Duncan Castles has been speaking on The Transfer Window podcast about which area of the squad Antonio Conte is looking to improve at Tottenham Hotspur.
Spurs did look to address their defensive backline over the summer, bringing in the likes of Cristian Romero, Emerson Royal and Pierluigi Gollini, although the former is now nursing a ‘serious’ injury and the latter is yet to feature in the Premier League.
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Now, though, it seems Conte is looking to take matters into his own hands when it comes to improving the team – and more specifically, the defence, as Castles has claimed that the Italian manager wants to bring in two new centre-backs in January.
Castles has been speaking about Conte’s desire to address the centre-back position.
“One of the things he’s asking for in January is not one, but two starting centre-backs. I don’t think this is a big surprise if you look at 1) what the two previous ‘permanent managers’ thought of the centre-backs – both Mauricio Pochettino and Jose Mourinho wanted significant upgrades there.”
TIF Thoughts on Conte wanting defensive improvements…
Tottenham do in fact have a good amount of options when it comes to centre-back, but despite that, Conte elected to go with a back three of Eric Dier, Japhet Tanganga and Ben Davies, with Joe Rodon and Davinson Sanchez on the bench. That may well have been a sign that Conte doesn’t believe his current options aren’t good enough.
Spurs have been linked with players such as Eric Bailly – which Castles confirmed on the podcast – and Stefan de Vrij, but with the former having only ever started 30 league games since the 2018/19 campaign, it would raise a question as to whether or not he would actually improve them defensively or if he would spend more time on the treatment table.
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