Spurs need bigger squad to compete on two fronts, says Conte

[mawspurs]

Tottenham Hotspur manager Antonio Conte said his squad lacks the depth to challenge for both the Premier League and Champions League titles, and that they need a couple more transfer windows to be able to compete on two fronts.

Spurs were without injured forwards Richarlison and Dejan Kulusevski for Sunday’s 2-1 defeat by Newcastle United, while Cristian Romero and Pierre-Emerick Hojbjerg were left out of the squad due to fatigue.

Source: Malay Mail

 

[whitesocks]

It looks bleak at the moment, but if he can get us qualified us for CL again, then he can reasonably ask for upgrades.
It's a virtuous circle.

 

[southlondonyiddo]

2 fronts? I thought there were 4 trophies up for grabs each season!!

 

[king_yid]

2 fronts? I thought there were 4 trophies up for grabs each season!!

I think he was talking about domestic and european, 'fronts' being more of a locational choice of words.

Also when learning a second language you tend to pick up on what native speakers use and mimic, it's actually doing this that allowed my spanish to accelerate and become much more natural.

 

[Neon_Knight_]

I was surprised by the number of changes to the starting XI yesterday. Romero & Davies possibly could have been rested for separate games. Hojbjerg possibly could have been rested for an earlier fixture, avoiding two simultaneous changes of personnel in CM.

I presume Conte planned this squad rotation in advance, as a calculated risk to prioritise a strong line-up against Man Utd and Sporting Lisbon. With hindsight, it clearly hasn't paid off.

 

[Neon_Knight_]

As was discussed about two months ago, Conte probably means we need more depth in quality than quantity.

 

[yiddopaul]

I can see why he gets paid the big bucks.

 

[aliyid]

It's an age old excuse, if you wanted to counter this you could quite easily point out that we strengthened the squad in the summer but Conte hasn't been using these rotation options.

You can't pick the same 11 week in week out and then complain that the players coming in aren't up to speed.

 

[Japhet]

Are there any places left apart from young and HG spots? We've got a load out on loan too, some of which will want to be re-integrated.

 

[ralvy]

Not only a bigger squad, but better players as well. I'm sorry, but it's hard to see anymore how the likes of Skipp, Bissuma and Sessegnon will be able to get the job done.

 

[Johnny J]

Not only a bigger squad, but better players as well. I'm sorry, but it's hard to see anymore how the likes of Skipp, Bissuma and Sessegnon will be able to get the job done.

This seems incredibly harsh on Skipp and Bissouma in particular.

 

[Metalhead]

This seems incredibly harsh on Skipp and Bissouma in particular.

Just thinking that.

 

[double0]

It's very clear to my eye that we need much better quality across the squad. Just remember what we did when we sold Kyle Walker for 50M to Man City....overall the amount of money we've spent at right back in trying to replace him and still we've failed to even match what we had.

On the cheap when you can clearly afford better has cost us.

 

[glacierSpurs]

IMO this is like no different from Poch when he was competing for the domestic cups - he will send out the 2nd stringers, and when we are on the verge of crashing out, he will sub as many of first XI as possible hoping to get something back. It didn't work everytime and ends up the first XI players were not rested as intended.

While I applaud Conte always try to start the best XI he could so far, I just can't understand why the players are not subbed out earlier. Even if we are losing, a single substitute of White or Spence much earlier in the game is way better than getting 3 to come on at the final 6 minutes. Basically useless for all parties involved TBH. No one was rested, no one was blooded in.

And he still could say Hojbjerg and Romero were very tired and having fatigue muscles. Really, Conte has a huge responsibility to take for these injuries. I'm really worried for Dier and Kane if this goes on because they are the next few who have played so much.

It's ironic the single problem of using the same XI repeatedly we see in the scum hoping to happen to them for their intense gameplay right from the whistle actually caused us issue first.

 

[Neon_Knight_]

IMO this is like no different from Poch when he was competing for the domestic cups - he will send out the 2nd stringers, and when we are on the verge of crashing out, he will sub as many of first XI as possible hoping to get something back. It didn't work everytime and ends up the first XI players were not rested as intended.

While I applaud Conte always try to start the best XI he could so far, I just can't understand why the players are not subbed out earlier. Even if we are losing, a single substitute of White or Spence much earlier in the game is way better than getting 3 to come on at the final 6 minutes. Basically useless for all parties involved TBH. No one was rested, no one was blooded in.

And he still could say Hojbjerg and Romero were very tired and having fatigue muscles. Really, Conte has a huge responsibility to take for these injuries. I'm really worried for Dier and Kane if this goes on because they are the next few who have played so much.

It's ironic the single problem of using the same XI repeatedly we see in the scum hoping to happen to them for their intense gameplay right from the whistle actually caused us issue first.

CB:
We have rotated Lenglet and Sanchez in a fair bit. With hindsight, playing both of them together (instead of rotating in one at a time) didn't work out too well last weekend, but I presume Conte was prioritising having all three preferred CBs available for the games either side of this.

CM:
It seems clear to me that Bissouma has taken (or is taking) longer to settle into the team and Conte's system than Conte anticipated - thus limiting his involvement so far. This is further compounded by Skipp's injury and subsequent lack of match fitness.

WB:
Sessegnon and Perisic have been pretty much alternated at LWB. Doherty's injury, followed by Emerson's suspension, prevented similar rotation at RWB.

Attack:
Kulusevski & Moura were both out simultaneously. Just as Moura returned, Richarlison got injured. Gil is clearly not trusted (and was not a Conte signing), so is presumably one of the players to be upgraded on during the next couple of transfer windows - to add the depth in quality that Conte feels he needs. All of this has severely limited Conte's options for rotation.