Conte | Spurs Manager

[Scroto Baggins]

Again, Conte is a great coach but I just don't see it happening with this Spurs team. That's all !

I will reserve judgement until after the xfer window. If Conte is sufficiently backed by Levy, Spurs will be well placed for that last top 4 spot. If he is not, could be a Conte implosion incoming.

but they certainly don’t have the squad to finish above United or Chelsea.

Eh I would not be putting United alongside Chelsea, Chelsea have stumbled recently but are still what? 9 points ahead of United. Compare United to the teams around them, Arsenal, Spurs, Hammers.

I agree however their squad depth is poor, they have a makeshift backline and are still doing alright however, I do not rate Sanchez at all and Tanganga is some academy kid. Missing Son is no doubt a big deal as well, been one of the best wide forwards in the league for a couple years now.

 

[Sweech]

Lot of last minute wins though. Please don't tell me it shows a winning mentality because it doesn't ,atleast in Spurs case. Their luck will run out.

If anything Spurs we’re unlucky not to be winning 3-1 or 4-1.

If you think the luck is going to even out get prepared to watch Spurs start to walk over some teams.

 

[bond19821982]

If anything Spurs we’re unlucky not to be winning 3-1 or 4-1.

If you think the luck is going to even out get prepared to watch Spurs start to walk over some teams.

But you didn't and that's the point. If you start thumping teams , I will stand corrected . As simple as that.

 

[Sky1981]

People still doubting Conte after all these years. This man was the only one available who could handle this squad. But nooo, what if he hurts our players' precious feelings? Can't have that now, can we?

The man is a serial winner. Juve, Inter, Chelsea were shambolic when he arrived. Put them at the top instantly. Left excellent squads in his wake. I just love the argument his record in Europe isn't good. Right. Because we are winning the domestic league on a yearly basis and all that's left for us is Europe, yeah? Hilarious! How about we challenge domestically first, hmm?

Tottenham were awful under Nuno. Even worse than we are. Right now they are 6th with 4 games in hand. If Levy supports him, they will be even better.

Not hiring Conte was a mistake. Another in a long line of mistakes. We didn't yet need another rebuild. We needed to win now. And he was in the best position to do that. Instead we are going to spend another 3 years "rebuilding".

You're new here.

In here even pep is a fraud

 

[UnrelatedPsuedo]

He’s working wonders there. They’ll finish 3rd.

 

[bond19821982]

No chance is a 100% goal though. You clearly don't understand how xG works. Mason had a great chance and Rashford/Bruno had merely good chances. They are missed quite often, as Bruno showed, and as Jensen for Brentford found out today. Bruno shot from outside of the box already reducing his chance of scoring. A penalty for example carries an xG of ~0.75 because it's scored 75% of the time. It's literally an accumulation of hundreds of thousands of like example to give the probability of scoring based on historical data.

You can't look at a clear cut chance and think it should be a goal every time when statistically they are only scored 40% of the time for example. Hence why a particular chance like that would carry an xG of 0.4.

Fair enough, if you want to go by it but I am not really into this xG because game is played on the field and not on paper.

For.e.g. you said penalties have only 70% of scoring. I just don't agree with it as the goal scoring probability for a penalty is dependent on "n" of other factors .

Mason had an open post. If that's not a 100% goal I don't know what else is.

 

[Powderfinger]

Conte is a top manager by any standard but Spurs have the same badly flawed squad they've had for several years and under Conte they have faced the teams ranked 16, 15, 14, 18, 2, 11, 12, 17, and 10 in the table. It's been an extremely easy run of fixtures, made even easier by a lot of good fortune like opponents getting sent off three matches in a row and facing both Liverpool and Leicester when they were very badly depleted by injuries.

The race for top four is pretty much wide open and all the teams in that race have a lot of questions to answer.

 

[Lost bear]

What happened to the ‘Spurs bottlers’ theory

Leicester are bigger bottlers?

 

[Ladron de redcafe]

How did Spurs pull that off? I agree with some that suggest that the confidence and momentum they got with this was as important as the 3 points. Results like these give teams a self belief to persevere and win from unlikely positions.

Leicester, on the other hand, really have to be disappointed. You can't lose at home when you're up 2-1 in stoppage time.

 

[Lost bear]

Fair enough, if you want to go by it but I am not really into this xG because game is played on the field and not on paper.

For.e.g. you said penalties have only 70% of scoring. I just don't agree with it as the goal scoring probability for a penalty is dependent on "n" of other factors .

