‘I don’t change my opinion’ – Conte claims post-Mura comments are still true

Antonio Conte has admitted that despite Tottenham’s good results, his opinion on there being a gap in quality between his side and the best teams in the Premier League has not changed

Conte stated after Tottenham’s 2-1 loss to NS Mura in the Europa Conference League last month that he realised his side was a long way off the best teams in England.

However, since the loss to Mura, Spurs have won three of their four games and drawn the other against Liverpool.

Not only are the North Londoners looking capable of putting in a challenge for the top four but they are also in the mix to win the Carabao Cup, having progressed to the semi-finals of the competition.

Conte insisted the players are working hard in training to improve but admitted there is still a long way to go.

When asked about his comments after the loss to Mura and whether he has been surprised by how quickly the team has been able to improve their level, the Spurs boss told Football.London: “For sure, when I speak and I tell something, I don’t change my opinion but at the same time I have to try to improve the situation in every aspect.

“I always said to improve the level of the Tottenham team, I have to improve the level of every single player. The only way I know is to work, to work with my players and to improve my players.

“I don’t complain about situations that could be positive or negative but when I spoke, I said something and it was my opinion.

“But at the same time, we are working, we are working very well and working every day in a hard way to try to improve every single player because this is the only way to improve the level of Tottenham.

“I think the gap with many teams exists and we have to know this. This shouldn’t be an alibi for us or an excuse but only a boost to try to give more, more and more.”

Conte urged his players not to rest on their laurels and to continue striving to improve.

When asked how he has been able to turn around the fortunes of the likes of Harry Winks and Ben Davies, and what the next step is, he responded: “The next step for sure is to continue to improve.

“This is the next step, to continue to work and to improve tactically, physically and technically. I think we have space for improvement and the most important is to continue to have this commitment, this will and this desire to improve themselves.

“This is the most important thing for us because as I said before, if we want to improve the level of the team and our level in the team, we need to improve the level of every single play. If we are able to do this, for sure we are going to become stronger than now and in the past.”

Spurs Web Opinion

It is still early days under Conte but it is certainly visible already that all the players are gaining a much better understanding of the system. The likes of Dier, Davies and Winks were never bad players and it is not a surprise that they have benefited from the clarity of the role definitions that Conte has provided.

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