Tottenham Hotspur face Southampton at the St Mary’s Stadium for the first time since Antonio Conte’s infamous rant there.
Spurs are on a terrible run of form right now. They have just one win in their last eight games, and the pressure is mounting on Ange Postecoglou’s shoulders.
Tottenham need to get back to winning ways against Southampton, but they have dropped points in each of their last two visits there.
The last one was a 3-3 draw – that proved to be Conte’s final game as Tottenham’s boss.
Ange Postecoglou thinks he knows why Antonio Conte ranted about Tottenham
Tottenham weren’t in great form when they last faced Southampton at St Mary’s.
Conte’s men went into that game having won just one of their previous four fixtures. Their performances were nowhere near good enough at the time.
Tottenham opened the scoring through Pedro Porro against the Saints and managed to get themselves 3-1 up by the 75th minute.
That usually means three points for a Conte side, but Tottenham conceded twice in the last 13 minutes and the game ended 3-3.
Conte was absolutely furious after the draw and lashed out at everyone in the club. He publicly criticised his players and even the owners, and it became very clear that he didn’t want to be there anymore.
Many people felt at the time that Conte had his huge rant just to get himself the sack. Postecoglou, however, has a different theory – he thinks the Italian actually did it to get a positive reaction from his side.
The Aussie said, as per Football London: “I was on Planet Earth at that time, and yes I was well aware of it. I think you know when a manager gets to that point that there’s obviously some underlying issues.
“Antonio is a top manager – he’s a world-class manager – and I think most of the time when managers do that they’re trying to get a reaction, trying to get some sort of impact on the team. In difficult moments, what you want from your leaders is action rather than inaction or just letting things drift along.
“He did it to try and get a positive impact on the group, one way or another. We’ve all been in that situation as a manager where you feel: ‘This is time to send a message’.”
Postecoglou has sent a message of his own at Tottenham
Only Conte can confirm whether he actually did what he did to make Tottenham better or if he just wanted to get out of the club.
Postecoglou’s theory is definitely interesting, especially when you consider that the Spurs boss did something a little similar just a few days ago.
After Tottenham’s 1-1 draw at Rangers, Postecoglou publicly criticised Timo Werner. He has demanded more from his other senior players as well since.
It’s never nice to see a manager publicly call out a player, but Postecoglou may have done that just to get a reaction from Werner and make him step up.
If that works, the Australian will be hailed as a genius, but there is a small chance that he could lose the dressing room if he goes down the Conte route.
