Tottenham Hotspur’s Ben Davies has been speaking to Football.London about the communication Antonio Conte has had with his team both before and after the win over West Ham yesterday.
Davies played at left wing-back in the 2-0 win against the Hammers, and was instrumental in setting up Emerson Royal for the first goal of the game. The Welshman even picked up the man of the match award for his impressive display in the London derby.
(Photo by IAN KINGTON/AFP via Getty Images)
Spurs had to win the game without Conte on the touchline once more, as the Italian coach returned to Italy last week to further his post-op recovery.
Cristian Stellini stood in for Conte and continued his unbeaten record when taking charge of Tottenham in the Italian’s absence.
After the game, Davies discussed what was said by Conte following the heavy defeat to Leicester last week, and how the 53-year-old communicated with the team in light of the big win yesterday.
Davies said: “It’s not easy when you don’t have your manager here, but Cristian and the manager have really drilled into us that if Cristian speaks, that’s the manager’s voice as well. So we’ve been working hard, we’ve given it our all, and we’re very happy with the result today for both of them.
“It was hard to speak on the phone to everybody in the dressing room, but Cristian relayed [Conte’s] message, and it will be a case of next couple of days looking at it, and going over the game and seeing, again, where we can improve and what we can do better.
On the reaction after the Leicester game, Davies added: “I can’t say too much… but look, when you have a result like we did against Leicester it’s tough, it’s tough to come back from, and the best thing to do is to get it all out in the open and put it to bed, and that’s what we did a couple of days after the game.
“I think today you saw a team that was united, everybody was on the same page, and everybody was working hard, trying to pick up three points.”
Spurs Web Opinion
I think it’s clear that there’s a very effective line of communication between Antonio Conte, Cristian Stellini, and the squad, and everyone ensures their performance doesn’t drop when Conte is unavailable.
If anything, the players seem to put in even more effort when he’s not there, which could be a cause for concern, but I see it as them not wanting to let Conte down.
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