Tottenham could hardly have imagined a more difficult start to 2023. They escaped the edge of the sword against Brentford in the closing days of 2022 and then failed to repeat the same against Aston Villa who outplayed them.With this defeat, Tottenham opened the possibility for Manchester United to consolidate in the fourth position and go to +5, which would only deepen the feeling of dissatisfaction that largely reigns in the club from North London. The fans escorted their players from the field with whistles and insults, and all eyes were on Antonio Conte, who for a long time failed to justify his massive salary of 17,000,000 euros per season!Honest as ever from Antonio Conte pic.twitter.com/aZh4WZ60qa— FootballJOE (@FootballJOE) January 1, 2023 The man who devoted most of his coaching career to a defensive-orientated football, a system with three sweepers and waiting to threaten from the counter, came to a situation where his team conceded at least two goals in each of the last seven league games! In a league that has Pep Guardiola, Jurgen Klopp and Mikel Arteta, coaches like Conte are not that desirable. Especially since his tactics are stuck in the time when he won the Premier League with Chelsea. Well, even then he was under constant criticism for his approach to the game and the way he won, so his style on the Island got the symbolic nickname – “Sufferball”.Conte’s Tottenham were defeated by Unai Emery’s Villa, or rather Conte was outplayed by another coach who mainly bases his philosophy on defense and counterattacks. More precisely, Emery’s football was less painful to the eyes than Conte’s, where the system has long been crackling.With a worrying defensive performance and a streak of goals conceded that has not been seen in almost 35 years, Tottenham have allowed as many as five goals this season that came from individual mistakes, or at least two more than the competition. Against Villa, Hugo Lloris opened the door to the first goal for Aston Villa with a terrible reaction to Douglas Luiz’s shot from over 25 meters, which not long after took Tottenham into the abyss.##NAJAVA_MECA_6917018##Fans are rightly looking for an explanation for the poor performances, while Antonio Conte seems to have realized that Tottenham are a club with a loser mentality and are simply not destined to chase the biggest results…”I want to be honest and clear. I told this to the people in the club, I don’t hide my opinion. The fans deserve the best. However, perhaps the fifth place in the table is the best for this club. Or maybe sixth, seventh, maybe fourth place…”, said the Italian.”I’m sure we would be much better in the table if we didn’t allow so many goals. The fact that we allowed the rival to score the first goal killed our confidence and it was visible later. We will try to progress, to get up and move on, To be stronger. We are trying to reduce the number of goals conceded and we want to be the ones who score more. But the opponent also has his say. This league is very difficult and after everything it will be even more difficult for us”. Conte referred to the defensive-line crisis.
