Antonio Conte has told his Tottenham players “to be nasty is very important” following his touchline clash with Thomas Tuchel.
“You need to feel the blood of your opponent and try in a sporting way to kill your opponent,” said the Italian. The former Juventus and Chelsea coach showed his fighting spirit when going head-to-head with Blues boss Thomas Tuchel at Stamford Bridge on Sunday.
Both bosses are now waiting for the result of an FA independent commission to learn if they will be hit with touchline bans. Tottenham have traditionally been seen as a soft touch who play pretty football but go "Spursy" when the going gets tough. But before hosting Wolves tomorrow, Conte said his team was now showing the “nasty” mentality that he has been seeking.
“This is a step that I continue to ask of my players,” he said. “For sure, we did a little step forward but we need to continue to complete this step.
“Because to be nasty is very important. Very important. It means that you need to feel the blood of your opponent and try in a sporting way to kill your opponent. You have to understand, when you go to play a game, you can draw also. But at the same time you have to understand if the draw is a success for you or if the draw is like a loss.
“If you want to have ambition, I think you have to think only to get three points and the draw is half a loss for me. I'm trying to transfer my idea, this feeling. It's important. If you want to be competitive, to have ambition to fight for something important you have to improve in many aspects. Also your character has to be strong and you have to understand very well the difference between a win, a draw and a loss. It's totally different. The win makes you happy, the feeling is good, the confidence goes up. When you lose, you should have the opposite situation.”
Defender Cristiano Romero will be out with an adductor injury after showing his nasty side by pulling Marc Cucurella’s hair during the latest Battle of Stamford Bridge.
“I speak a lot with him. For sure, he's a player who's really strong physically. He has no fear of anyone. II speak a lot with my players about being strong - but always in a good way.”
Conte added: “I think we have to try to put passion in every situation we're going to do. I put passion in my job, in my work. If you put passion, you have to give everything.
"For sure, if we want to win, we have to be ready to fight in every game, especially you a lot of times said to me in the past Tottenham, many people think: ‘Yeah, they play well’ but in my opinion if you want to have ambition, you have to try to be well organised, to have quality, to have an idea of football, to be good tactically and physically and at the same time have the right spirit.
"The right spirit, it means that during the game, in a sporting way, is how you live or how you die. If you live, it means you opponent died. If you died, it means your opponent won the game. I try to transfer this thought always in a sporting way, this is important, but if you want to have ambition, if you want to be a winner, only one stays on the pitch after the game. You have to do you, you understand, not the opponent.”
Wolves won 2-0 at the Tottenham Stadium in February. “I am going to tell my players - it is always important to know the recent past to understand the game,” Conte added. “It won't be easy tomorrow.”
