Tottenham Hotspur manager Antonio Conte will be able to get away with playing an uninspiring brand of football, as long as the results continue to be successful.
That is according to journalist Barry Glendenning, who was speaking on The Guardian’s Football Weekly Extra podcast, following Spurs’ 2-0 Champions League group stage victory over Marseille.
Conte has had a particularly successful start to the season so far, remaining unbeaten in the opening seven games of the campaign, with the club sitting third in the Premier League table at the time of writing.
However, Spurs have not particularly hit the heights performance-wise so far this season, with the club’s biggest victory being a 4-1 home victory over Southampton on the opening day of the season.
And Glendenning believes that fans of the north London side will be able to tolerate the lack of entertainment on show, but only as long as the Italian manager keeps providing the right results.
“You can get away with that, as long as you’re winning and get results but if you’re stinking the place out and losing, I think fans will quickly tire of it because they can accept not being entertained as long as the results are okay,” Glendenning told the Football Weekly Extra Podcast.
TIF Thoughts on Glendenning’s comments
We totally agree with Glendenning and believe that as long as Conte keeps providing the results, Tottenham fans will accept the quality of entertainment on show, especially if it leads the club to a trophy this season.
However, we do believe that the former Chelsea manager may want to find a way to adapt his style against teams who are prepared to sit back with a lower block against the Lilywhites, otherwise, he may find himself in a situation where his side are incapable of breaking opposition defences down.
Therefore, we feel that whilst Conte’s brand of football will do for now, he will need to think of a more expansive game plan for teams that are prepared to sit in for large periods of the game, to avoid results and fans turning against him.