Antonio Conte has spoken to the press ahead of Tottenham’s Premier League meeting with Aston Villa on New Year’s Day.
Spurs had a tumultuous return to action as they came from behind to salvage a 2-2 draw with Brentford on Boxing Day, leaving them fourth in the standings but allowing the sides below them to make up some ground in the race for the Champions League places.
Here’s the best bits from Conte’s pre-match press conference.
What’s the latest?
“[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.”
Spurs have conceded first in their last nine games, why?
“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.”
Has he always been a good crosser?
“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 trying to turn his loan into a permanent deal?
“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.”
Did anybody surprise you during the break?
“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 [Bryan] 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 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 [Matt] 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.”
Would you like to say anything about 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.”
