.

Conte took over at Tottenham in November 2021 and turned the club’s fortunes around, leading them to fourth place in the Premier League last season. Spurs have become very hard to beat, something which couldn’t be said a year ago.

With this, comes a much more defensive set up though. The Italian is renowned for being more concerned with the defensive side of the game, and this has drawn some criticism from fans and pundits this season.

Spurs’ unbeaten start to the domestic campaign came to a crushing end over the weekend with defeat against fierce rivals Arsenal. This was followed up by a disappointing 0-0 draw against Frankfurt in the Champions League.

According to Ally McCoist for BT Sport, the way Spurs are currently setting up tactically will be a source of frustration for the club’s more attacking players.

He said: “You look at a team like Spurs, coming off a really poor performance and poor result at the weekend in the derby game, you’re looking for a reaction. I think Spurs’ strengths are in the forward areas, no one can argue with that.

“Defensively, there’s question marks. In the game against Chelsea, I thought that might be the turning point, but it hasn’t been. The argument Spurs fans can make is whether Conte is playing to the team’s strengths.

“I’m not sure. He’s clearly defensively minded in the way he sets up and he’s very good at it. However, if I’m Kulusevski, Harry Kane, or Son in that Spurs team, I’m actually probably questioning the way we’re playing.”

Spurs Web Opinion

I don’t think any of the Spurs players would question Antonio Conte’s tactics. We’ve already heard from pretty much everyone in the squad that they trust Conte and his style of play, and understand that it gets results.

There is something to be said, however, for the difference in the way our attackers are playing this season compared to the back end of last season. Something has changed and hopefully, Conte and his players can discover what that is and fix it sooner rather than later.

Related Topics