Mason had an open post. If that's not a 100% goal I don't know what else is.

Confucius says that an open post is better than a closed bar.

 

[Tap]

It was a blunder not hiring him.

And we were told that the main reason was our owners and SAF wanted to wait for Ole to turn it around!...

I recall it was because the board (and many fans here) were afraid that his “toxicity” will hurt the club and they want someone “long term”.

Winning and trophies are not as important as long term happy vibes.

 

[UnrelatedPsuedo]

Conte is a top manager by any standard but Spurs have the same badly flawed squad they've had for several years and under Conte they have faced the teams ranked 16, 15, 14, 18, 2, 11, 12, 17, and 10 in the table. It's been an extremely easy run of fixtures, made even easier by a lot of good fortune like opponents getting sent off three matches in a row and facing both Liverpool and Leicester when they were very badly depleted by injuries.

The race for top four is pretty much wide open and all the teams in that race have a lot of questions to answer.

The league has a solid 16 teams this year though. Playing sides 11th to 15th isn’t a whole lot easier than 6th to 10th.

Spurs will finish 3rd. Conte is dynamite.

 

[ThierryHenry14]

Conte is a top manager by any standard but Spurs have the same badly flawed squad they've had for several years and under Conte they have faced the teams ranked 16, 15, 14, 18, 2, 11, 12, 17, and 10 in the table. It's been an extremely easy run of fixtures, made even easier by a lot of good fortune like opponents getting sent off three matches in a row and facing both Liverpool and Leicester when they were very badly depleted by injuries.

The race for top four is pretty much wide open and all the teams in that race have a lot of questions to answer.

I disagreed. There are no easy team in EPL. Man Utd didn't find Brentford, or Newcastle easy, and Brighton is not easy for Chelsea either.

 

[Powderfinger]

I disagreed. There are no easy team in EPL. Man Utd didn't find Brentford, or Newcastle easy, and Brighton is not easy for Chelsea either.

No easy teams but it’s all relative. Obviously they have still played a very easy schedule relative to the schedule as a whole.

 

[bosnian_red]

Fair enough, if you want to go by it but I am not really into this xG because game is played on the field and not on paper.

For.e.g. you said penalties have only 70% of scoring. I just don't agree with it as the goal scoring probability for a penalty is dependent on "n" of other factors .

Mason had an open post. If that's not a 100% goal I don't know what else is.

It's not a 100% goal because it's not scored 100% of the time, quite simply. We can argue all day about what a player has done, but the quality of a chance is never rated as 100% as it can be missed. That's simple statistics. Of course penalties are dependent on multiple things, but from a vase view, it's rated as a 75% (plus a few) chance because that's the historical rate over hundreds of thousands of samples. Good penalty takers beat that rate, poor ones do worse than that rate.

And nobody said anything about not watching the game or playing the game on paper... It's a statistic. You use stats to help analyze the game. You use stats to help you make better decisions and projections about future performances. XG has been proven to be a better stat to hang long term projections off of than goals, wins, points, goal difference, whatever. The stats for Conte's Spurs, despite a small sample, has them performing close to the level of Liverpool and City over the same period of time. That's a note worthy change. Of course, fixtures played has a part to play and that's not to say they are the same level, but that's a level that is quite obviously comfortably the 4th best side in the league with the potential to push higher.

 

[Scroto Baggins]

He’s working wonders there. They’ll finish 3rd.

Steady on, finishing above Chelsea? Chelsea in a little slump but Tuchel is a great manager, Spurs are 1 injury to Kane away from finishing 6-7, the squad has very little depth. We see this with Son being out, they have switched up formation rather than play Bergwyn or Gil there.

Having said that the only team to pick up more points in the league since Conte took over is City. Think if Conte gets some backing from Levy and can bring in a couple of his main targets they are the most likely to finish 4th.

 

[UnrelatedPsuedo]

Steady on, finishing above Chelsea? Chelsea in a little slump but Tuchel is a great manager, Spurs are 1 injury to Kane away from finishing 6-7, the squad has very little depth. We see this with Son being out, they have switched up formation rather than play Bergwyn or Gil there.

Having said that the only team to pick up more points in the league since Conte took over is City. Think if Conte gets some backing from Levy and can bring in a couple of his main targets they are the most likely to finish 4th.

Chelsea are a smarter bet. But they’ve got a lot of noise around them at the moment. Lukaku is being a bell end, and remains overrated. They’ve got a magic squad but they draw far too many matches.

