Tottenham stars have stopped listening to Conte

FOR 45 minutes at Manchester City on Thursday night, Tottenham looked the real deal. They were steely, aggressive and played with no inferiority complex. Then, they went all Spursy. They were so good in the first half that I did not see it coming, City scoring three times by the 63rd minute to lead 3-2. All of a sudden, from the first whistle after half-time, Spurs looked like a team who cannot get in the top four. They crumbled. You can bet to a man that the one thing Antonio Conte and his coaching staff said at half-time was this: ‘We’re 2-0 up. There is storm coming in the first 15 minutes. Weather that and you’ll be fine. The crowd will turn and we’ll get another goal.’

They should have been super aggressive, more of the same from the first half, risked a yellow card, even. They should have got in City’s faces and let them know they weren’t going to have it easy. Instead? They reverted to type.

It is little wonder they conceded the first goal in 10 games straight. That is not a coincidence, it is a real problem with mentality and the ability to start a game properly. That very first pattern of the game, in either half, sets the tone. Spurs are so poor at that. Their players need to take a good look at themselves and ask, ‘What is wrong with me?’ They are giving the initiative to the other team every time. The first half at City was different, and I thought they were fantastic. But whatever Conte said to them at half-time, they were not listening. The same way they have not listened before the majority of games this season. That is a big worry.