3 big lessons Antonio Conte learned about Tottenham in his first match

Antonio Conte’s only been in charge at Tottenham for one match, but the venerable manager already learned three massive lessons against Vitesse. 

Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither will Antonio Conte’s version of Tottenham. That doesn’t mean the top-class manager didn’t learn a lot about his Spurs squad in their frenetic 3-2 win over Vitesse on Thursday.

Conte correctly assessed his first match at Spurs as “crazy” in his post-match interviews but he couldn’t reasonably be expected to make massive changes at the club given his short run-up to the Europa Conference League encounter. In truth, the Italian gaffer should have viewed the match as a learning opportunity more than anything else.

If Conte did look at the Vitesse match as a highly attended training exercise then he could have learned some valuable lessons about his squad moving forward. Here are the top three things he should have learned about Tottenham’s team in his inaugural match.

3. The midfield mix isn’t quite right

Conte’s decision to stick with Oliver Skipp and Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg as his starting pair of midfielders against Vitesse surprised some fans. As those fans expected, the results in the midfield were mixed.

Both players showed good energy in the middle of the pitch but neither was able to control things as Conte might like. Skipp was the better of the two despite his youth. Hojbjerg seemed uncomfortable trying to cover the amount of ground required in Conte’s system.

As such, Spurs fans should expect to see the club linked with a number of box-to-box midfielders in January. Franck Kessie and Marcelo Brozovic will be the obvious names, but don’t be shocked if the list gets much longer before a purchase is made.