Antonio Conte has been accused of being too “defensively minded” after another stuttering display from Tottenham Hotspur on Tuesday night.
Spurs have enjoyed a reasonably bright start to the season this term but have stumbled in recent weeks. They lost the North London Derby 3-1 to Arsenal, while losing their first Champions League away game at Sporting Clube de Portugal. Indeed, they've scored just once in open play in their last five away games following a miserable 0-0 stalemate with Eintracht Frankfurt in Germany.
Now Ally McCoist has accused Spurs of being too conservative under Conte, given the wealth of attacking talent at their disposal, insisting the side aren't playing to their strengths at present.
Speaking on BT Sport, he said: “You look at a team like Spurs obviously coming off a really poor performance, poor result in the weekend in the derby game, you're looking for a reaction.
“I think Spurs' strengths are in the forward area of the park, I don't think anyone can argue with that. I think defensively there's question marks. I thought the game they came back against Chelsea they were a little bit more solid, is this the turning point? But I don't think so.
“The argument I think Spurs fans can make, is Conte playing to his team's strengths? I'm not sure. He's clearly defensively minded in the way he sets up his team and you have to say he's very good at it. Spurs have only lost one league game this year, that's the North London derby.
“However, if I'm a Kulusevski or a Harry Kane or Son and I'm in that Spurs team, I'm actually probably questioning the way we're playing."
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Ex-Spurs striker Peter Crouch has agreed with that assessment having compared the current side to the infamous Stoke City side that he played for.
“I’ve played this way at Stoke,” he said to BT Sport. “ Tottenham have got enough players to not play this way, I think they can be a little bit more expansive. But if you do play this way, you’ve got to get out to people, you’ve got to get out to the ball, it’s got to be more progressive, it’s got to be with more aggression.”
Former Premier League striker Gabby Agbonlahor has also joined in with those criticising Spurs' style of play having claimed it is comparable to Jose Mourinho 's miserable spell in North London. The Portuguese was regularly labelled as being far too defensive during his time at the helm.
Agbonlahor said: "When you watch Spurs it’s like ‘alright, we’re going to camp in, we’re going to try and nick a counter-attack, we’re playing for a draw, try and nick a goal if we can to win 1-0’. It’s boring football and similar to the football Mourinho was playing there and Spurs fans won’t have that.
"I don’t think they’re going to win a trophy playing like this."
