Tottenham Hotspur’s dismal first half performance during Tuesday’s 2-1 Champions League victory over Marseille was as mystifying as it was maddening.
Harry Kane, Ivan Perisic and Rodrigo Bentancur stepped up dramatically after the interval, with Spurs producing a much-improved display in the second ‘45 while securing their passage into the knock-out stages.
But why did it take them so long to get going? Why did Antonio Conte wait until they were one goal down and hanging on by their fingernails before letting Tottenham off the leash? That is a question avid watchers of Conte’s team have been asking all season long.
“Spurs don’t deserve Champions League football,” former defender Ramon Vega vented on Twitter, his frustrations shared by many in North London.
“(Conte) may well be dismissed If continues like that. I said this many times the tactics are a shambles, and he is not playing on the player’s strengths. It looks like they are always on a handbrake at all times.
“Awful.”
It’s not all bad, of course. Far from it, in fact. This is still Tottenham’s best start to a league season (26 points from 13 games), and they will go into the draw for the Champions League last-16 as group winners. The boos that have accompanied some of their recent performances however – such as the insipid 2-1 defeat at home to Newcastle United – proves that not everyone is happy in Camp Conte.
The natives are restless, growing increasingly concerned about the fact that, even when Tottenham do win, they rarely do it with a semblance of style or conviction.
You certainly can’t say the same of Roger Schmidt’s Benfica.
Benfica coach Roger Schmidt could replace Antonio Conte at Tottenham Hotspur
Since taking charge of the Lisbon giants, Schmidt has tasted 19 wins and three draws during an unbeaten 22-game run. His Benfica side finished top of a UCL group containing PSG and Juventus. They took their seasonal tally to a staggering 58 goals during Wednesday’s 6-1 obliteration of Maccabi Haifa in Israel. When you consider Benfica finished a distant third in Portugal last season, the impact Schmidt has made cannot be underestimated.
A graduate of the Red Bull coaching academy; the 55-year-old German has always been one for high-paced, all-action, free-flowing attacking football. His Salzburg team scored over 100 goals in two league seasons between 2012 and 2014. Cody Gakpo’s rapid rise at PSV Eindhoven also owes much to Schmidt’s aggressive approach.
Benfica, meanwhile, average 68 per cent possession in league football under the German. By far the most in the division. He could hardly be more different, tactically-speaking anyway, than a coach who, even during Inter Milan’s 2021 Scudetto-winning campaign, was coming under fire from some quarters for his pragmatic, reactive blueprint.
The pragmatist and the purist
They don’t play well!” protested Antonio Cassano during his weekly appearance on Christian Vieri’s Twitch channel, his anger escalating as he repeated the phrase three times.
“Antonio Conte plays a 5-3-2. Everyone behind the ball, everyone lined up in front of their own goal. He parks the bus,” former Italy international Antonio Cassano said back in 2021; Conte’s Inter beating Sassuolo despite holding less than 30 per cent of the possession.
“If I had a manager like this, I would go to the president and say: ‘Get rid of him.’”
Daniel Levy is highly unlikely to take Cassano’s advice on board.
But with Antonio Conte’s contract expiring next summer – there remains little movement on an extension – Italian reporter Rudy Galetti claims that Schmidt has been identified as a potential replacement.
Whether Schmidt could achieve the same results as Conte is anyone’s guess. His sides sometimes struggle to strike a balance between free-flowing attacking football, and solid defending. But if Spurs supporters want to see the handbreak released, then Schmidt – a man with his foot pressed permanently upon the accelerator – may represent a welcome change of tack.
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