Cristian Stellini's Revealing Press Conference
It's the funeral today, at least Spurs have given some happiness this week.
The media have missed it of course, but today we will discuss the most important answer you have heard for a while, which came in Cristian Stellini's revealing press conference.
"We have just started the process to improve the squad and to go step by step to face competitions like the Premier League and Champions League."
Personally, I think too many of our fans overrate our players and totally forget the fatigue effect of playing every 3 days.
Spurs have plenty of average players, Sessegnon is a huge step down from Perišić but hopefully, Destiny Udogie can maintain a higher level.
The team needs a better passer of a ball than Højbjerg in his role, but presumably, Spurs are going to change the system when Bissouma has learnt his holding midfielder role at the base of the midfield.
Paratici and Conte clearly are looking for an upgrade on Ben Davies who can, like Højbjerg, become squad rotation players.
Neither right-sided full-backs are of the quality Spurs need for the role and Spence I don't see being ready for next season at all. I think he'll be Sessegnon level, we'll see.
Tottenham are looking to purchase a right wing-back in January despite Conte deflecting questions in press conferences, with probably Doherty looking to be sold.
Richarlison needs to provide more, only 2 shots on target from 11 just isn't good enough yet.
Moura I have spoken about before as very inconsistent and has little end product. How he will fare under Conte is an unknown as he is still working on fitness levels.
Skipp is overrated, but is Spurs and homegrown so important that he is developed as in Europe clubs have to have club-trained players in your squad.
Next summer Spurs have to add further improvements and move some more players on.
Fans seem to forget the first season under Pochettino which was equally as painful before we took giant strides forward.
The most revealing passage in the Cristian Srellini ]Spurs assistant manager] post-match [Marseille] press conference was;
This tells you our style of play is deliberate.
Spurs are trying to keep it at 0-0 until half-time and then exploit a tiirng opposition in the second half.
If you watch our defending, we are not expending energy, we are staying compact, just shuffling across the field by-and-large.
OK, we could be better at it, but that is something we have to learn, to experience.
Yes, Spurs have too much into their shell and are over-doing the defensive element in the first-half, but, as I say, this is a learning process and there is a lot to learn to get everyone on the right page.
Tottenham are not the finished article and can't be judged as such, there are always hard yards when building something significant.
Your choices are to give up and start the whole process again or persevere, which is a success trait.
A journalist asked a question in the Marseille post match press conference.
Tottenham are making a habit, it seems, of comebacks and scoring later on in the second half so I mean is there something that you think that the team have? Is it fitness, is it personality, what do you put it down to?
[THBN - why again does the reporter have to make suggestions, why can't he just ask the open-ended question and give the opportunity for an answer? He has effectively said, this is my question and these are possible answers. The journalists ego is getting in the way of his job, subconsciously he wants to be told he is right.]
Answer from Cristian Stellini -
"Maybe is all of this thing, personality, energy, but we know very well and in this type of Stadium this type of match, a knockout match, it is not easy because the stadium was very hot in the first half and"Sometimes it's normal also to give a possibility to the opponent to play & to spend energy & you use the energy you have in the second & could be also a strategy, but we need to try to play the whole 90 minutes in the same level."
Conte clearly wants Spurs to be more positive in the first-half and the side hasn't found the right balance yet.
Some of the players simply aren't good enough and this affects some of the decision making.
Why if you are going to boot the ball upfield from a goal-kick, do you have two centre-bacls on the six-yard line for a short corner?
That leaves too big a gao between defence and attack. It means the attackers are outnumbered and more often than not you simply lose the ball quickly.
This happened several times against Marseille, even if Spurs won the header, there were too many defenders and they just collected the ball.
If you clear a ball in this way, you need players around to contest the second ball.
In too many playerss, the thought is backwards and safety first, not forward and creatre first.
It is a mental balancing game that Spurs are losing and again something sports psychologists should be working on with players.
The mental process is everything, yet it doesn't receive the same level of dedicated work that fitness receives, why?
It is so frustrating.
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