Spurs won’t finish outside the top four.

 

[roonster09]

He is brilliant manager, watched few mins of their game before game started and during half time, they were all over Spurs but conceded against run of play. The change in their game is so obvious. Maybe they will finish 3rd.

 

[Bebestation]

Conte is amazing but I also feel like their games are postponed left right and center.

 

[Josep Dowling]

People still doubting Conte after all these years. This man was the only one available who could handle this squad. But nooo, what if he hurts our players' precious feelings? Can't have that now, can we?

The man is a serial winner. Juve, Inter, Chelsea were shambolic when he arrived. Put them at the top instantly. Left excellent squads in his wake. I just love the argument his record in Europe isn't good. Right. Because we are winning the domestic league on a yearly basis and all that's left for us is Europe, yeah? Hilarious! How about we challenge domestically first, hmm?

Tottenham were awful under Nuno. Even worse than we are. Right now they are 6th with 4 games in hand. If Levy supports him, they will be even better.

Not hiring Conte was a mistake. Another in a long line of mistakes. We didn't yet need another rebuild. We needed to win now. And he was in the best position to do that. Instead we are going to spend another 3 years "rebuilding".

Totally agree with this.

 

[Ayoba]

What the feck is xg and why does it matter so much? Seeing it prop up everywhere now

 

[Champ]

What the feck is xg and why does it matter so much? Seeing it prop up everywhere now

It's a trendy stat to use, but is useless of used on terms of single solitary games, it's best used over the course of a season whereby you can take a good average.

 

[Iker Quesadillas]

What the feck is xg and why does it matter so much? Seeing it prop up everywhere now

It's a number that is meant to quantify the quality of your goalscoring opportunities. The idea is that xG(oals) should match Goals. If it doesn't (for example, you are scoring less than your xGoals), you can say "we are good, just a bit unlucky right now." Or, alternatively, if your xG is low, and you are scoring lots, maybe you are lucky.

It tends to be overused in the sense that people use it inappropriately. Here's a decent guide on it:
https://soccermatics.medium.com/sho...ed-goals-a-guide-for-journalists-2cf0c7ec6bb6

XG has been proven to be a better stat to hang long term projections off of than goals, wins, points, goal difference, whatever.

This is true but only to a certain extent. It's not magic; you don't go from a crap prediction to a great one.

 

[Bale Bale Bale]

Let's be honest, referee had no right to play on after your equalizer. You can say that you should have won at half time but you didn't. The point is , you needed a referee blunder to win it. If that's not luck, I don't know what else is.

Clearly didn't watch the game then as about a minute of added time was lost due to Soyuncu and Bergwijn beefing with each other.

 

[giorno]

Leicester are bigger bottlers?

Dunno. My theory is spurs have been so dominant they're beating their spursy genes. Like, they're really trying to be spursy, but they've been too good for it

 

[NoPace]

If Harvey Barnes squares it to Lookman it's 3-1 and it's over. Conte did well to bin his wingbacks and Kane on today's evidence is still England's best player, but they were pretty dire a lot of the time. They should do well on the break and Conte will drag and change them to wins, but I dunno it wasn't that impressive overall. Lucas couldn't get on the ball, so maybe it would have looked better with Son up top, but the Skipp-Winks-Hojberg midfield I will not be telling the grandkids I won't have about. They need to get Lo Celso going or find a new midfielder who can really play going forward like Conte had in Barella.

Lamptey would be really good for them. Tons of space out wide to run into on the counter, Kane to cross to when in possession.

 

[Bale Bale Bale]

If Harvey Barnes squares it to Lookman it's 3-1 and it's over. Conte did well to bin his wingbacks and Kane on today's evidence is still England's best player, but they were pretty dire a lot of the time. They should do well on the break and Conte will drag and change them to wins, but I dunno it wasn't that impressive overall. Lucas couldn't get on the ball, so maybe it would have looked better with Son up top, but the Skipp-Winks-Hojberg midfield I will not be telling the grandkids I won't have about. They need to get Lo Celso going or find a new midfielder who can really play going forward like Conte had in Barella.

Lamptey would be really good for them. Tons of space out wide to run into on the counter, Kane to cross to when in possession.

