Antonio Conte’s Tactics Frustrating His Players—Rio Ferdinand

Antonio Conte’s Tottenham Hotspur team in Tuesday’s Champions League group stage match against Olympique Marseille were almost in danger of being rinsed out of the Champions League within the first 30 minutes of the game had the French side held on to their lead and being more clinical.

However thanks to the sheer resilience of the Spurs’ side, the London club held on to score a winner within the closing stages of the game to secure a berth in the round of 16 like every other English side in the competition.

Lately, the Tottenham side have seen the team’s performance on pitch face ridicule specifically due to Antonio Conte’s tactics which to Rio Ferdinand seems to be frustrating his star players.

The Italian is most known for his football tactics of playing counter attacking football that comes from sitting deep as a low block and hoping to capitalize on errors from their opponents to steal out results from the game.

This tactics of course, undermines the attacking prowess of attack minded players in the team as they will be forced to remain in their defensive half for considerable duration of the game.

In his analysis of the Champions League game, Rio Ferdinand observed that Antonio Conte’s style of play is frustrating Tottenham players, particularly Harry Kane and Son Heung-Min.

Tottenham defeated Marseille on Tuesday night to advance to the next round of the Champions League and sit third in the Premier League standings.

Tottenham has scored more goals than any other team save for Arsenal and Manchester City, yet Antonio Conte’s team is still criticized for their defensive approach.

“If you look at it as a player, I think some players in that squad will be frustrated with the way they’re playing,” Ferdinand said on BT Sport.

“If you look at Son, Kane and all the strikers in that team, they’ll be sitting there going…well Kane ain’t going to be near the top of the goal charts.”