Opinion: Antonio Conte’s first Tottenham line-up a year ago is now very interesting

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Antonio Conte has just celebrated a year since his first game in charge of Tottenham Hotspur.

On 4 November 2021, he got off to a winning start with a 3-2 home victory over Vitesse in the UEFA Conference League group stage.

12 months on, and he has guided Spurs into the first knockout round of the Champions League, underlining the improvement since his arrival.

Plenty was made of the transfer business Conte did in the summer, getting Daniel Levy to part with his usual approach and getting players in early.

Looking back at starting XI for first Tottenham game under Conte

But ahead of Sunday’s clash with Liverpool, a look back at his first starting eleven in charge of Tottenham makes for interesting reading.

How many of the players will actually be different against Jurgen Klopp’s side? Cristian Romero won’t play, but that is just through injury.

Sergio Reguilon has been offloaded, with Ivan Perisic, a player Conte knows well from his time at Inter in to replace him.

Rodrigo Bentancur faces a late fitness test, or Oliver Skipp may well come in for him, with Lucas Moura is also battling injury to be fit.

Heung-min Son won’t play after fracturing his eye socket, but he would have done if he was fit for this game.

So for all the improvement under Conte and the summer of spending, the team which will face Liverpool is not much different to his very first one.

That underlines the scale of the work which still needs to be done at Spurs, and the changes to the squad Conte will still want to make.

That team is still good enough to get the job done tomorrow, although plenty of the attacking burden will fall on Harry Kane’s shoulders.