Ashley Cole has let rip at the Tottenham players and claimed that Antonio Conte will only be able to get the ‘basics’ out of them, as he told Sky Sports Football (12/01/22 at 10:20 pm).
Tottenham were knocked out of the League Cup on Wednesday night when they suffered a 3-0 aggregate defeat to Chelsea.
After losing the first-leg 2-0, many felt that the tie was done and dusted, but some were expecting some fight and quality to, at the very least, scare their London opponents.
But, it wasn’t meant to be, as Thomas Tuchel’s men cruised to victory with Antonio Rudiger scoring the only goal of the game.
After the match, Cole made it clear that the current Tottenham players simply aren’t good enough, even though they have a ‘top, top’ quality manager in charge.
“It is basic defending,” said Cole. “But that’s all you can get out from them. No disrespect to them.
“He (Conte) looks frustrated when he is speaking. I think if you look at the first leg to the second leg, did he change or adapt anything? No.
“I don’t think that’s due to him as a manager because I think he is a top, top manager. Sometimes you look at other factors, is it the quality of the players? And the basic mistakes that they play.
“Play out from the back. They can’t do it. Can’t play under pressure. Midfielders, do they drop a little deeper. Are the lines too big between the strikers? This is all basic.”
It’s only the small matter of Spurs turning their attention to the north London derby at the weekend.
This could seriously turn the mood in the camp because a defeat here and the Spurs fans would make their feelings clear to their players.
Arsenal have their own League Cup clash on Thursday night to deal with, their first-leg clash against Liverpool.
It will be interesting to see what type of team Mikel Arteta plays ahead of that Sunday game because he is light in a few areas, including in midfield.
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