Tim Sherwood wants Tottenham Hotspur to put Newcastle United to the sword on Sunday. Despite a strong start to the season - their best in Premier League history - there are murmurs of discontent over Antonio Conte’s style of play.
The fiery Italian adopts a pragmatic, wing-back system which has worked wonders at some of Europe’s biggest football clubs. Chelsea were the beneficiary of Conte’s unique blueprint in 2016-17 when he led them to a league title.
Four Serie A triumphs with Juventus and Inter Milan also reinforce his credentials as an elite, trophy-specialist manager. However, cracks have started to appear in recent weeks after a string of poor results.
READ MORE: Conte the latest big-six manager to express fear of 'dangerous' Newcastle
Defeats to Arsenal and Manchester United placed Conte’s philosophy under scrutiny but Spurs still sit third in the table. The common consensus is that the 53-year-old is at Tottenham as a short-term fix in their pursuit to win some silverware.
Former Tottenham boss Sherwood - who briefly managed the club in 2013-14 - has urged Conte to “take the shackles off” against Newcastle this weekend. The Magpies travel south full of confidence after winning three of their last four outings.
“They can take teams apart, the bottom teams,” Sherwood told Soccer Saturday. “If they’re going to get top four they’re going to need to win the head-to-heads. They got outplayed in the North London derby.
“They went to Chelsea and scored in the 96th minute after being outplayed. Another difficult game was West Ham, they drew that game and lost at Old Trafford.
“They beat the teams we’d expect them to beat. Now, I know you’ve still got to beat them, it’s a tough league, but they’re going to have to win some of these head-to-heads and to do that I think they need to take the shackles off.”
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