After a match in which Tottenham Hotspur failed to seize any initiative so Antonio Conte attempted to do exactly that in the aftermath of their Carabao Cup exit.
Conte's assistant Cristian Stellini had taken the pre-match press conference at Hotspur Way and was due to do so again after the match at The City Ground. It's a move that is within the competition guidelines and some clubs did not even hold a press conference before the game and were not obliged to afterwards.
However, it was not Stellini who walked into the room after Spurs had fallen well, well short against a bottom of the Premier League Nottingham Forest side that had made nine changes with Saturday's match against Crystal Palace more pressing for their long-term goals. Instead Conte walked into the little press conference room beside the visitors' stadium and he attempted to force the narrative after a dismal cup performance from his team.
READ MORE: Tottenham player ratings vs Nottingham Forest: Djed Spence and Forster impress for woeful Spurs
Spurs have failed to score in the first half in their past eight matches and have fallen 2-0 behind in their past five domestic matches.
So the one thing the Tottenham fans who had made their way up the country had not expected to hear after such a woeful showing was for the Italian to thank his players and later call on those same supporters to push the team on in their next game against Leeds.
"The performance, I have to be honest. I think maybe tonight the energy was really poor for us. Don’t forget it was the 12th game in a really short period," said Conte. "The games we played in the past, every game was really really difficult and we lost a lot of mental energy in the Champions League and in the Premier League physical energy.
"In our minds and hearts we came with the desire to overcome the opposition and for this reason if you ask me if something was wrong about my players I tell you not… because I have only to say thanks to my players.
"They are really tired. I tried to manage the situation, for example in midfield with Hojbjerg in the first half and Bentancur in the second half because they were really tired with the risk of injuries.
"The same with Harry Kane and with Harry, until this morning we waited to see if he could start or not, but in this situation he was the only striker for us. For this reason I can only say thanks for the availability they show me. In our hearts and minds was the desire to go ahead in this competition, but the difference was the energy. It was really different between us and Nottingham Forest."
With Kane, Conte has a point because he has been shorn of attacking options with the injuries to Son Heung-min, Richarlison and Dejan Kulusevski, while Lucas Moura's long-term tendon inflammation meant he was a bystander after travelling with the team but not able to be picked.
Conte admitted that Kane was so fatigued that he had to stop taking part in a "soft training session" the day before so he could conserve some energy for Wednesday night's match.
However, when it comes to the rest of the team, it's difficult to get on board the 'tired' narrative when the Spurs head coach has not wanted to rotate his squad much during this tough period of matches.
With the utmost respect to Nottingham Forest, who thoroughly deserved their victory, on paper their B team should not be losing to Tottenham's B team, let alone the strong almost A team Conte put out.
The Spurs boss made just four changes to his starting XI from the one that lost to Liverpool, compared to the nine Steve Cooper made to his and that only showed Conte's fear at using his squad, sticking with so many of the regular spine of his team.
The knock-on effect of so little rotation is that your other options are often rusty and lacking in sharpness when they do finally get their chance.
Even Spurs' best player on the night, goalkeeper Fraser Forster, watched an early deflected clearance strike the woodwork with the look of a man who wondered where his right-hand post had suddenly come from.
The 34-year-old did more than make up for that with a string of saves, notably a couple of one vs one blocks to keep the scoreline down against the league's bottom side.
In defence, Davinson Sanchez has lost all of the confidence he had gained from the end of last season and the start of this one when he was racking up the clean sheets in Cristian Romero's absence. On Wednesday night, Renan Lodi breezed past him like he wasn't even there for Forest's first goal.
Alongside him Eric Dier's England return seemed to be the catalyst for a downturn in his form for Spurs. He was caught on the ball a few times, misjudged moments and was caught upfield for Forest's second goal which left Spurs midfield to race back and ultimately fail to defend in their own box as Jesse Lingard, a player Tottenham enquired about a year ago, headed home unchallenged.
Japhet Tanganga has become the forgotten man at Tottenham when surely even rotating him into the defence in recent weeks would have kept some of the defenders in a less fatigued shape, not least Romero who has been on the injured list after previously constantly putting himself into the firing line despite being walking wounded.
In the midfield, Conte has become so reliant on Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and Rodrigo Bentancur that he had to manage their minutes on Wednesday night to prevent an injury as they job-shared a role in the centre of the park. It was notable that when Hojbjerg went off at half-time, Tottenham lost all sense of order in their midfield.
The other central midfield options have not been helped by playing in positions that are not their most natural. A couple of months ago Conte declared that Yves Bissouma, one of the Premier League's best midfielders in recent seasons, had to improve his defending yet has used him as the defensive anchorman in a midfield three since he arrived.
In contrast, Oliver Skipp, who is rated within the game as one of the best young defensive midfielders in England, has been utilised in the advanced right-side role in the three, having to operate as a winger most of the time. Neither player looks at their most comfortable and you have to wonder what a simple switch would have done for them even amid the chaos at Nottingham.
With the wing-backs, Matt Doherty came in and mostly fluffed his chance to impress, other than one good half-volley at goal, although in his defence there were rarely options around him to find with crosses.
At the other end of the pitch, for Forest's first goal the Irishman didn't enter into a 50-50 challenge and, when the ball was won and played through, had left space in behind him for Lodi to attack.
