from Levy.
Conte thought Spurs played well in their third straight league defeat, at home to Wolves, the first time he’s lost back to back home game sin 15 years, in what was in reality an awful display by his team.
Is it insanity to repeat yourself when you know the outcome won’t change because you want it to be rubbish so that big day from your sacking comes early?
Is Antonio Conte willing to risk his managerial reputation, banking on the fact he can say “lads, it’s Tottenham” when he’s asked about the one failure that’ll blight his CV in the future?
Why else would he go into yet another game with a midfield pair up against three, knowing that they get out-manned and have rings run round them? Why would you pick Winks as one of that pair when he contributes nothing in defence or going forward. So you midfield is basically one against three. Why else would you keep picking Sanchez and Davies in defence when you’ve seen them blunder their way through the last few games and not give someone else a go?
He swaps the wingbacks regularly but Rodon doesn’t get a chance in the back three. I know his hands are tied somewhat with the injuries to Dier and Skipp but dropping Hojbjerg ended up being the right disaster on grass it looked on paper.
A telling stat that in the games with Dier, Skipp and Hojbjerg they haven’t conceded a goal but without them plenty have flooded in. In the game since Conte arrived, Winks has started seven of the thirteen leagues games, they haven’t kept a clean sheet in any of those games.
If he can’t see the problem with Winks after this game, then he can only be playing him to get out of the club and away from levy as quick as possible.
From the off this was one of the most pathetically craven displays from someone who specialises in such. It was only the ineptitude of others and the fanbois in the media that stopped him being the one highlighted. I do hope the Hojbjerg hater were happy.
What is the point of Winks, if he hasn’t even got the stats padding passing percentage up?
A series of inept passes that either went to absolute no one or straight to a Wolves player. Having the ball taken off him with ease, when attempting to dribble. And standing there watching Wolves players just run by him. In the video above the commentator says “lose pass from Winks” from one of his worst. What does he do? A skip and then a gentle jog to meander into the box. Later a Wolves player gets by him with ease at the touchline, he puts his hand out, a cursory attempt at doing something, as the player runs away he just lollygags behind, no attempt at all to actually do anything to help stop an attack.
Even his most rabid fanbois were keeping their head down.
One moment reminded me of past Spurs players that were a blight on the side. Bentancur looking to play the ball off but Winks was the only option he didn’t want to play it to him. Much like one incident with Modric and Jenas, where the Croat was trapped on the touchline, Jenas was the only ball… he chose another option.
Another incident saw plenty of space in midfield as Spurs had the ball, but Winks was stood behind a Wolves player, just hiding.
With no help in front of them the backline was a shambles. The standard omniclusterfuckshambles indeed, for both goals.
The first one came with Winks pretending to do some defending then pointing for others to do something. No one closing down Neves who had a shot, which Hugo parried into danger, the next attempt he just palms into even more danger before it’s knocked home.
The second came from Hugo when he tried to clear the ball wide but played it behind Davies, the Welshman’s own clearance wasn’t much better. What followed was classic Spurs defending this season. Which included the ball bouncing off a Spurs defender, causing all sorts of problems. How many times have we seen that this season?
Conte had seen enough and didn’t actually wait until the hour before making a change. No, not even 30 in and he hooked Sessegnon for Kulusevski. Thus ignoring the real problem, which wasn’t attacking, or the left wingback position, while Hojbjerg sat on the bench of the full 90.
Not even 20 minutes in and the game was over. Conte said the team played well because they had chances. Yes they did but Son was hesitant in front of goal, while Kane has reverted back to his early season form of just missing chances he would have gobbled up in previous years. He had 8 shots, half of which were on target.
It wasn’t good. It was abject. Wolves were well organised and for a team that don’t score that many and has the second best defensive record in the league, they weren’t about to cough up these points to this Spurs. It was saved from the boos by the fact that most of them had left well before the final whistle.
If come the next game Conte has stuck with the 3-4- formation, stuck with Winks, stuck with Sanchez and Davies, then you have to figure it’s not if but when he’ll be picking up that payoff cheque from Levy…