Antonio Conte has admitted that the level of the Tottenham squad is not as high as he would like it to be at the moment.
Spurs did enjoy a mini-revival after the Italian’s appointment at the start of November as they won two and drew one in his first three games in charge.
However, the North Londoners fell to an embarrassing 2-1 defeat to NS Mura last week after Conte decided to rotate his squad for the Europa Conference League tie.
The Tottenham boss admitted after the loss in Slovenia that the gap between his side and the best sides in the Premier League is substantial.
He shared a similar sentiment ahead of the clash against Brentford on Thursday, admitting that he is focused on helping the players improve.
When asked how long it will take for the players to reach his high standards, Conte told Football.London: “At the moment, my only thoughts are about getting the best out of my players. I think that in this moment, in my mind there is only this.
“I’ve found a group of players who want to improve, they want to improve their level and for sure we need to improve the level if we want to be competitive and if we want to fight for something important.
MORE SPURS STORIES
“But you know that in this moment the level is not so high. I think that’s honest on one hand, but on the other hand, it can give us more desire and more will to work and to improve ourselves.
“I think that’s the only way that in this moment we have to try in this season to be competitive or at least to fight. To look up and not in the middle or down.”
The Spurs boss also spoke about the need to put the defeat against Mura behind them and focus on what will be a tough clash against the Bees.
When asked if the players need to respond after the Conference League loss which left the Spurs fans angry, the 53-year-old responded: “Yeah but we were all very angry.
“The performance was poor and wasn’t good. It wasn’t a good game for us. But now I think we need to move on. We have a game tomorrow against Brentford and we know Brentford is a good team.
“We have to be well organised because they are well-organised. They play together for many years. They have a good, young coach. We need a good performance.
“We also need to face the game well prepared. There are many aspects, physically, mentally, and also tactically.”
Spurs Web Opinion
It is still early days in the job for Conte and his coaching staff.
While they will have a better idea of the difficulty of the challenge after a month in charge, it still is not enough time to evaluate all the players, particularly given that there was also a two-week international break in between.
So the busy run of fixtures over the next month will tell the Italian a lot more about who can trust and who he cannot going forward.
Keep up to date with all the latest Tottenham news and opinion by following SpursWeb’s Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts.
