The Frenchman has revealed how a misunderstanding during a conversation with Antonio Conte led to a big mistake.
“A team meeting led to a misunderstanding, which led to him telling Conte exactly what he thought about his tactics and formation,” the English publication Football London reported on Friday (June 5).
The Frenchman joined Tottenham last summer. However, he has since fallen into obscurity and has become less and less prominent. His goal against Liverpool in the PL in 2022-23 was his only goal of the season.
He didn’t particularly find his place. Up front, Harry Kane was already the star striker, and Son Heung-min was the established left wing-forward. As a result, he didn’t get many chances to play, and when he did, his lack of composure was frustrating.
He also didn’t get along well with Conte. On April 4, the two players appeared on the Brazilian YouTube channel Desimpedidos to chat with YouTuber Fred, who shared an anecdote about their relationship with Conte.
“He was late for the matchday meeting,” Emerson said. Conte asked him, ‘Do you have something to say to the team, do you want to apologize?’ The other players said, ‘I’m sorry’. But then he said, ‘Oh, I need more playing time’. Perhaps he misunderstood because Conte asked him if he had anything to say. Then he suddenly said some complaints about our formation,” he laughs.
“I said everything that came to my mind. I started saying things like, ‘I need more time,’ ‘this formation is hard,’ ‘I’m not adapted,’ and so on. Then all the players behind me started laughing, and I thought, ‘What am I doing here? I didn’t understand what he was asking, and I said what I already thought,” he 토토 recalled.
After a slump in form, he has now scored six goals in his last six league games. Since his return to the frontline striker role against Newcastle United last month, he has been leading the Spurs attack. In that game, he scored a multi-goal performance in a 4-1 victory.
What a difference. Earlier in the season, when he was playing up front, he was often caught in the offside trap by opposing defenses and often wasted chances by failing to take advantage of the space between the center back and goalkeeper. Recently, however, he has shown a marked improvement in his link-up play, dropping down to receive the ball and drawing defenders out to create space for his teammates. So far this season, he has seven goals and three assists. However, his latest injury is expected to keep him out for a while.