‘One lives and another dies’ – Conte says Spurs need to be ‘nasty’ and smell ‘blood’
Antonio Conte has admitted that Tottenham Hotspur have to become a nastier team when they are on the pitch and that his players need to be prepared to do anything necessary to win matches.
As fans who watched Amazon Prime’s All or Nothing documentary will know, former boss Jose Mourinho felt that the Spurs players were too nice on the pitch.
On multiple occasions over recent years, Tottenham have been accused of having a soft underbelly and lacking a winning mentality (Sky Sports).
Conte has now indicated that he is working to change the players’ mentality and get them to approach matches like life-and-death situations.
When asked if the Spurs players need to push the envelope to win, Conte told Football.London: “Yes, you said it well because a strong team has to become nasty. During the game, you have to feel the blood of your opponent. Sorry but I don’t have other words to explain it.
“In my opinion, when you go into the game, one lives and another dies. You have to be available to do everything [possible] – but in a sporting way, but you have to know that the game doesn’t finish with two teams happy.
“One team is happy, another is unhappy. You have to try to be the team that finishes happy, celebrates all together and then has a good atmosphere for the rest of the week and then continues to improve.”
Conte admitted that despite the work he and his coaching staff are doing, the team need to win matches consistently to develop a winning mentality.
The 52-year-old stated that he is delighted to see the Tottenham players taking his advice on board rather than merely paying lip service.
He added: “Don’t forget, wins become wins, wins become wins. This is very important. We’re talking about the mentality aspect, about the right mentality, the winning mentality.
“For sure, this aspect that we’re working on, we need time and patience, but I’m happy because I know with our players when I tell them something, what I say goes into their heads and doesn’t go in one ear and out the other.”
Spurs Web Opinion
It is certainly going to take time for Conte to transform the squad’s mentality. However, some changes have been visible already over the past couple of months.
The manner in which we fought until the end against Leicester and Manchester City showed that the players are becoming mentally stronger and are learning not to let their shoulders drop when things go against them.
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