What's the latest team news?
Team news, like I said after the game against Arsenal, Rodrigo Bentancur trained with us. He's available. He could be available for the game against City.
There is frustration among the fans about the club but there was also some criticism towards you after Sunday's game and that the team is underperforming, what do you think about that criticism and has the team regressed since last season?
What I can say is only one thing, we're working really hard every day for this club. Then if there's criticism, we have to accept it. It's difficult to understand the criticism because we're doing what he have to do in our possibility. We have to accept but my answer is always the same. I put everything and the players they do the same for this club, for the fans. I think much more than this it's very very difficult to do for me.
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This is another game against one of the big six and Spurs' record against the big six is poor, why do they struggle against these big teams? It is a mentality Issue?
Here, you speak always about the mentality but I think that you don't consider other aspects. But I don't want to spend every press conference explaining the situation. We try to improve. We try to improve but you reduce it all to about the mentality. If it's only about the mentality I think we can solve the situation because the mentality of this team is really strong. Believe me, believe me. But if you reduce it only to mentality it's a poor consideration in my opinion.
That was just a suggestion, what do you think is the issue that has caused the poor record against the top six?
What I can say is that usually when you lose the game, it means the opponent showed to be stronger than you. And then it can happen in the game like against Arsenal that their goalkeeper was the best player on the pitch and we lost.
In my opinion the performance was good and in the game against Crystal Palace we won the game and the performance good. But you know that when there is a loss it's difficult, I don't like to justify, because you lost the game.
Then you have to stay silent and try to do your best. For sure, we're doing our best. We have to continue to work and recover the best form of the players and continue. For sure, if someone is not happy, I can tell you that we're doing the maximum, we're doing our best. Not 100% but 200%.
When you look back and review the last 12/13 games, many were tight, are you happy with that period?
But if I'm happy or unhappy, we try in every game i repear to do our best. For sure we have a period when we struggled. We struggled but you know I say the same things. I don't want to repeat. I was very clear in the past and I don't want to repeat in every press conference the same concept.
If you try to ask me the same question and have the same answer it seems every time. We have continue to work in this way, we're working very hard. If the results are this, but I can tell you we're working very hard and this is what we can do in this moment.
What was the key to winning at Manchester City a year ago and can you duplicate that approach?
I remember the game and to win against Manchester City, you have to try not to make mistakes. Because you know for sure, when you go to play against Manchester City, the ball possession will be 70 to 75% for them. Then you have 20 or 25 percent of ball possession so in this period you have to be very good, to move the ball well and create chances to score.
You know when you're playing against I think the best team in the world at the moment it will be very difficult. Last season we were very good, showed great resilience. Also in this type of game, you need also to be a bit lucky to get a good result.
You've created a super fit team but they seem to press high early in games but then drop deep. I saw you trying to get players to push up in the second half to press, why does that intensity suddenly drop?
The intensity of the game it depends also on the opponent. In the first half [on Sunday] we started to press high, but sometimes you find a good opponent. We work to overcome the pressure.
You have to know very well that when you press high, you leave a lot of space at the back. If you a player like Saka, Martinelli or Mahrez, Foden or Grealish or Haaland, then you risk to concede a goal very high. Then you also have to consider the characteristics of your players, of your defenders.
If we can stay very high and depend high with 50m behind us or it's better for the characteristics of the players to stay a bit lower to cover more space and don't be stupid to be so open and give the opportunity to your opponent to kill you.
You've now got Richarlison back as an option, could the competition he brings help push Son to find better form?
Yeah but also about this topic, before you [the media] said to me 'maybe Richarlison is pushing Son and Son is not performing well', if I don't remember wrongly. Now you're telling me exactly the opposite. (Laughs) I want to stay here to ask every question but sometimes I also have questions that are completely the opposite that you asked me some time ago. Maybe you say that Sonny struggled with the pressure of having a player like Richarlison behind.
I repeat, they are different seasons. The players are human and he's a person. For sure if we talk about Sonny, last season he scored 25 goals. This season he's not scoring so much. For us it's not good news this because we count on his goals. But then we are talking about not robots, about a person, a human.
I'm the first to hope that Sonny starts to score with the pressure or without the pressure of other players like Richarlison behind. This is football. We have to try to face, the players and the coaches, different situations, positive or negative. The most important thing I see during the training session and in the games is that Sonny tries to do his best.
Sometimes the best it means that you go to score or make an assist, sometimes it means you're not so lucky to score or to make an assist.
You said you don't want to repeat yourself about the bigger concepts or strategy of the club, would it help you if the ownership or the chairman spoke more openly about the strategy of the club rather than us asking you every week?
In England, there is a bad habit that there is only the coach to speak and to explain. I have never seen the medical department come here to explain why this player is having difficulty to recover. It's the same also, I have never seen the club or sporting director come here to explain the strategy and vision of the club. In Italy for example, before every game there is a person from the club who has to go before the media and answer every question. For us, it could be really really better. Because otherwise, every time there is only one face to explain a situation which I think is better for the club to explain. But this is a habit and I respect this habit.
In Italy, it's different, the person from the club during the game week speaks and explains many situations. If only the coach speaks there are sometimes misunderstandings. I think it would be good to have the club present in the media and to speak. Not every week but at least every 15 days or once a month.
In this way it could also be more simple for you [the media] to understand the situation. And not only have one face and always the same face. Believe me it's difficult because every thing [I] say could be a criticism or negative, and this is not the truth.
Have you asked the club to speak?
I am not going to ask anything. This type of situation is good for every club: 'don't go into the media'. In this type of situation, it's a risk to speak always to explain this type of situation. The coach has to stay silent and accept the situation.
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