Tottenham Hotspur’s Antonio Conte was quick to give instructions to Hugo Lloris after his side scored their second goal of the night against West Ham United yesterday, Sky Sports commentator Don Goodman noticed.
Time for tactics
Lucas Moura tucked home a Steven Bergwijn cross to put Spurs into the lead in the 35th minute of the contest, but Conte didn’t have too long to celebrate.
The Italian boss seemingly felt that there were areas of his team’s performance that needed to be worked on.
One of those was the distribution of Lloris, who had started the game by going short from goal kicks.
This led to problems initially for Tottenham, as Eric Dier gave the ball away while trying to play out, and allowed West Ham to score their first goal.
The Hammers had opted to press high and rather than try and play through them, Conte felt his team would be better served by playing slightly more directly.
Goodman noticed: “It was interesting that when that ball hit the net the first thing Antonio Conte did after a quick celebration was he got a message to Hugo Lloris.
“He didn’t want him passing the ball out from the goal kick. He wanted him just to go long a little bit.”
Advice heeded
Lloris took on board the advice, as Tottenham didn’t play their way into trouble again after Conte’s instructions.
Lloris actually performed brilliantly during the contest as he made a string of superb stops to keep West Ham at bay.
The World Cup winner’s wonderful save from Tomas Soucek’s header in the first half was a particular highlight, but he was strong throughout.
Conte waxed lyrical about his goalkeeper in his post match interview.
And it will be important for Spurs to sort out his contractual situation sooner rather than later, as Lloris continues to show excellent form despite his advancing years right now.
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