Those who have followed Antonio Conte's career say there's always a point at every club when he makes it clear publicly that he requires a bigger squad than the one he is currently working with.
However, when it comes to his Tottenham squad, while he speaks about the size of squad, Conte's actions suggests he really means quality rather than quantity. Yes, more could have been done in the summer transfer window, but the problem is from the outside it looks like a manager who doesn't seem to be rotating his starting XI yet is asking for yet more players that he might not use.
Spurs' transfer trio of managing director of football Fabio Paratici, his performance director Gretar Steinsson and head of football strategy Andy Scoulding were all on the pitch ahead of kick-off, speaking to Eintracht Frankfurt sporting director Ben Manga. Steinsson joined Spurs in July and Scoulding in August as part of Paratici's major overhaul of the club's football hierarchy and scouting network. The three men would no doubt have noted that after a transfer window that brought six new players, with a seventh in Destiny Udogie joining next summer, Conte is only using half of them.
READ MORE: Every word Antonio Conte said on building stronger Spurs squad in transfer windows and Bryan Gil
For all the talk of having just 12 or 13 fit players to end last season, Conte's squad was bumped up to having two players in every position, yet despite talk of needing to rotate for this frantic period of 13 games in 43 days, Conte named an identical starting line-up to the one he did at Arsenal just over 72 hours earlier.
"You know I think that last season we reached a great achievement for the club, to play in the Champions League. If you remember we finished last season with only 12 or 13 players. I always say that maybe we were lucky to go out of the Conference League and focus only on the Premier League," Conte said after the 0-0 draw in Germany.
"We weren’t able last season to face two competitions. Now we have to go step by step, have patience, take time, you need to have time and to build an important squad to face a competition like the Champions League. If you compare the Champions League it is totally different to the Conference League or the Europa League. It’s always a massive game and you have to play with the best starting XI.
"If you think ‘yeah I want to make some rotations’ and it is a bit difficult. We know this situation with the club and the club knows very well we need time and patience, to try to go step by step. I spoke about the transfer market, that we needed more transfer markets to reach a good level. We know this. At the same time we want to be competitive, to try to do everything.
"Today I made substitutions and played [Bryan] Gil, and Gil is a young player and we have to try to involve all the players. We have to try to do our best and then go step by step to improve and become stronger as a squad.
"We have the intention to play for these two big competitions, the Premier League and Champions League. Two of the biggest competitions in the world. You lose a lot of energy, you lose players to injuries and you need a really big squad."
The problem is that Conte only seems to rotate players when there is an injury or he's 100% satisfied with the other option in the role.
That is the case up front when Dejan Kulusevski is fit and he has four strong options in the attacking roles. It also is the case on the left of the back three with him happy with either Ben Davies or Clement Lenglet while Ryan Sessegnon has Conte's backing to play plenty of minutes at left wing-back to supplement Ivan Perisic. The England U21 international is usually Conte's first substitute to come on if he's not starting the game.
The problem lies everywhere else. The Spurs head coach said a couple of weeks ago that he would be able to count on summer signing Yves Bissouma, Oliver Skipp and Matt Doherty after the international break.
None of them came off the bench in Germany and all three only came into the final stages of the defeat at Arsenal when Conte had decided the game was lost with only 10 men at his disposal.
On Monday Doherty found himself once again the subject of Conte's displeasure, the Italian again stating that the Irishman was nowhere near the level he was before his knee injury last season. His performances for Ireland and his cameos for Spurs from the bench have suggested that to be true, but it's a vicious circle because it's an issue that can likely only be solved with minutes and the subsequent sharpness gained.
Conte made it clear that another summer signing in Djed Spence was not giving him enough in training sessions to warrant the fans' calls for him to get any opportunities during Emerson Royal's upcoming Premier League suspension.
Bissouma is perhaps the strangest case of all. The Mali international has been one of the best central midfielders in the Premier League in recent years but Conte does not seem to currently see him as anywhere close to his strongest starting XI, admitting a fortnight ago that the 26-year-old was taking more time to adapt to his tactical instructions and he needed to improve his defensive abilities.
Bissouma was heralded as one of the fittest players at Brighton and if anything the defensive side of his game was held up as his best as he shone in Graham Potter's side. Something clearly just hasn't clicked yet for him under Conte and he has not been helped by a few muscle problems and having Covid during pre-season.
Saturday's test at Brighton could be the chance for Bissouma to show what he can do. Three games in a week for midfield pairing Rodrigo Bentancur and Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg would seem difficult and risky against the far fresher Seagulls.
Then there is the lesser spotted Bryan Gil. The 21-year-old Spaniard has been left warming the bench this season despite injuries to Kulusevski and Lucas Moura but, after Conte had been asked about him on Monday and he said those now almost dreaded words "I trust him" - just ask Harry Winks - he got some minutes from the bench on Tuesday night.
In February Conte had publicly suggested that while he was a clever, hard-working and talented player, Gil wasn't really suited to the physicality of the English game. Eight months on and it is difficult to claim the Spaniard had done much to change that perception.
