CONTE: NASTY BEATS NICE
Angry Spurs boss calls on his star players to find a mean streak and fight their way back into the top four
ANTONIO CONTE has told his players they will have to get “nasty” to stand any chance of getting back into the top four.
The Tottenham boss says his men were ready to “suffer” and show “resilience” last season to grind out wins when they did not deserve to get the points.
And he made it pretty clear they have lost some of those values this time around.
Spurs kept 13 Premier League clean sheets in the previous campaign after Conte’s arrival in November, but they have managed just five this time.
The Italian coach, who takes his side to Fulham tonight, said: “This is not a topic for one player or another player.
“When I speak, I always speak about the team. We attack with all the team and defend with all the team. We have to try to improve in this aspect all together and to find a way again to be nasty in the way we showed many times last season.
“Many times we won games fighting a lot, suffering a lot, maybe sometimes we didn’t deserve it but in the end we won. And at the end, we finished fourth.
“We can’t lose what we created last season, the solidity, the desire to defend the result, the desire to win duels. We must not lose the nastiness.
“I always use a word. A team that wants to win, to be stable has to be a resilient team. We have to show this in every game, to be resilient and it is not simple – but this is the key.”
Tottenham were ninth and five points off a top-four place when Conte took over and they are in a similar state now as they look to end a run of back-to-back defeats with just one win in their last five Premier League games.
They will need a big run of results but they must also get back to being tough to play against at Fulham, and Conte wants to see more devilment in his players.
Brazil forward Richarlison was involved in a bustup with Arsenal goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale at the end of the north London derby and the Spurs star is the player opponents love to hate. Conte admitted that Richarlison is still lacking match fitness to start games but likes his determination and says the whole squad needs to dig deep in the coming weeks.
Conte added: “Richy still has to recover the best physical condition first of all.
“He’s an important player for us, but you have to be fit to play and to give the possibility to the coach to think about starting you.
“Richy is one of these players who can give us something nasty.
“You feel his presence on the pitch. Every player has their own characteristic.
“The most important thing in team sports is you have to try to put all these characteristics inside one box and then create the right mix to have everything.
“A player has to be complete. The nastiness, the desire to fight, to win duels, has to be in every player.”