Michael Dawson has defended Antonio Conte for his damage limitation in the North London derby against Arsenal last weekend.
Tottenham produced a battling display to beat Brighton and Hove Albion 1-0 on Saturday evening.
Harry Kane scored the only goal of the game, stooping low to head Son Heung-min’s cross into the net.
Brighton pushed and pushed for a leveller but it just wasn’t enough with Tottenham again showing their defensive ability.
Two clean sheets in a row will be a major boost for Conte, especially after the defeat at Arsenal last weekend.
Michael Dawson has defended Antonio Conte
Everybody knows that Tottenham’s biggest game of the season is against Arsenal.
Last Saturday gave Arsenal the chance to head over to the Emirates Stadium and make a big statement against their bitter rivals.
Instead, Arsenal looked a class above Tottenham and ended up coasting to a 3-1 win.
Some were left a little frustrated that Conte went into damage limitation mode after Emerson Royal’s red card.
Within 10 minutes of Emerson being sent off, Conte had taken off Ivan Perisic, Richarlison and Son Heung-min for Yves Bissouma, Ryan Sessegnon and Matt Doherty.
That pretty much confirmed that Tottenham wouldn’t be pushing for goals to get back into the game, which was more than understandable with 10 men.
Conte clearly didn’t want Tottenham to get humiliated against their biggest rivals and went into a very conservative approach to finish the game.
Former Tottenham defender Michael Dawson has now told Sky Sports that he completely understands Conte’s decision in that situation.
Dawson notes that Tottenham fans won’t be happy but they will have to trust Conte after registering just one Premier League defeat to this point.
Dawson also pointed out that Dejan Kulusevski wasn’t available so Conte didn’t have many other options to bring on from the bench to go for it anyway, but believes Tottenham’s wing backs do still need to offer more going forward.
“They are defensive at times, we talk about Spurs and I think for me, even in midweek against Frankfurt, I look and go… they need to get more players in the final third. For your wing backs and the way Antonio Conte plays, you have to have more from your wing backs because your holding midfielders don’t really go forward.”
“Once Emerson Royal gets sent off, you look at the players who came on and Antonio Conte will then say ‘yeah, I’d get out of there with damage limitation’. Fans won’t like that, of course they won’t, but that’s the first game they’ve lost this season so you still believe and back the way he’s doing it. I was surprised in seeing those substitutions, I was, but there was no Kuluisevski,” he added.
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