TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR STADIUM — Antonio Conte got the full Tottenham experience in his first game in charge and now he knows what he is dealing with.
The Italian was appointed as Nuno Espirito Santo’s successor on Tuesday and watched his side beat Vitesse Arnhem 3-2 in a dramatic game.
Conte knows what Spurs are capable of given their rivalry with Chelsea when he guided them to the Premier League title, but now he will have a taste of just how far away they are from that level.
Their current level is the Europa Conference League, European football’s new third-tier competition, and they are even making hard work of that.
Attack, attack, attack
Having been starved of attacking adventure under the previous regime, Spurs fans, who loudly rejected Nuno’s style of play, were loving life for the opening 30 minutes.
Starting with three at the back, a trusted system that helped deliver the Premier League and Serie A titles to Chelsea and Inter Milan, Spurs showed what was possible from an attacking point of view as they surged into a 3-0 lead.
Son Heung-min has firmly established himself as Tottenham’s man for the big occasion and, having scored the first goal at the club’s new stadium and in the Jose Mourinho and Nuno eras, he followed suit by getting the Conte reign under way.
His 14th-minute strike was added to by a Lucas Moura effort and Jacob Rasmussen’s own goal and life was good.
They were flooding the box with players, making incisive runs and looked capable of scoring every time they went forward.
Plenty to work on
Conte would not have been fooled and it quickly became apparent why as Spurs regressed and lost control of the game.
Rasmussen scored at the right end, beating Eric Dier to a corner and heading home, and then Matus Bero rolled home after some sloppy defending.
Cristian Romero, a player who will have impressed Conte with his performances for Atalanta last season, complicted matters further and was sent off just before the hour.
Then it really was a sturggle as Hugo Lloris made a number of fine saves, one flying one from Riechedly Bazoer, to keep his side in it.
It was only when Vitesse, who are fifth in the Dutch Eredivisie, were reduced to nine men in the 80th minute when Danilho Doekhi and Markus Schubert quickly saw red, were Spurs able to grasp control back.
This competition was supposed to be a cake-walk, playing against teams no one has heard of, but it is not proving to be as, even though they won, Spurs’ passage to the knockout stages is not yet assured.
A coup of a signing
The fact that Conte was even in charge of a game at this level shows what a coup it was for chairman Daniel Levy to lure him to north London at the second attempt.
When he walked away from Inter in the summer, having guided them to a first Serie A title in a decade, he could not have thought it possible his next match in charge would be in the new third-tier European competition.
Manchester United were reported to be interested in taking Conte should they finally decide to run out of patience with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, but Spurs seized the moment.
After Saturday’s 3-0 defeat to United, where the fans audibly turned on Nuno, Levy pulled the trigger and quickly renewed interest in the former Chelsea man, who had come close to joining in the summer.
He joined a team who are mid-table in the Premier League and not anywhere near the Champions League and Conte now has a job to get them back there.
Having had just two training sessions where he was only allowed to observe due to work permit issues, this was never going to be the well-oiled Conte machine that has dominated leagues wherever he has managed.
It may take longer than he thought it would to get back there and there is little time to prepare for the next challenge as they visit Everton in just two days’ time.
from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/3o1H6d4
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