#PLStories- Antonio Conte on Pele, Bentancur scan, Pape Sarr, his best back three and Lenglet loan #THFC #PeleEterno
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What’s the latest team news?
[Cristian] Romero is back, yeah, he’s back and he’s available for the Aston Villa game. But Rodrigo [Bentancur] I think we have to wait, maybe today, he’s going to have an MRI to try to have an evaluation about his injury. But for sure against Aston Villa he’s not available.
That sounds like he might be out for a while?
Yeah, but he had an injury during the World Cup, and then also the timing is longer than my expectation. But these questions are more for the medical department than me.
Would you like to say a few words on the passing of Pele?
About Pele, we are talking about the most important player in the world, when we are talking about the history of football.
I was lucky to know him, and honestly, I’m really sad for this, for his death, because Pele was a person who was important in football, one of the most popular, maybe the most popular player in football. But his behaviour, he was always a person that lived without arrogance, and he showed himself always to be a humble person, and in my opinion he was with Maradona as the best players in the world. I take this conference also to send his family condolences, from me, my players, for the club, but for sure we are really sad for this bad news.
It’s now nine games in a row in which Spurs have conceded the first goal, why is it happening?
For sure it’s strange, it’s a strange situation, to concede the first goal, to go down for nine games in a row, is very strange. And at the same time, it’s good, our reaction, and then to try to get the result, many times we do well to win the game, but for sure we have to try from the start of the game, be really focused, to go into the game quickly. And also, I think to pay more attention defensively, not concede a chance to our opponent to score first, but we spoke with the players, and maybe when you go to have only to play many games in a row, and you don’t have the possibility to work on the tactical aspect, the defensive aspect, I think that you can lose something. But for sure it’s our intention to try to avoid going 1-0, 2-0 down and to start the game in the best possible way.
How do you keep Cristian Romero’s feet on the ground now after becoming a World Cup winner at such a young age?
From what I saw in the last few days during the training session, I have seen him with great focus and with great desire to come back and play with us and to go with his mind into Tottenham’s situation. For sure I am really happy for him and for us it is important to have in our team two World Cup champions in Hugo and Cuti. But he has to know very well that now starts the more difficult period for him because the expectation is going to become high for him. For this reason he has to work much more and continue to work, especially don’t lose the desire to improve himself.
We saw two great examples of Clement Lenglet’s crossing ability, is that something you work on with him or is it something he’s always had in his locker?
Clement is a really good player. Don’t forget we are talking about a player that played five years in Barcelona. When you play for many years in this type of club, with a great story and great importance, it means you are a good player. I think about him, he needed to put himself into a new challenge. When I spoke with him this summer, I was very clear with him, ‘if you come with us and you deserve to play, you will play and I think you are a really good player with a good personality, good technically’. His choices in the game are really good and I can tell you he was a big, big surprise for me in a positive way for his attitude, for his commitment, for his behaviour. He is always not 100 per cent during the training session, he is 120 per cent if he starts or if he knows he is not going to start. I think we are talking about a really good player and our choice was really good.
Will you be asking the club to sign him permanently after his loan?
I think the club, I don’t know the situation about his contract and you know very well I can make an evaluation about what I see during the training session and into the pitch. I can make an evaluation and give my opinion to the club but you know the club is the last decision.
What are your fondest memories of Pele?
About Pele and my memories. Mine were on TV for the goal he scored. The first person who spoke to me about Pele was my father. My father was in love with Pele because for him, he was the best player in the world and many times he spoke about him. Then I watched some games that he played and especially the final of the World Cup and some situations it was incredible what he did with the ball. The memories are this. For sure if I have to compare Pele with Maradona, it is different because about Pele I listened, I had my father and I watched through the TV his quality and that he was an amazing player. About Maradona, I had the opportunity to play against him. Than to see and to touch his ability. But I repeat, Pele for my father was the best footballer in the world and yeah I grew my childhood with this figure because my father, not every day, but my father was my first coach and Pele for him was the best.
Are there any Spurs players who impressed you on the training pitches during the break that you didn’t know as well beforehand?
For sure, you’re right. It was a great opportunity for me and my staff to work with the players, especially with the young players that didn’t play in the World Cup. To work with Pape Sarr, he played in the World Cup but then he came back two weeks before and worked with us. I think Pape Sarr is a really good prospect and I like the two weeks we worked after the World Cup with him. It was the same for Gil and we exploited this time to work with Skippy again, because Skippy is another player that last season in my first two, three months he helped me and helped a lot the team. Then he had an injury and he stopped work. It was good for me to work again with him and put him under a bit of pressure under the tactical aspect and physical aspect on his body and mind. Also Harvey White was a good surprise because we are talking about a young player, but really, really clever, a player that I can ask him to play in every position and he is good to do it. I think it was positive to exploit this time. Also it was good to bring Doherty in a good physical condition after a serious injury. It was the same for Japhet Tanganga, because don’t forgot it was the same for him, he had a lot of problems with his knee. But during the Christmas period we worked with him and for this reason I gave him the opportunity to play because he deserved his chance. We tried to exploit this period during the World Cup to know much better the young players and work more with them.
Do you know your best back three and do you think it will help if you can play that same trio over and over again?
You know very well last season we played with Dier, Cuti and Ben Davies. On the bench was usually Japhet Tanganga and Davinson Sanchez and Joe Rodon. You know we sent Rodon to play and have more time this season and we made a substitution with Clement Lenglet. I think all these players have to be able to play and we work every day with all of these players. For sure there are moments when one player can be in good form and another maybe he needed a bit of rest to recover well, because maybe mentally he is a bit tired or physically. But I trust in my players, you know very well that I trust in my players. We work with them every day to improve the situation.
Romero has struggled with injuries earlier this season, is it too much pressure to say his return could make the difference with the defence?
We are talking about a good player, an important player for us. It’s true that he had injuries this season at the start and also last season. For this reason it’s important to have a good squad because when there are these type of injuries you need to have players ready to play well and don’t pay a lot about the difference in the level.
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