antonio conte happy
Antonio Conte believes that his Tottenham players are starting to “hate to lose” and as simple as that sounds it will be key for their development. Spurs’ surge up the Premier League table stuttered last weekend with a flat performance at home in a 1-0 defeat to Brighton. Conte has previously said that to have a winning mentality, any defeat must hurt a lot and ahead of Saturday’s game at Brentford he believes that his team are starting to show that anger.
Antonio Conte said: “I think that when I speak about a winning mentality it doesn’t mean you are never going to lose. A winning mentality means you have to approach every game in the right way, to manage the game in the right way. To understand the game. I think when we speak about a winning mentality, there is a process, especially for players. They want to win something in their career as they didn’t have a win before. I always said that we improved a lot in many aspects. Also I’m starting to feel that the players start to hate to lose. This is very important. The process is complete when after a defeat you go to your house and you are angry. You want to play another game quickly because you want to forget the loss.”
Conte fully debriefs his players after matches with extensive video work, showing them what they did correctly and what they can do better, in order to put the processes in place for improvement.
Antonio Conte said: “I use video analysis after the game, because in this way you can show both situations, the positive situation, and not the negative situation, but the one that you can improve, to try to avoid next time the mistake or bad decision. It’s important to work but always in the right way because the video analysis can be used to try to improve, to avoid next time, but I don’t want to tell them about mistakes – but to make the best decision, and if you use the video in this way it is very important for the development of your team. Not to tell a player ‘it’s your fault.’ No, never. I never tell that to my players.”
The Italian is still getting to know his Tottenham players but he is already aware which of them need to be pushed and which ones need to have an arm around them and that growing knowledge of his squad that could be crucial as they approach the final six matches of the season.
Antonio Conte said: “Don’t forget that I have known these players only for six months. I didn’t have the possibility to work with them for more time, because when you work with more time, you know everything, but when you arrive in this situation, you have to try to understand well different players. Some players like to be pushed, some, if you push him, maybe he is not so good. You have to try to find the right balance to take the best of your squad, not just the team but the squad, because we have 22 players and every single player has to be involved if we want to reach the target, and you know that the player that is not going to play every game, you also have to manage that situation.”
With Arsenal having won at Stamford Bridge against Chelsea on Wednesday night, the pressure is well and truly on in the race for fourth spot in the Premier League, with the two north London rivals sitting on the same amount of points but with Spurs holding a far superior goal difference. Conte believes that pressure is key to forging a successful team and the best players thrive on it.
Antonio Conte said: “It’s good to live with the pressure because I don’t remember one team that fought for something important, a title, a trophy, a place in the Champions League, that did not have pressure. In my experience as a player and as a manager, when you fight for something important the pressure is with you. For this reason, you have to try to use this pressure in a positive way to help you improve the attention, the desire to do everything to win and the desire to avoid defeat. I think this is very important. When it happens this type of situation it means you are developing a winning mentality and you are ready to reach your target. The target can be a trophy, a title, a place in the Champions League, otherwise you have to continue to work very hard and to live with this type of situation. Otherwise you are medium player. If you don’t want to have pressure, you have to accept to play without targets and to play in the middle in the table and to enjoy only football.”
Spurs will come up against former midfielder Christian Eriksen on Saturday, with the Dane starring for Brentford who have won all five matches he has started in for them since returning to fitness and sharpness following that cardiac arrest last summer at the Euros. Conte has a lot of affection for the Denmark international, who he managed at Inter, but admits he would like the player’s good form to pause temporarily on Saturday.
Antonio Conte added: “I repeat, in January no one knew the situation about Christian – that he could play. For sure we have to be happy and I’m the first person to be happy to see him on the football pitch and be happy to play this kind of football. Christian played here for many years, and for sure the fans appreciated him a lot and now the most important thing is that he continues to play… though on Saturday I hope he plays not so well! But only Saturday, only Saturday, ok. But to continue this way and to show he’s Cristian Eriksen, because usually what happens in these kind of situations is the people’s first question is will he come back in the same way before it happens. This, he’s showing that maybe he’s doing better, but I repeat I’m happy for him and his family because he has a great family. They had a bad moment and now they deserve the best.”
