2 years, 5 months ago

Tottenham’s constant comebacks and torrid first halves have a familiar feeling

A winning goal with the last kick of the game. Spurs’ other late great away wins under Antonio Conte, at Leicester City and Manchester City, almost ended up looking a bit like Ajax too. But the whole point of Daniel Levy appointing Conte one year ago was to break Spurs out of the cycle of trying to relive the Pochettino years on a loop. If you were one of Spurs’ vocal minority of Conte sceptics, you might point to this first-half performance and ask what on earth was the point of being in the Champions League, and employing a ‘serial winner’ as head coach, if it just meant coming into these big games and desperately trying not to lose. When Chancel Mbemba headed Marseille into the lead, pushing Spurs towards the Europa League, it felt like a judgment on Conte’s minimalist tactics.

New York Times

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