Antonio Conte details the areas Tottenham Hotspur need to improve after Manchester United defeat
Antonio Conte has detailed the areas where Tottenham Hotspur need to improve upon moving forward following their defeat at the hands of Manchester United. The visitors lost the game by a 3-2 scoreline as Cristiano Ronaldo scored three on the night to hand the Red Devils a vital win.
Tottenham went blow-for-blow with Man United and were even better in certain phases of the game. That being said, it was simply one of those days where Ronaldo was untouchable as he replicated the quality he used to show during his peak years. Despite that, the North London side could have managed the game better and prevented their setbacks yesterday.
Speaking in the post-match presser (h/t Daily Mail Online), Conte has emphasised the importance of “experience” and “game management” for Spurs. He added that there are several players who are quite young within their squad, and such games would help them understand these situations in the future.
“I think we need to show more experience, to manage some situations, because the game is, when you play a game, there are many games inside the game. And I think sometimes you have to understand when to push when to increase the intensity, and when is the moment to be calm and not hurry.”
“You don’t buy experience, you improve your experience after these types of games. We have many young players in the team and hopefully after this game they have the possibility to learn.”
Boss’ words hold the truth?
It is puzzling to hear these words from the Italian coach since Dejan Kulusevski is the only one who can be considered as ‘young’ in our starting lineup yesterday. As such, one would wonder what the manager was really trying to say. However, he is still right about the fact that we could have dealt with the various phases of the game better to help with our case.
For example, despite equalising twice in the league clash, we failed to use that momentum to uplift ourselves and impose control on the match. Ronaldo scored his second of the game just three minutes after Harry Kane’s equalizer, while his third came 9 minutes after we made the score 2-2.
This, again, goes in line with the inconsistent performances we have dropped in recent times. The 52-year-old coach is right in the sense that the team needs to improve in their “game management” and earn the experience required to do so. However, he is wrong to say that youngsters are a part of it when it has been an issue within the club for quite a while.
Perhaps, he is referring to the lack of experience when it comes to playing Premier League football. This is Cristiano Romero, Rodrigo Bentancur, and Kulusevski’s first season in England- but then again, while it is unknown if Conte was actually referring to the trio- it is unfair to point the fingers at them as they have looked good whenever playing for us this season.
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As for our top four prospects this season, things have become very difficult because of our inconsistency in the last two months or so. We can still catch up to Ralf Rangnick’s side, who sit in fourth with fifty points from 29 matches. But it is getting harder every week to catch Arsenal, who seem to be gradually racing into the top 4 spots.
As for us, a late Wednesday night fixture awaits against Brighton and Hove Albion at the Amex. This certainly looks like a must-win game for us if we want to make the top 4 this season.
