Antonio Conte called for patience from fans and time for Tottenham Hotspurs players to adjust to his football philosophy after his new side raced to a 3-0 lead inside 28 minutes and had to hold on to beat Vitesse Arnhem 3-2 in the Europa Conference League.
Conte said that Tottenham will benefit from suffering but he does not want them involved in chaotic matches in the future. He had just two days on the training pitch since being appointed on Tuesday and bemoaned not being able to work with many of his senior players next week because of the international break.
When Conte was sounded out about the Tottenham job in recent weeks, one reservation he had was taking the post in the middle of the season as he believed the number of fixtures would be an issue.
“We need to have a bit of patience because we need to work on many aspects - tactically and physically,” Conte said. “I’m not afraid of work. I know only through the work you can reach important targets. This is the only aspect I am a bit scared, a bit afraid. For this reason we need a bit of patience. I have to be patient because it is a situation where we don’t have too much time to work.”
Son Heung-Min opened the scoring – having also scored the first goal under the previous two head coaches – and Tottenham extended the lead thanks to Lucas Moura and Jacob Rasmussen’s own goal. Rasmussen and Matus Bero reduced the deficit before half-time. Cristian Romero was sent off just before the hour. In a chaotic final ten minutes, Vitesse had two players shown red cards.
Advertisement
“It was a crazy game and usually I don’t like this type of game - a crazy game means anything can happen,” Conte said. “I don’t like this type of game, this crazy game. I want a stable team, when there is the possibility to kill the opponent you must kill. But for sure my players are showing me great commitment. In that moment [At 3-2] we lost a bit of confidence. But at the same time I think we should win and we won.”
Son said that it was a lesson that Tottenham needed to learn from. “This shouldn’t be happening,” he said. “Conte took only two sessions. It was hard for him and the players.”
