This blog is written by a seasoned FPL manager, Chelsea fan, and die-hard Antonio Conte fan, Anurag Khetan, popularly known as @AK_FPL1 on Twitter.
Tottenham have sacked Nuno Espírito Santo after his side saw a 3-0 defeat against Manchester United, a side having issues of their own. It is being heavily rumored that the ex-Chelsea and Inter Milan coach, decorated with league titles everywhere he goes, is set to take over at Spurs.
Being a Chelsea fan myself, I rate Conte as one of the top managers in the world. He’s a brilliant coach whose sides are tailor-made according to their strengths and weaknesses. In this article, I have looked into how Antonio Conte devised a system at Inter Milan, which enabled the Italian side to win the Scudetto (Serie A title) for the first time in 11 years.
History of Antonio Conte
Antonio Conte is known for his 3 at-the-back system from his Juve days, which he has also played later at Chelsea and then at Inter Milan. Conte did try out a 4 at the back system when he first arrived at Chelsea, but had little success with it, as his side looked out of ideas and the 3-0 loss to Arsenal at the Emirates only put more pressure on him, with the bookies suspending bets on Antonio Conte being sacked by Chelsea. What followed was nothing short of a miracle.
Antonio Conte switched to a 3 at the back formation, playing Marcos Alonso as the Left Wing Back and Victor Moses (still beats me how) at RIght Wing Back. Chelsea went on to win 13 league matches in a row (a record then) and ultimately won the League with most wins in a single campaign until the 2016/17 season.
Conte again favoured a 3 at the back formation at Chelsea for the 2017/18 season, where he only managed to finish 5th, but did win the FA Cup for the Blues. Internal issues with the Board over the club’s transfers and failure to reach the Champions League resulted in a sacking of the Italian manager after the season ended.
After a year’s break from Management, Antonio Conte was then appointed by Inter Milan, who were always involved in a fierce top 4 battle to qualify for the Champions League, at the start of the 2019/20 season.
Antonio Conte led Inter Milan to the brink of a league title win in his first season, losing out to Juventus by a single point. He then managed to finally win the league title in his second season quite comfortably, as Juventus imploded and no other team could pose a strong challenge to Conte’s Inter Milan. Conte then left the position at Inter Milan after two successful seasons by mutual consent, as the Champions were struggling financially and had to sell off their key players, which wasn’t acceptable to Conte.
Antonio Conte Formation, Tactics and System at Inter Milan
Antonio Conte never shifted away from his preferred 3 at-the-back formation in the league at Inter Milan. He preferred many variations of a 3-5-2 formation, sometimes with a Defensive Midfielder (3-1-4-2) and other times with an attacking midfielder (3-4-1-2).
His most used formation though, was the one which had a Defensive Midfielder in the system. Brozovic usually played in that role for Conte. He dropped deep to link the defence and midfield, enabling the wing backs (Hakimi and Perisic) to stay high up on the pitch, ready to attack.
The other 2 Central Midfielders were more advanced, particularly Barella, who was the most advanced midfielder, joining the attack with his late runs in the box.
The wing backs pushed very high up on the pitch, especially Achram Hakimi from Right wing back, who managed 7 goals and 10 assists in the league.
Conte prefers his central defenders to be comfortable on the ball, as he looks to build from the back. Although the Italian prefers a slow and controlled build up, his side are deadly on the counter attacks, having scored the most goals (9) in the league from counter attacks in the 2020/21 season.
The two strikers upfront, mostly Romelu Lukaku and Lautaro Martinez, developed a deadly relationship. The pair was involved in a massive total of 61 goals (out of 89 in total) in the league for the side, with Lukaku scoring 24 and assisting 10 and Martinez managing a further 17 goals and 10 assists of his own. One of the strikers used to drop deep to collect the ball, while the other stayed up on the pitch, something which a certain pair also does in Conte’s new side.
What to Expect from Conte at Spurs?
Formation
The easiest answer to the question is a 3 at-the-back formation. Antonio Conte has never moved away from 3 at-the-back since his Chelsea days and it would be very surprising to see Conte not playing it at Spurs.
I can see Conte playing a similar style (3-5-2) at Tottenham, that he did with Inter Milan. A 2-striker system would really benefit Spurs, since Son and Kane have a great partnership as we saw last season. A 3-4-3 cannot be ruled out, although is not as likely for me, with Moura or Bergwijn taking up a role upfront in addition to Kane and Son.
In the Center Midfield, we could see Hojbjerg playing the CDM role, with Ndombele and Lo Celso playing as the more advanced midfielders.
When it comes to wing backs, I can see Reguilon doing a good job for Conte as the Left Wing Back (LWB), as he practically played a similar role at Sevilla, before his transfer to Tottenham last summer. On the other side, they have only just bought Emerson Royal and he could make a case for the Right Wing back (RWB) position, although they still have Matt Doherty who has been brilliant in the same position for Wolves before his transfer.
The three center backs is where it all gets tricky. I think Conte would prefer Japhet Tanganga as his RCB and Cristian Romero as the main CB in the 3 at the back. For the LCB spot, we could see Eric Dier or even Ben Davies playing that role. Spurs have a lot of options at the back and it would be interesting to see who Conte prefers to play.
Spurs expected lineup under Antonio Conte:
Antonio Conte Numbers
Antonio Conte always looks to keep it clean at the back. Inter Milan conceded the least amount of goals than any other side in the league in both seasons, conceding 36 goals in his first season in charge and 35 goals in his second season which ultimately produced the title.
Inter Milan’s Expected Goals Against (xGA) for both seasons also were impressive. Conte’s Inter Milan had an XGA of 38.60 in the 2019/20 season (second best in league) and an xGA of 40.60 in the 2020/21 season (second best in league, again).
In attack too, Inter Milan posted excellent underlying numbers. In the 2020/21 season, Inter Milan managed an Expected Goals (xG) total of 74.80, second highest in the league, behind Atalanta. While in the 2019/20 season, Inter Milan managed an Expected Goals Total (xG) of 72.30, third-highest in the league and only 0.30 behind Roma. Conte took his side to an xG of 72.30 from an xG of 64.10 in the 2018/19 season when he was appointed.
* The Expected Goals and Expected Goals Against numbers have been taken from fbref.com
Conclusion
Antonio Conte is a huge pull for Tottenham and I think Nuno’s sacking also was triggered quicker because Conte was available and willing to join this time around. We should definitely see Spurs playing better on field, else he will be screaming at his players all game, the man won’t stop!
He is one of the best coaches in the world and for Fantasy Managers, this appointment should bring a lot of excitement, as there will be options at the back and in front again. Particularly Kane and Son. It will be interesting to see how Conte plays them both together but I’d be very excited for the duo, especially Son, as he can be a cut price option playing as a striker and getting at the end of Kane’s through passes (if Kane is the one dropping deep).
Feedback and Comments appreciated. Just tweet it out tagging my handle (@AK_FPL1) and also the main handle (@Allaboutfpl) and I will talk at length about Conte.
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AK - Anurag Khetan
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