‘Painful’: Martin Keown makes worrying Tottenham prediction under Antonio Conte

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Martin Keown has told TalkSPORT (Friday, 11.25AM) that Tottenham Hotspur’s extensive injury list is “going to hit them” eventually with the squad down to the “bare minimum”, labelling Antonio Conte‘s style as “painful” to watch.

Spurs are getting through it at the moment. Ridding themselves of the Spursy tag since Conte arrived, the Italian has made Spurs much fitter – and nastier to play against. On Tuesday night, they beat Marseille 2-1 away in France.

A wonderful win, that saw them finish top of Group D in the Champions League. But it was the fifth game in a row in which they have gone behind first. A trend is appearing; Spurs struggle for the first 45, but shine in the second half.

Against Newcastle, they improved after going two goals down. They equalised and could have beaten Sporting, had it not been for VAR, after Marcus Edwards’ opener. They produced comebacks against Bournemouth and Marseille.

Keown gave his verdict on the trend at Tottenham, ahead of Sunday’s clash against Liverpool in the Capital. He thinks that injuries are playing their part, and it is going to “hit them” at some point. He is not a fan of Conte’s style.

“It is going to hit them, these injuries. They are slow and painful to watch. It seems like they need to go a goal down to get going. I don’t think they are good enough to keep this up. His [Conte] squad is down to the bare minimum.”

Keown: Tottenham injury list is going to hit them eventually

Conte’s press conference today will be an interesting one. Dejan Kulusevski, Cristian Romero and Richarlison were missing on Tuesday night. Son Heung-min suffered a fracture under his left eye against Marseille; needs surgery.

So, four key players Spurs might be without come Sunday. Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg looked as though he was playing on one leg before his late winner. Rodrigo Bentancur looked as though he clutched his hamstring before coming off.

The Spurs squad is not a particularly big one. But Tottenham do have plenty of quality and enough to worry Jurgen Klopp on Sunday. Whether or not they can rid themselves of their form against the top six, remains to be seen.