Antonio Conte has admitted that his side were ‘too emotional’ after taking the lead against Southampton and that calmer heads needed to prevail towards the end of matches.
Tottenham were second best for the majority of the first-half and were quite fortunate to head into the interval with the scores level. Conte admitted that the first-half performance from his players left a lot to be desired.
The Italian told Football.London following the 3-2 loss: “For sure we have to be disappointed because after our first half where we struggled a lot and I think they were good but I think we made many, many mistakes, many mistakes, especially with the ball.
“I think this type of situation created a bit of instability, mental instability in my team, especially in the first half. In the second half we started to play, we started to press in the right way and I didn’t change anything compared to the first half.
“In the second half we created chances to score but also in the first half. Every time we played the ball in the right way we created a situation to go to score, but I repeat we made many mistakes in the first half, important mistakes.”
However, Conte stated that Spurs should have come away with all three points after the performance they put in in the second half.
He admitted that the players got carried away by the emotions of the encounter and showed a lack of experience after taking the lead through Son Heung-min in the 70th minute.
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The Spurs boss said: “In the second half we did well, we scored and then you have to be more good to defend because I have seen the two goals and we conceded twice with the defensive line that stayed there.
“We have to be more accurate but I know very well this season and I repeat, we are going to struggle to get three points. I say this before and I continue to repeat. I think that we are improving in many aspects but then we are still too emotional.
“Against Leicester we won 3-2 and we were losing 2-1. Today we were winning 2-1 and we lost 3-2.
“I think on this aspect we have to improve because if we want to grow as a team and try to be competitive, the first thing that you have to improve is stability, not to be up and down, up and down, up and down.
“I think that this is a situation that we have to improve and also I repeat, in a team it’s important to have players with experience to manage the situation during the game.”
However, despite the mistakes his side made, the Italian insisted that he could not have asked anymore from his players in terms of their effort and commitment. Conte stressed the need for the team to learn from the errors they made on Wednesday.
He added: “I repeat it was a pity because my players they gave 120 per cent today and the effort was maximum. I cannot say that I don’t see the right attitude or the right commitment. I saw the maximum commitment.
“For this reason, we have to try to avoid these defeats because today I felt we could have avoided this defeat, especially when you go 2-1 up and there are 15-20 minutes to play.
“We have to try to manage the situation in a better way but it happened and we have to take experience from this game and try to improve.”
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This is quite a sober analysis from Conte, which is rather surprising as the Italian would have likely been left extremely frustrated immediately after the final whistle.
Based on his words, it looks like the 52-year-old is keeping a level head and understands that the team has to go through moments like yesterday to get to the level they want to reach.
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