#PLStories – Antonio Conte explains Harry Kane conundrum, player ambitions and Tottenham goals #THFC
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Antonio Conte has been explaining exactly how he has been working with his Tottenham players and convincing stars like Harry Kane of what’s to come during his reign.
Antonio Conte said “Harry is a player with a great ambition and it must be this way because a player like him, I repeat, we are talking about a world class striker. He has to be ambitious. For sure, for a player and for a striker, it’s very important to improve, to beat records. Records are important but, at the same time, it’s also important at the end of your career to lift trophies. Because only you win and lift trophies, can you go into the story of the club. My task in this moment is to try and improve him, but in the same way, with the other players, to become more complete. For sure, to improve a player to stay in this level. It’s good, it’s not easy because the space [to improve] is not so much, but I still think he’s improving, he’s improving a lot and Harry is another player who gives me great availability. Strikers are very, very important because, for me, strikers are a point of reference and every situation we prepare is for strikers to give them their opportunity to score, to be involved and the striker is a very important part of my teams both here and in the past.”
Kane has made no secret of his desire to win trophies and that ties in with Conte’s level of ambition at every club he works at. The Spurs head coach was asked whether the duo have convinced each other that they can deliver silverware for each other for the north London club.
Antonio Conte said “Many times I like to repeat that I was a player. I like to remember this not to tell you I was a player, but only to show that I understand very well the psychological aspect of the players. Now I am the coach, but before I was with them – whenever there was a meeting or a training session. When I became a coach, my first target was to say that we won’t make mistakes that others made with you. My first target – and it was not just Kane, it was the other players – to tell them that there is a coach here that is the right coach if we want to try to be competitive or build something important, or if your mind is fixed on lifting a trophy. There is only one way to convince this sort of player. It is to work, it is to convince them of your football knowledge and to improve them. Only in this way you have the respect of your players. I have only this way to show to my players – I am here because we are trying to start to build something important together. It won’t be easy but now I think it will be very good to continue this way and I think that Harry, like the other players, understood the situation. They also understood that the club wanted to give an input by appointing a coach that in the past won things. We have to train these players for three or four months to try to improve and then continue to build something important, but I understand then that every single player has to make the best decision at the end of the season.”
Conte and his coaches work on the psychological aspects with the Spurs players each week and that was no different in the build-up to the win at Manchester City, which came after back-to-back defeats to Southampton and Wolves.
Antonio Conte said “It’s very simple, it’s easy. We lost two games against Wolverhampton and Southampton and then we won against City. The first step to change your mentality is after a loss you have to understand that you lost a game. That is different and for sure the atmosphere has to be different, because when you lose a game and you come back to the training ground and ‘ok, it’s the same as yesterday’… but yesterday you lost! If we start to change the atmosphere, to understand that atmosphere also depends on the win or the defeat – I think this is the first step, to improve your mentality, to start to be a winner. When you know that the atmosphere is different, you try during the game to do everything to have a good atmosphere the day after, or the two days after. I think that slowly slowly the players has to understand this difference. It is very clear in top clubs. When you are in a club that is used to winning, what happens when they lose? For example, Bayern Munich. They were dominating this season in Germany and then they lost 4-2 in the league [at Bochum] and then they had a 1-1 draw in the Champions League [at Red Bull Salzburg]. I read that the players were very very angry. They said: ‘No. We can’t continue this way. We have to be strong,” and you show you are feeling that. The situation has to be different when you win and when you lose. Otherwise if the atmosphere is always the same and it’s always joy and celebrations, I think it will be very difficult to install the right mentality, the winning mentality, in a team. I repeat – always in a balance. You have to suffer. If you don’t suffer, it means that you don’t want to improve your winning mentality.”
Spurs are back in the swing of things under the Italian after an eye-catching 3-2 victory at Manchester City on Saturday at the Etihad Stadium. Kane was in top form against the champions, playing a big part in the opening goal for Dejan Kulusevski and then scoring the other two goals, including a dramatic late winner.
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