The harsh methods of Italian for “spurs” are unusual.
Tottenham are struggling not only to gain a foothold in England’s so-called Big Six, but also to seriously claim the title of English champion. And for this it is necessary not only to keep the leaders and acquire strong newcomers, but also to guess with the right coach. The Spurs are having their first full pre-season with Antonio Conte, known for his rather tough working methods.
British reporters visited Tottenham pitch, which hosts training camps in South Korea, to see how tough it all is. We take a look at the preparation of the Spurs, who defeated the Korean League team with a score of 6: 3, and we also remember the moments that Conte is counting on in his work to make the team a contender for the title.
Strenuous training
Who has difficulty teaching is Conte. Journalists from the Daily Mail attended the second two-hour training session on Monday. It all started with a harmless warm-up with the ball, a ten-on-ten match on two-thirds of the pitch, and ended with a crazy run that no one had been warned about. All of this happened in front of six thousand fans in the humid and warm air of Seoul.
The players had to run 42 lengths of the soccer field at a fast pace, that is, without jogging. After each series of three or four races there was a little respite. At the same time, for those who spent a lot of time in the national team in the summer, the distance was reduced to 30 pitches. But with the heat and the heat of 30 degrees, not everyone could handle it. For example, Son, after one of the segments, simply collapsed on the field, losing consciousness, but nevertheless he soon came to his senses and completed the exercise. And Kane at one point just threw up after the end of the next segment.
Brian Gil and Davinson Sanchez took the lead for most of the race, with young striker Troy Parrott leading the final stretch.
Attention to details
A strenuous line-up is only part of the foundations Conte is looking to invest in the team before the season starts. The physical component of him. With no less fanaticism, he approaches the tactical elements, literally hammering the tactical components into the players. For example, he places colored flags around the field, symbolizing the ball, and then casually points to one or the other flag, saying this is the ball – and the team must move and rebuild based on the position of the hypothetical. ball.
And it all repeats itself over and over again. Once, last season, Conte was an hour late for a press conference. All due to the fact that he was late in a tactics lesson with the team. In addition, both the players of the main team and the reservists are equally involved in the work, because everyone should know and be able to work out their role, understand the movements of the team.
Staff support
For Conte, the technical staff, trained for specific tasks, is very important. For example, he took Tottenham in a disassembled form last season when the team had their worst consecutive league record. With him, this stat has improved. And in the shortest possible time. And here Conte does not rely only on himself: he would be too presumptuous.
Instead of an athletic trainer, who was with his predecessor Nuno Espirito Santo, Conte invited three coaches at the same time. Coratti, Ventrone and Bruno quickly pumped the missing physical components of the game into Tottenham players. Relying on experts is a great trait of a competent leader who realizes he is not omnipotent or omniscient.
Professor with a bell
Aside, it is worth mentioning Gianpiero Ventrone in this coaching company. The 62-year-old Neapolitan is known throughout Italy as a tough and uncompromising athletic trainer. Zidane also mentioned it. When he decided to sign for Juventus in 1996, he called Didier Deschamps to ask about the club.
Deschamps enthusiastically told Zinedine about the club and the league, but he also warned that Ventrone was working at Juventus, which would take his soul away. Zidane said he didn’t attach much importance to this clarification at the time. But he had no idea how hard training could be. And he often threw up after a few sessions.
Ventrone’s goal seems simple enough: it makes players go beyond their physical limits. For example, he uses the “bell of shame” method: all the players perform some sort of hard physical exercise to the limit of their abilities and those who no longer felt the strength to perform it had to ring the bell. Of course, this added a psychological component to the standard training.
Despite Ventrone’s seemingly sadistic measures, Zidane himself was grateful to him for his shape. During some workouts, Ventrone turned on some adrenaline-pumping music like Richard Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries. It is said that Ventrone’s mottos are “work today to race tomorrow”, “die but finish the job” and “the victory goes to the strong”. Conte worked with Ventrone at Juventus and is now looking to coach Tottenham players.
Video analysis
Not only the body has to work, but also the mind. To do this, Conte’s formation has a daily video analysis. These are very detailed cuts, on the example of which he shows each player where he should have taken a step to the left, where to the right. He uses video everywhere: after training, during training, in front of them, before games, of course. Additionally, interviews can last over an hour. Everything is settled: from games to actions in training.
Beware of food
Conte is obsessed not only with physical preparation and tactical details. He is very thoughtful when it comes to nutrition. In his first week of work at Tottenham, the manager changed the club’s coffee shop menu, removed heavy food and sandwiches, got rid of ketchup and mayonnaise, reduced the amount of butter in food and increased the amount of fruit. in the diet of the players
It is noteworthy that in different clubs he used different methods and varied the nuances of the diet, not making it the same in all cases. For example, for Lukaku at Inter, Antonio developed a special diet (not alone, of course, but with a special nutritionist), and Romelu in Milan simply blossomed after some time, lost weight, regained freshness and sharpness.
There is also a downside …
Not everyone is able to withstand such conditions. Yes, we are talking about professionals, about athletes, but at the same time they are already very rich stars that have already taken place. Not everyone wants to spend hours deciphering a wrong step in a training video or watering the fields with a lunch that was asked for outdoors after an unbearable run.
Hence the comparisons, at times insurgent, with the coach, who also talks with the leaders of the clubs with an appropriate and harsh ultimatum. This was most evident before his departure from Chelsea, during the conflict with Diego Costa, who had gone mad from long tactical sessions on the pitch. Not all and not always such harsh methods are suitable, otherwise it would be a universal recipe for successes. But now it’s interesting to see how Tottenham are trying to take sides under Conte’s tough demands.
