antonio conte happy
The three substitutions made the difference for you?
You know very well that we’re talking about Harry Kane, Lucas Moura, two of the most important players in our squad. Sonny was injured and for sure my expectation when these players came on was to change the situation. I think in the first part of the game, for a big part of the game, we struggled. This type of game you have to score. We had the opportunity to score very soon but instead, when you concede from a set-piece, for sure your opponent starts to feel they can beat you. We struggled to be creative and also to score goals. We had some chances but not too many. At the end, I think we have to be a bit disappointed because I think we can do much better. But our target in the end was to go to the next round and give a chance to players who didn’t play so much in the last period. Our target was to give rest to players who have played a lot of games in this busy period. In the end, it’s OK. We mustn’t be happy, for sure, but we reached the target and that’s all.
Have you got a problem with Tanguy now? Has he got a future?
But honestly, and I already answered this question, and I was totally…
But he walked off slowly when the team were losing and the fans were upset?
I was so focused on the game because we were losing 1-0. This type of situation, they are in football. You have to be good to try to change your opinion. If someone is disappointed with you. It’s normal. I was a player and it happened sometimes to me that someone was unhappy with my performance. This is our life. I repeat, it’s OK. We have to continue to work and try to be better next time.
But fans booing their own player is not good?
We have to know very well that if we perform well, the fans are happy. If you don’t perform well, the fans are not happy. This is football. If we think the fans have to be happy any time, if you win or lose, I think that’s not right. Me, for sure, when I don’t win, I’m not happy, I am upset and I think that is OK.
Disappointed with how long it took Tanguy Ndombele to come off?
I think during the game, you have to try the best solution to find something, especially if I’m seeing we’re losing 1-0 and then you have to try to change something, especially when you have on the bench players at the top level. In this case, I decided to give a bit of rest to Harry and also Lucas. At one point, when I’ve seen the situation we should change the situation, for sure. When you have this type of player on the bench, for sure, the expectation is to change the game. It’s not only for this game, its our life, the normal life of the coach. If the team is playing and then on the bench you turn on your head and you can see top players then you change the game.
Did you speak to Tanguy in the dressing room after the game?
No, after the game I didn’t speak with the players.
Were you concerned about the lack of creativity from the team before the changes against a team near the bottom of League One?
I think honestly that in this type of game it’s right to give chances, to give opportunities to the players who weren’t playing for a long time. One of these players is Giovani Lo Celso, he was injured for a long time and I think this type of game helped him to find a good fit. At the same time you have to know that to reach the result and go to the next round, you have to find a good balance in this type of situation. I think that we have to do much better and also to know that we have to struggle. We have to struggle. Also today we struggled and we have to know that if the situation is this we have to be prepared to struggle this season and stop.
No Eric Dier or Sergio Reguilon today, are they both carrying injuries?
Eric Dier yeah, but I hope that’s nothing serious. I hope so. About Sergio Reguilon, he was a bit tired and we preferred to keep him out of the game.
