Mueez Ajao
– Tottenham manager Antonio Conte is working on making his players “more resilient under pressure” as he prepares them to face AC Milan in the San Siro on the back of a 4-1 defeat at Leicester.
– The Spurs boss, who returned to the dugout on Saturday after gallbladder surgery, is missing three key midfielders and goalkeeper Hugo Lloris for the first leg of Tuesday’s Champions League last-16 tie.
– Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg is suspended, while Rodrigo Bentancur is out for the season with a knee injury and Yves Bissouma needs an operation to repair a stress fracture to his left ankle.
Also Read: Conte back at Tottenham after surgery but told to ‘take it easy’
– Conte says the answer lies “in house” and said he would put his “trust” in youngsters Oliver Skipp, 22, and Pape Matar Sarr, 20, as replacements in the centre of midfield.
– The Italian coach wants his senior players to help them “suffer to overcome the difficulty in the right way” but suggested members of his squad had to learn better how to deal with pressure.
– “If you want to win or achieve some targets and have a good position in the Champions League or in England in the Premier League, you have to be stable, and this stability is lacking this year,” he said.
– “Sometimes players feel motivated, other times they feel so much under pressure that they can’t perform.
– “Maybe for a period, they have a good performance and then they collapse all of a sudden if they feel too much pressure.
– “We are working on this; we want to make our players more resilient.”
– Tottenham showed plenty of guts and resilience to qualify for the Champions League knockout stages back in November.
– They were heading out of the tournament in their final group match after conceding in Marseille, but scored two second-half goals, including a 95th-minute winner from Hojbjerg, to claim a memorable 2-1 win and secure their progress as Group D winners.
– Since then, five defeats in 10 Premier League matches have caused Tottenham to slip out of the top four.
– Conte claimed “luck has abandoned us” as he assessed the latest injury problems to hit his squad and admitted to not being fully fit himself after rushing back a week after having his gallbladder removed.
– “I’m not still 100% but I think I’m recovering well,” he said. “It’s very important for me to stay with the team, work with them and try to stay together in a difficult moment for us.”