Any other game I would agree but I thought the midfield three were superb yesterday. Hojbjerg played a big part in the equaliser with an excellently weighted ball over the top and also played the pass to Kane for Bergwijn's winner. Winks played Kane through for his goal and Skipp was breaking forward well, his ball across to Lucas led to Hojbjerg's shot that was cleared off the line. Kane also had one cleared off the line, hit the bar as well as blazing over a 1v1 and Sanchez missed an absolute sitter from three yards out. We controlled the game for the most part and made more than enough chances to have been well ahead. If that was a pretty dire performance then I can only imagine what you thought of some of the others we've had.

I agree on needing a RWB, Emerson has no attacking instinct or quality whatsoever and although Doherty did well last night I can't erase the last 18 months of him looking like a total donkey from my mind. Then again I'd given up on a lot of these players but Conte seems to be getting something out of them now at least.

 

[NoPace]

Any other game I would agree but I thought the midfield three were superb yesterday. Hojbjerg played a big part in the equaliser with an excellently weighted ball over the top and also played the pass to Kane for Bergwijn's winner. Winks played Kane through for his goal and Skipp was breaking forward well, his ball across to Lucas led to Hojbjerg's shot that was cleared off the line. Kane also had one cleared off the line as well as blazing over a 1v1 and Sanchez missed an absolute sitter from three yards out. We controlled the game for the most part and made more than enough chances to have been well ahead. If that was a pretty dire performance then I can only imagine what you thought of some of the others we've had.

I agree on needing a RWB, Emerson has no attacking instinct or quality whatsoever and although Doherty did well last night I can't erase the last 18 months of him looking like a total donkey from my mind. Then again I'd given up on a lot of these players but Conte seems to be getting something out of them now at least.

Doherty makes good off balls runs and is a good sub for Conte. I'd probably sell Emerson and buy a better first choice RB. Not sure Doherty has much value, but he has that [Irrelevant point] thing where he's dangerous in the other team's box as a wingback.

 

[Scroto Baggins]

Clearly didn't watch the game then as about a minute of added time was lost due to Soyuncu and Bergwijn beefing with each other.

Soyuncu the clown, what was he getting at, game is nearly done, don't give the ref an excuse to add on more time with a nothing off the ball incident that he has to stop play for. Having said that Spurs deserved the win, outplayed Leicester for the majority of the game.

 

[Wilt]

Feel sure Conte getting to grips with Spurs will cost Utd top 4. They’ve some tough fixtures ahead (Chelsea next) and a paper thin squad but not being in Europe should give them an edge.

Still gutted Utd didn’t go for Conte after getting stuffed by the dippers, being the right man to kick Utd players up the arse.

The assist for the third goal from “he’s washed up“ Kane was probably the assist of the season.

 

[bosnian_red]

What the feck is xg and why does it matter so much? Seeing it prop up everywhere now

Stats like total shots and shots on target didn't tell close to the full story so analysts went the step further to calculate the sum of the quality of the chances - essentially telling you a team might have 10 shots vs 20 for the other team, but the 20 from the other team might all be pot shots from range and the 10 might all be great chances. The only stat that would capture this properly would be xG, as the sum of the quality of chances would tell you how many goals you would expect any player to score from those chances.

 

[acnumber9]

Left excellent squads in his wake.

Did he though? Look at his 4 biggest signings for Chelsea. All dreadful and a couple they still can’t get off their books. Is the Inter squad he left behind really excellent?

 

[DWelbz19]

Weren’t they supposed to back him this January window? Wasn’t that one of the big reasons he joined? I can see him walking in the summer tbh

 

[OleksUsykUD]

Tottenham is getting overhyped currently. If they were to lose yesterday, they would have been in pretty bad situation for the top 4, even having in mind all the games they have in hand.


Their squad is terrible. And i will repeat they are constantly making kids error in the back, which allow plenty of chances for the opposite team to capitalize.


They are on the wave currently, thanks to their world class manager, but that wave will fall, and the fall will be big.


Also if Levy refuse to spend, while probably promised Conte top signing, there will be a huge hole between the board and Conte, which will end up badly.


It's January 20 and they haven't done even a single bid, so i'm optimistic Levy will manage to screw their momentum and this will end up badly, hoping them finish 5-6th.

 

[OleksUsykUD]

Did he though? Look at his 4 biggest signings for Chelsea. All dreadful and a couple they still can’t get off their books. Is the Inter squad he left behind really excellent?

Can you name the so call Chelsea signing?


You mean guys like Kante and Alonso, that literally won them the title ??? Or Victor Moses, who was a player out on loan, that he transform into a world beater RWB ??? Or you maybe mean the players that he didn't want, but the club decided to buy and that's why they was a war between Conte and Marina Granovskaia. His second season was bad, mainly because of the burst with the board, and that they didn't want to buy the players he want.


