‘There were big meetings’: Journalist shares what happened at Spurs after Leicester defeat

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Speaking on The View from The Lane Podcast, The Athletic’s Jack Pitt-Brooke has been discussing some of the inner workings at Tottenham Hotspur and the playing squad’s response to the defeat to Leicester City last weekend.

Spurs were embarrassed by Leicester last Saturday in a 4-1 defeat, but they bounced back this week with a 2-0 victory over West Ham.

So, what happened in the week to change Spurs’ fortunes? Well, according to Pitt-Brooke, there were some big meetings within the club as the senior players put their heads together to try to figure out what they could do next in the absence of Antonio Conte who is still recovering from his surgery.

Spurs players held crisis meeting

Pitt-Brooke shared what he knows about the Spurs players’ reaction to the loss to Leicester.

“I think it’s interesting that in the absence of Conte we have seen more collective responsibility. I think that’s true of the players, I spoke to Ben Davies after the game and he said how Stellini told the senior players they have to do their bit. I know last week that there were big meetings at Spurs amongst senior players in response to the Leicester game and how they make sure that doesn’t happen again,” Pitt-Brooke said.

“There’s this idea of players taking responsibility, which can be a bit of a fantasy in football because the manager takes responsibility, but we’re in this unique situation at Spurs, which is that the club is basically a mini-autocracy, and when you take that autocrat out of the picture tehre is a power vacuum and something has to fill that vacuum, the only way you can do that is with a collective response.”

It worked

We don’t know what was said in that meeting, but it clearly seemed to have some sort of effect on the playing squad at Spurs.

Indeed, Tottenham looked like a much-improved outfit against West Ham on Sunday, and we have to imagine that the midweek meeting helped matters.

It’s good to see the Spurs squad taking responsibility in this way, and perhaps this approach will help them continue their assault on the top four for the remainder of the campaign.