On the other side Ryan Sessegnon was sloppy in his play, timid in his attacking and it was him losing the ball high up the pitch that led to Forest breaking for the second goal.
Then came the awkward moment towards the end when Spurs were making their fifth and final substitution and although he did appear to signal to the bench, Sessegnon did not make it clear enough that he had picked up what looked like a hamstring problem.
So Djed Spence replaced Doherty and that left Sessegnon to have to play on, limping through the last 26 minutes and doing what he could as Clement Lenglet tried to cover his side as well. At the final whistle he could barely move across the pitch to get off from the other side, with everyone else Spurs connected so keen to get down the tunnel that he was left alone.
As he left his press conference, Conte told football.london about Sessegnon: "He's okay. Tomorrow we'll make an assessment, but he didn't complain."
Spence was the only other bright spot for Tottenham and it only made his lack of minutes since he arrived all the more baffling.
Having come on in the 89th minute of his three appearances so far this season, having 26 minutes to his name was a real luxury and he used the time to show what he could bring down the right if Conte would only trust him.
His first action was intercepting a headed ball in the Spurs box before flying down the right-hand side of the pitch, leaving his former Forest team-mates in his wake. In that run so came a moment that defined the difference between him and his fellow contenders for the right wing-back role.
Spence slowed down slightly, looked up and there was nobody to pass to. In this scenario, Spurs' other right wing-backs would likely have stopped, turned back and played a safe pass to someone in their half, thus killing any momentum gained.
Spence instead, after calling for someone to pass to with nobody responding, stepped up a gear and cut inside, bursting past Orel Mangala, who could only crudely knock the England U21 international to the floor with his arm and earn himself the first of his two yellow cards.
The 22-year-old wing-back always looked to progress Tottenham's play down the right and, as Conte demands, he was ready to be an auxiliary striker when the ball was on the other flank. He made a great run to connect with a Lenglet cross from the left and forced Wayne Hennessey into a flying save to tip over his powerful header. In one moment, he showed anticipation, speed, strength and his height to good effect.
The Forest fans gave Spence a great reception throughout his return to his former loan club, albeit with the odd "you used to play at a big club" chant.
That Spence, who has Spurs supporters in his family, had interest from the likes of Borussia Dortmund, Roma, Forest, Newcastle and Brentford but chose to come to north London must only make his lack of opportunities all the more frustrating.
Stellini had told football.london on Tuesday: "We are happy with Djed. Really happy because he works hard, but he needs time and we need to take the right decision for him. Sometimes with young players you have to be careful. If you hurry to use this type of player you can create a problem for them. So when will be the right time, Djed Spence will play."
That logic is sound if those ahead of the young player are worthy of their place but it's difficult to argue the case for either Emerson Royal or Doherty right now and Spence's positive cameo will only increase the Spurs fans' scrutiny over his lack of minutes, especially if Conte reverts to type against Leeds on Saturday.
There are no more matches before the January transfer window and if Spurs do end up loaning the young wing-back out to get him game time, it could be a decision they regret, especially if they stick with what they have in the position.
Up front, Kane did not have a single effort at goal, touching the ball only 20 times in 58 minutes and Richarlison made more impact when he replaced him. Ivan Perisic struggled alongside him, with the worst pass success rate of any outfield player with just 53.3%.
In the past Spurs have always handed opportunities to young players in the League Cup and it's difficult to understand why, of all the games, the likes of Spence and Bryan Gil were not given their chance in this one. If not this game, then when could they ever hope to start?
When football.london asked Conte how he was going to stop that run of eight matches without scoring in the first half and the five straight domestic games in which they have gone 2-0 down, he admitted it was a problem but said he didn't want to talk about such negative things after a cup exit to the league's bottom side.
"We know, we see the situation, and in the last period many times, maybe seven games we were 1-0 down and in some games 2-0 down," he said. "I think that can happen. In this moment, we have to stay and to find positive things because if you go to negative things, I think on one side it is okay in the right moment, but this is not the right moment because the period is really, really tough and they are losing a lot of physical and mental energy. They are losing a lot of things to be stronger with my players
"I prefer to analyse negative and positive situations, but I think it's better to underline the positive things in this moment. Now our target is to recover well, be focused on Saturday and show to be strong.
"On Saturday, also our fans have to play a really good part in the game. They have to push us from the start until the end because if we get a win and three points it means that we finish a really tough period with an important qualification in the Champions League and a good position in the table. I think this could be good for us."
Spurs are still in a strong position, despite their inconsistent showings, but they are in need of squad surgery in January.
The fear that the club will soon drop out of the top four if they carry this form into the second half of the season could be enough to ensure Tottenham back Conte with signings he wants in the winter window, although that should, and perhaps would, have been the case anyway.
This latest dismal display robs Conte of a chance to finally end Spurs' silverware drought. If the Italian is to take any positive from it, it will be that he will now get that full week before the season returns to prepare for the Boxing Day match at Brentford and there will be less clutter in the fixture schedule as the season progress.
However, seeing a potential trophy route closed, particularly with so many Premier League clubs out of the competition, is nothing to celebrate.
Conte has once again called on the Tottenham fans to back the team on Sunday but he and the team must give them something in return. With Dejan Kulusevski and Richarlison perhaps fit enough to start, the team should have more attacking thrust and they need to.
Spurs need to sign off before the long break with something positive for everyone to hold on to rather than a fear of what's to come.
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