Straight up facts are Michy Batshuayi that was club target long before Conte, and Drinkwater. Conte was furious and was showing that by not playing them.



And you serious about Inter? His work there with the players and improvements over them was incredible.


Just a few mention:
Hakimi brought for 40m. sold for 71.
Lukaku brought for 80m. and scored 64 goals in 2 season, sold for 115m.
Also Lautaro was pretty much average before Conte took over, and he turn him into top class player, that clubs were bidding for 80+m.
He improved their whole squad and rise their level and prize by quite a bit.


Both Juventus for long time were riding on Conte success and the build he did there, same with Inter now. I will be very curious to see Inter in the next couple of season with a total change of the players and so.


To be fair to Tuchel i doubt that he wanted Lukaku. That smell more of a board signing, rather the manager.

 

[giorno]

Did he though? Look at his 4 biggest signings for Chelsea. All dreadful and a couple they still can’t get off their books. Is the Inter squad he left behind really excellent?

Who were those? Kante, Rugider, Bakayoko, Morata? I mean, the first 2 are their best players, and the other 2 were among the reasons he wenr nuclear on the board - because he wanted different players, no?

Inter, well, Lukaku, Ashley Young, Hakimi, Kolarov and Vidal were his signings, and Alexis was picked up because he needed a striker. The rest were players the club was going to sign anyways. Lukaku, Hakimi and Young are no longer there after winning the league, and they made colossal profits over them. Kolarov is bad and a fringe player(and cheap). Vidal was bad last season, but he's been decent in this one. And alexis has been a solid backup. He also binned Godin and Politano

The inter squad he left behind is really good, in large part because he got them Lukaku and Hakimi which they sold for enough money they didn't have to sell others. Most of it predates him though. Of the starting XI, 7 players pre-date him, 3 are new signings, and the last is Barella whom Inter were going to sign no matter who the manager was. He did however bin Godin in favour of young Bastoni, was able to reinvent Perisic as a wingback, made Darmian useful, and won the league with those players

 

[Pintu]

Did he though? Look at his 4 biggest signings for Chelsea. All dreadful and a couple they still can’t get off their books. Is the Inter squad he left behind really excellent?

Not sure we should call them "his signings". He asked for some players and Marina gave him some supposedly equivalent players. Either way, the squad he left behind was not a handicap for Sarri (comfortable top 4 + winning the EL + a domestic final with the famous Kepa moment).

Inter most certainly has a much better squad now than what they had in 2019 before Conte joined them, despite losing Erkisen, Hakimi and Lukaku. With Conte they bought them Hakimi, Barella, Eriksen (brought back Perisic, brought back Bastoni from loan and trusted him). Only Lukaku was a risky move and it ended up working perfectly for them. Won a title and was sold for a profit.

Before Conte they were spending similar money on players that never delivered. Joa Mario, Gabigol, Vecino, Dalbert...

 

[acnumber9]

Who were those? Kante, Rugider, Bakayoko, Morata? I mean, the first 2 are their best players, and the other 2 were among the reasons he wenr nuclear on the board - because he wanted different players, no?

Inter, well, Lukaku, Ashley Young, Hakimi, Kolarov and Vidal were his signings, and Alexis was picked up because he needed a striker. The rest were players the club was going to sign anyways. Lukaku, Hakimi and Young are no longer there after winning the league, and they made colossal profits over them. Kolarov is bad and a fringe player(and cheap). Vidal was bad last season, but he's been decent in this one. And alexis has been a solid backup. He also binned Godin and Politano

The inter squad he left behind is really good, in large part because he got them Lukaku and Hakimi which they sold for enough money they didn't have to sell others. Most of it predates him though. Of the starting XI, 7 players pre-date him, 3 are new signings, and the last is Barella whom Inter were going to sign no matter who the manager was. He did however bin Godin in favour of young Bastoni, was able to reinvent Perisic as a wingback, made Darmian useful, and won the league with those players

Morata, Batshuayi, Bakayoko and Drinkwater.

 

[giorno]

Morata, Batshuayi, Bakayoko and Drinkwater.

Only one he actually wanted out of that lot was Bakayoko iirc. Morata they signed after they failed to get him Lukaku, and he went nuclear on the board over signings that season...

 

[giorno]

Before Marotta they were spending similar money on players that never delivered. Joa Mario, Gabigol, Vecino, Dalbert...

Fixed that for you