Antonio Conte designed last week’s training sessions at Tottenham Hotspur around breaking down 10 men behind the ball, according to Alasdair Gold.
The Spurs reporter was speaking on his YouTube channel after they failed to break down Brentford at the weekend and were forced to settle for just a point.
A draw against the Bees was probably more than the Lilywhites deserved on the day, with Conte’s men failing to register a single shot on target for the second consecutive game.
It was a pretty poor display from the north London side, with the front three of Son Heung-min, Harry Kane and Dejan Kulusevski not deserving higher than a 5/10 in Gold’s player ratings.
Conte’s game management was questioned after the games, with his substitutions under scrutiny – and it seems the training during the week did not have much of an effect on his players.
Gold said: “He told me that after the Brighton game, they’d be working all week with 10 players behind the ball, to try and find the solutions and training to that.”
TIF Thoughts on Gold’s comments…
The past two games will certainly be a concern to some around Spurs, with Conte’s men going into the Brighton game on the back of scoring 21 goals in their six matches prior.
Spurs have now dropped out of the top four but remain in control of their own destiny, with Arsenal sitting two points ahead with the north London derby still to play.
It does make you wonder if Spurs had taken the gamble on Christian Eriksen in January, would he have been able to help them break down these stubborn defences in the past two games?
In other news: Bad to worse: Alasdair Gold shares what he’s been ‘told’ about fresh injury issue at Spurs