Antonio Conte is preparing his Tottenham side for their opening game of the 2022/23 Premier League season, which will see Southampton travel to N17. During pre-season, the Italian’s side won two, drew one and lost one of their fixtures. The summer gave Conte a chance to assess his Spurs squad, as well as a chance for his new arrivals to impress. The Lilywhites have welcomed six new players to north London already, with still three weeks left until the transfer window closes. Last week, the 53-year-old gave a positive update on his future at Tottenham.
Antonio Conte said: “For sure we want to continue to improve, to build something important for this club. If the idea continues to be in this way, there will be zero problems to continue my life in Tottenham because I stay well and I like this group of players and I have a good relationship with Paratici and with Daniel Levy.”
Now Conte has spoken to Sky Italia and started by assessing his first pre-season in north London.
Antonio Conte said: “The pre-season went well, it was tiring, we had to make two long and demanding trips between Korea and Israel. But we worked hard, both from a tactical and a physical point of view. There were minor setbacks, but at the same time I’m happy to be able to continue working on an idea of ‘last year, without having to start all over again, as happened in November: it was very hard there, you have to bring your idea from scratch.”
Conte then went on to praise Harry Kane and Son Heung-min, calling them the “two most representative players of the club”. He also explained that the duo “feel that the path they have taken on paper is good.” This ‘path’ is likely to at least partly be related to the transfer business Spurs have so far completed this summer. The 53-year-old has been backed by those above him, to add depth and quality to his squad. One of these players is Ivan Perisic, who Conte also commented on, in his recent interview.
Antonio Conte said: “Now it is important for Perisic to get back in the best psychophysical condition, because he got hurt in the last match of last season, a serious injury, now he is back at his disposal. The expected recovery times seemed even longer, but then Ivan has recovered. Against Roma I made him play from the beginning to make him familiar with the pace of the match and with his teammates. He is not yet at 100%, but he is certainly a player who has reached an incredible maturity from all points of view. Let’s not forget that he won with several clubs and made a World Cup final. His experience will be important for us.”
All of the 53-year-old’s players will be important this season, with the busy fixture schedule meaning there will be a need for rotation. Tottenham finished just three points behind third-place Chelsea in the 2021/22 campaign, but there was still a large gap to Liverpool and Man City. Conte was asked if the two top teams would be favourites, at the start of the season.
Antonio Conte said: “I am assuming that in England for history and investments there are four teams that start in front of all: Liverpool, City, United and Chelsea.”
The Spurs boss explained the strengths of teams like Chelsea and Man United and gave his side’s stance. ”
Antonio Conte said: We must not be arrogant or presumptuous: we have started a serious path, made up of work and thoughtful choices, but the club needs to take other steps before thinking of being a title contender from the start.
Some may take this as a negative, with the Italian seeming to not believe his side can quite yet be title contenders. However he does say not “from the start” and doesn’t rule out the Lilywhites battling for the top spot as the season goes on, or once these “other steps” have been taken., with them already making “thoughtful choices”. Conte is always very honest with his comments and this was the same when he was asked about Tottenham’s goal for the upcoming campaign.
Antonio Conte said: “Honestly, we must be good at not becoming presumptuous and arrogant, we must not think that in just 7 months we have reduced a gap that has existed for a very long time, I am thinking of Liverpool and City, but also Chelsea have recently won the Champions and the World Cup.”
Spurs will have to take things game by game, trying to produce solid performances to get maximum points, as much as they can. The Italian’s final answer was in response to a question on his hopes for Tottenham’s first fixture against Southampton.
Antonio Conte said: “Last year Southampton took away 5 points from us in the standings. One against them we drew and one lost at home. Our first goal is to score more points against them, to add points to our 72 for the year. Southampton is a tough team, difficult to face, we know it well given the results of last season. But we want to do well. We have a team that has seven months of work behind us and we have improved the squad with players of quality, even in terms of numbers, to face our four competitions.”
