Tottenham Hotspur announced Antonio Conte as their new head coach today. The Italian, who has a Premier League and a FA Cup in his resume, arrives with the expectation to make the Spurs improve their performance and achieve better results.
Conte has a successful coaching career and Spurs could not make a better decision than hiring him. Italian football is very different from English football. The tactics are not the same, the quality of the players are different, as well as the style of play. Even though any coach would feel the difference coming from Italy to work in England, Conte does not fit in this list.
The Serie A winner has already had a successful experience in England when he was the coach for Chelsea FC and he was able to implement his game strategies and characteristics perfectly in the London’s club. During his time for the Blues, Conte won the Premier League in 2017, as well as the FA CUP in 2018.
With his classic 3-4-3, Chelsea had a solid defense and a very effective offense, especially using crosses coming from Marcos Alonso and Victor Moses. The Spurs have players with the same characteristics as the players Conte had in Chelsea and the 3-4-3 seems to become successful in English Football once again.
Emerson and Reguillon are two defenders who give support to attacking situations throughout the whole game. Hojbjerg and Ndombélé are two solid center midfielders, and they are able to dictate the pace of the match due to the their quality with the ball on their feet. In the attacking third, Conte has plenty of options to create dangerous situations to the opposite defense. Hazard, Diego Costa and William had two outstanding seasons when the Italian was their coach. So, why can’t he do the same with Son, Kane and Lucas?
The main difficulty Conte will face to implement his game strategy in Spurs comes from the defense. The tactical system requires a world-class pass technique from the defenders, as they are the players who begin the offensive moment. Even though Romero and Dier are able to give good long range passes, Davinson Sánchez and Tanganga do not have the same quality, but the Italian has time and the experience to work on this.
Conte has also the motivation Spurs need in this difficult moment and the expectation is to see the team going back to the winning track in the next few games.
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