Jonathan Woodgate spots worrying Conte sign as Varane reveals how Man Utd completely nullified Tottenham

Former Tottenham defender Jonathan Woodgate spotted a worrying sign from Antonio Conte during the Premier League defeat at Manchester United on Wednesday evening.

Goals from Fred and Bruno Fernandes earned the Red Devils a comfortable 2-0 win at Old Trafford in what was another poor performance at one of their biggest rivals from Antonio Conte’s men.

Spurs sat off Erik ten Hag’s men and were thankful that Hugo Lloris produced an outstanding display to keep the score down as United ran riot.

Conte admitted afterwards his side struggled to cope with United’s intensity. That followed a similar pattern to the performances at Chelsea, when Tottenham were lucky to get a draw, and the defeat at Arsenal.

The Italian said: “The level was high and United showed today they are much better than us today.

“I consider United a really good team. And you know very well what they did in the transfer market and what they can spend.

“You are talking about two different levels. In this type of game we can do better. We struggle against Chelsea and Arsenal and today.

“We have to try to improve and there is only the work to do this. I repeat, especially in this type of game when the atmosphere is a lot of noise, United are an important team, we can improve and increase our level.”

And Woodgate, who was commentating on the game for BBC Radio 5 Live, thought Conte looked “subdued” towards the end of the game.

He told 5 Live: “Spurs just couldn’t get near United in the centre of the pitch. Man United were on top of them. They gave the ball away so many times. Conte looked subdued towards the end because Spurs were so poor.”

Varane reveals United masterplan to stop Spurs duo

Meanwhile, Raphael Varane has revealed the tactic that enabled United to nullify Tottenham‘s two best players.

Harry Kane and Son Heung-min were starved of quality service throughout that game as Spurs struggled to create chances.

Speaking after United’s fine win, Varane said: “We tried to press very high on the pitch. It was a very good performance.

“We cut the connection with the two strikers they had and, especially, we killed the space in behind the defensive line. So it was a good performance.”

Spurs will look to bounce back quickly on Sunday when they host in-form Newcastle.

Conte will hope to have key attacker Dejan Kulusevski back for the game, but Richarlison will still be out.

The Brazilian is expected to be sidelined for around two weeks. Kulusevski. meanwhile, has not featured since picking up an injury on international duty with Sweden in late September.

He is, however, back in full training but has just not been risked yet.

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