Tottenham’s under-performing squad must take on board Antonio Conte’s warnings about the need to improve, according to Ben Davies.
Conte questioned his players’ mentality and said dealing with pressure and low confidence was part of their jobs after Spurs slumped to a third successive League defeat, going down 2-0 at home to Wolves on Sunday.
The head coach added it was "impossible" for a side to fight for Champions League football while losing games in the way Spurs have recently.
While Conte did not question his players’ commitment and described their performance against Wolves as "good", his comments were the latest in a series of harsh home truths, which has raised questions about the effectiveness of his messaging.
But Davies says the squad has to take Conte’s warnings on board and learn from the Italian, who has won five titles in his last seven season as a coach.
"To have the opportunity to work under a world-class manager is always nice as a player," Davies said. "Sometimes you learn more in the tough times. We have to really take in what he says. We know he has the skill-set and the mental ability to make us better players. All we can do is learn from that.
"There’s a good group of boys here and everyone’s determined to be better. The standards we have set are better than we’ve shown and it’s up to us to prove that. It’s a group that’s hurting right now. It’s a tough result to take, we know how much better we have to be. "Any time you’re not winning games you’re going to get questions and we have to deal with that. It’s important not to overreact."
Spurs trailed 2-0 inside 18 minutes against Wolves after mistakes from captain Hugo Lloris. The goalkeeper punched unconvincingly before Raul Jimenez volleyed the visitors in front and invited pressure with a loose pass to Davies before Leander Dendoncker’s close-range finish.
The defeat followed Wednesday’s 3-2 home reverse to Southampton and leaves Spurs under pressure to stop the rot ahead of Saturday’s daunting trip to runaway leaders Manchester City.
"The problem is that you cannot buy the winning mentality," Conte said. "You transfer it day by day and [you are] not sure that [it is] day by day, because there are players that are more open and they understand the process quickly, other players need more time to understand this.
"Winning mentality in my opinion means when you play, [thinking] ‘I am ready to kill you and to live’. This is the difference in every duel, every second ball, every set-piece.
"There is a long road, a long path in front of us. Long. It’s important for us not to be scared to face this path."
