Guess who’s back? Antonio Conte, that’s who is back. The boss was back in front of the cameras after his suspension for Tottenham’s last game, the 2-1 win over Marseille in the Champions League, to hold his usual press conference ahead of Sunday’s game against Liverpool.
Conte has given a quick injury update on Dejan Kulusevski, who is expected to be back in the matchday squad for Spurs when Spurs host Liverpool on Sunday. Conte also said that Rodrigo Bentancur is good to go after receiving some treatment on the pitch in France, and confirmed that Richarlison is still injured and will not feature. But Conte also noted that Lucas Moura is now experiencing some ligament problems ahead of the game.
“We have these injuries and I can confirm Richarlison is not available for the game. It’s the same for Romero, but Bentancur is much better. Today he was part of the training session. It was the same for Kulusevski, today he had half a training session with us.
“The problem is that Lucas Moura has different faces for his pain in his tendon. Today he was very bad and he told me he is really worried about this but I ask of him to try to be available because we need. Also Sonny, you know, is now undergoing surgery. In the end we have to be happy for qualification for the Champions League and now we have to try to finish these last three games in the best possible way.”
It does bring up some very interesting possibilities for Tottenham’s starting line-up on Sunday. Given that Deki only had half a session in full training for Spurs, it feels a bit far-fetched to expect him to come back and start after a long injury lay-off. I’m also not sure what Conte’s comments mean for Lucas Moura. It could be that he starts the match but is unable to play the full 90. Does this mean a starting front three of Lucas – Kane – Bryan? Perisic – Kane – Lucas? If Lucas can’t go, who’s next? It’s a mystery! Should make for some fun things to think about before Sunday.
Also on the agenda was the topic of injuries, which were rampant before the World Cup. (You can almost conclude that scheduling a winter WC in Qatar was not a good idea!) Reports were circulating that Cuti Romero would be out for the next ten days, which felt awfully convenient have when you consider that Argentina has a name. his World Cup roster soon after. This led some to wonder if Romero had “quietly quit” before the trip to Qatar. But Conte was clear that his players, all of them Cuti included, are fiercely committed to Tottenham Hotspur, even if the leagues don’t seem as committed to keeping the players healthy.
“About Romero, I can tell you that if I ask him the possibility of playing with one leg, he wants to play with one leg. For this reason I say to the fans we have players who are really committed to the club and maybe Romero, he had an injury because he wanted to risk [for the Sporting match] and we wanted to take the risk. Then he had this injury, but certainly a lot of teams have big injuries and that’s because we play every three days.
“I think we see this situation is impossible, it is impossible for the future and it will be important for the future to understand, because I hear many times about the well-being of the players, but this is just a polite way to show that you are really interested in the welfare of the players because they are not really concerned about the welfare of the players when the schedule is like this. In every moment you show that the most important thing is that the show must go on and then please I don’t want to hear in the future, to listen about people talking about the well being of the players because it’s not true.
“The show must go on, that’s the truth, but honestly, I don’t like it when the fans think that some players are trying to protect themselves for the World Cup, because that’s not true, at least for my team. I see them every day. I see RIcharlison with the will and the desire to come back and help us. Another player might stay and wait because there are only 10 days until the World Cup and Richarlison would rather come back and help us. It’s crazy when you finish the World Cup and after three days they start playing.”
Conte was finally asked about the current form of Rodrigo Bentancur, who has been on an absolute tear for the past few games. The Spurs boss has praised his work over the past year, implying that he is on the verge of making the leap from a good footballer to a world-class one.
“Rodrigo has only one problem in my opinion. He has the real possibility to be really, really top, top, but you know that to become a top player you have to want it and decide it.
“In the last period, I think that Rodrigo played in an excellent way, and he is a player who gives us a lot on the field, off the field, and we are talking about a player who shows the possibility to be one to be. one of the top midfielders, one of the best midfielders in the world.”
