Having beaten Manchester City, Spurs then fell 4-1 to Leicester City in a dismal display at The King Power Stadium. Despite being in the Champions League knockout stages, just outside the top four and going strong in the FA Cup – there doesn’t seem to be a united front at Spurs, a unity on and off the pitch that Newcastle have.
The comments from Spurs’ boss Antonio Conte ahead of his side’s clash with AC Milan just add to the chaos.
Antonio Conte said: “If you want to win or achieve some targets and have a good position in the Champions League or in England in the Premier League you have to be stable. And this stability is lacking this year. I always talk about it with my players. It is very difficult to keep concentration, it is very difficult to stay focused all of the time. It is not an easy task being so focused. We are working on that, playing under pressure all of the time is good for some players and bad for others. Sometimes players feel motivated, other times they feel so much under pressure that they can’t perform. Maybe for a period they have a good performance and then they collapse all of a sudden if they feel too much pressure. We are working on this, we want to make our players more resilient.”
No doubt it is easy to lose focus at times but for a manager to go publicly and say it, and emphasise the weak mentality within the squad by using the word ‘collapse,’ will be to some a strange move. It certainly hands Newcastle a welcome advantage given that in recent weeks despite being by far from their best, they have not collapsed but instead persevered and dug in to keep their unbeaten run going. To be told your nearest rival struggle to remain focused, with management ‘working’ on dealing with the pressure, can only boost the spirits – especially when as a team, Newcastle have shown they can very much handle anything thrown at them. Conte also seems to suggest that the relationship between fans in England and the beautiful game is not as intense as you find in Italy.
Antonio Conte said: “I think that the pressure is different between Italy and England. In Italy, you speak about football from Monday and you finish on Sunday. You speak only football and then you have a lot of TV that speaks football and putting a lot of pressure. You are born in this way and you grow in this way, with this pressure, and you are used to living with this type of situation. In England, I think that there is an atmosphere that brings to enjoy football without a lot of pressure, because football is a sport and in Italy sometimes football is not only a sport, it is a war between the teams and the fans.”
It’s an interesting approach from the former Chelsea boss – and one that is certainly different from that of Howe. If it’s not quite Conte questioning his players’ mentality, it’s not far off – and that is something Howe would never do publicly.
It is another boost for Newcastle when it comes to weighing up their opposition – if Spurs’ own manager is questioning whether his players have what it takes to be successful, then the Magpies have little to worry about. Of course, Howe will be focused on what his team are capable of and will spare the minimum thought for those around him and that is the focus that will secure Newcastle a top-four finish.