He worked hard, showed some nice touches, particularly with a run back to intercept a Frankfurt pass and then dribble out of trouble. However, he also lacked quality with his passing and his strength on the ball remains an issue despite all those months since available to bulk up as he was knocked off the ball a number of times.
That led to one angry moment from Conte on the touchline. He screamed at Gil and repeatedly slammed his fist into his palm at him, as if to say 'go in harder for the ball' before turning away.
The Spaniard seemed confused, with his arms held outwards, and whether he responded in some way or not towards the touchline, Conte suddenly wheeled back around and shouted again with the same hand movements, thumping that fist again repeatedly into his palm.
The Gil situation is a strange one. Conte admitted on Monday that Spurs had wanted to send him on loan to Valencia again but circumstances changed that, presumably meaning they could not get someone in of the required quality to replace him. It's a situation that hasn't done the player and his development, Conte or the club any favours.
On the whole Tottenham's performance in Germany was improved from the one at the Emirates Stadium just three days before, but it contained a few similar problems.
One at the back was Hugo Lloris' kicking, which put Spurs into difficult positions despite the Frenchman having spent a good while practising his kicking in the warm-up with goalkeeping coach Marco Savorani down the centre and fellow keepers Fraser Forster and Brandon Austin out wide.
Forster had an extended session of his own in the net after Lloris had gone inside, an unusual practice for the non-playing keeper which perhaps suggests an experience in front of a crowd was planned with a possible start soon to rest the captain.
While goalkeepers are less prone to physical fatigue, although Lloris did have that small thigh injury before pulling out of international duty, it's more about the mental fatigue with the role. Forster, who played 24 times for Southampton last season including 19 games in the Premier League, could maybe be in line for his turn between the sticks.
Up front the issue was once again the final ball. Spurs miss the guile and creativity of Kulusevski hugely when he's not in the starting line-up but Harry Kane, Son Heung-min and Richarlison all have the quality to at least pass the ball six yards to each other.
Son was the brightest and the most dangerous-looking of the bunch, although he does continue to have some issues with keeping the ball at his feet when dribbling at the moment which may well be confidence-related.
With his passing though he created chances for Kane, even if one ball across the six-yard was powerfully hit at the area of the striker's nether-regions rather than his feet or head which made it a difficult or perhaps painful attempt to score from.
Kane and Richarlison though were far worse with their passing, with 61.3% and 60.9% success rates compared to Son's 84%.
Son is also yet to click with Perisic down the left as he does with Sessegnon and the experienced Croatian had one of quietest performances at wing-back since arriving, with not enough attacking endeavour for a player of his quality.
Fitness will have played a part with the 33-year-old starting again so quickly and logic would suggest Sessegnon will come into the side at Brighton. On the other flank, Emerson got into some good positions, not least from an excellent long pass from Eric Dier, but his attacking decision-making when he receives the ball remains his biggest weakness.
Conte was happy after the game with his team and it's true that they came to a place considered to be one of the tougher tests in the Bundesliga and they never looked like leaving without at least a point.
They had the bulk of the possession inside the noisy stadium and only poor play in the final third prevented them from taking more and the Spurs head coach said the display gave him plenty of confidence.
"I think the performance was a good one," Conte told football.london. "It’s not easy to play in this stadium in this atmosphere with a lot of noise around you but at the same time from the start we put a lot of pressure, we tried to be aggressive in every zone of the pitch.
"Then at the same time I didn't think we risked a lot, taking big risks. We created chances to score, but if I have to find a situation that we need to improve on after this game for sure we need to be more clinical.
"Today we had the chances to score and you know very well that football is simple, to win you have to score otherwise if we are lucky, if we are good, you get a draw. I think today for the big effort we did with the whole team maybe we deserved much, much more."
He added: "I think the performance gave me great confidence. We coped with a difficult atmosphere to play here in the right way with great personality. I think that it's important for us to understand that play at home or away it has to be the same way.
"The personality maybe when you stay away has to be stronger. Tonight in this aspect I’m really happy because I had a great response from my players."
The key now will be how he manages this group for Saturday's tough encounter at in-form Brighton. Spurs have often struggled at the Amex Stadium and they cannot afford to look leggy and tired against the energetic Seagulls.
That Spurs have three days in between the games will help some players recover but Conte will have to think about changes.
Using all three attackers once again means that at least two will need to play a third game in a week and the 3-5-2 switch might finally be the way to go unless Kulusevski recovers in time. Conte will have to consider starts for Bissouma, Sessegnon, Doherty, Davies, Sanchez and potentially Skipp if he really wants to add fresh legs in a new formation.
This is a big game for Spurs with Brighton fourth and able to go level on points with Spurs with a victory and they need to get back to winning ways.
Conte has come out swinging this week after some questioned his methods and he can no doubt point to them being third in the Premier League table and second in their Champions League group as proof of an overreaction to what is being served up, but they do need to click on the pitch and trusting some of his other players to rotate might just be the way the way to do that.
Son's angry hat-trick against Leicester was the perfect proof that players really don't like being rested.
Conte has questioned his squad once again ahead of a January transfer window which is expected to bring more movement than normal for all clubs, including Spurs, after the World Cup exploits. It's down to Conte's squad players now to provide the answers to his questions.
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