Southampton exploits Conte’s tactical weaknesses

DBasia.news – Southampton won a dramatic victory when they traveled to the headquarters of Tottenham Hotspur. The Saints manager, Ralph Hasenhuttl exploited Antonio Conte’s tactical weakness.

In the 2021-2022 Premier League continued match at Tottenham Stadium, Thursday (10/2) morning WIB, Southampton won a narrow victory with a score of 3-2. Even though the visitors had fallen behind twice.

Tottenham took the lead through Jan Bednarek’s own goal in the 18th minute. But the first half ended 1-1 after Southampton equalized through the action of Armando Broja.

Son Heung-min again put Tottenham ahead 20 minutes before normal time ended. The Lilywhites seemed to have secured the three points.

But Southampton was able to make a comeback by scoring two goals in just two minutes. Mohamed Elyounoussi (80′) and Che Adam (82′) found the net for Tottenham with headers starting with the same scheme.

This result made Hasenhuttl thrilled. His analysis of Conte’s tactics proved to be accurate.

Ralph Hasenhuttl celebrated Southampton’s win over Tottenham.

“Spurs defended as they always did after taking the lead. The good thing is that we have the solutions and tools to score goals, even against well-organized teams,” Hasenhuttl told Hampshire Live.

“We came up with a great game plan today. Congratulations to my analysts and Richard (Kitzbichler, analysis assistant).”

Conte does have a distinctive game philosophy. He relies on a quick counter-attack scheme utilizing the speed of the wing.

This makes Conte’s team appear more defensive and wait for the opponent’s mistakes. But Hasenhuttl has found a formula to anticipate it.

“With the five defenders we played against Spurs in the last meeting, we struggled to create chances. Meanwhile the 4-2-2-2 worked perfectly.”

“We had the right players in the right positions and then waited for our chance.

The key to winning was that we kept playing like that after they scored.”

The minor result against Southampton was Conte’s first home defeat for Tottenham. This is a danger for the Italian manager and his squad.