‘It really doesn’t help’: Sutton says one thing Conte is doing at Spurs is counter-productive

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BBC Sport pundit Chris Sutton has criticised Tottenham Hotspur manager Antonio Conte for routinely “sending out a message” about his players being tired.

Spurs sit third in the Premier League table, but they’ve lost their last two matches in the competition.

Tottenham fell to a 2-0 defeat at Manchester United last Wednesday. They then lost 2-1 at home to Newcastle United at the weekend.

And in midweek, Spurs played poorly in the first half of their Champions League meeting with Sporting CP before salvaging a 1-1 draw.

Conte has referred to his players’ tiredness and fatigue in recent weeks, amid a heavy schedule ahead of the World Cup.

And Sutton, writing on BBC Sport, feels this could be counter-productive for Tottenham’s players.

“It really doesn’t help much that their manager Antonio Conte keeps sending out a message about them being tired, because their players might believe him,” he said in his prediction column ahead of Spurs’ trip to Bournemouth.

“They now need a point against Marseille on Tuesday to reach the last 16 of the Champions League. So they have to rotate here, and the pressure is on Conte to get that right.”

Conte is not wrong – TBR View

Sutton does have a point, in that routinely going public about players’ tiredness may not have any benefits.

But this probably isn’t a case of it becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Conte sees his players pretty much every day on the training ground and then in games.

He will be seeing players who normally show incredible energy lagging more and more as the matchdays go by.

With Tottenham fighting on four fronts and a heavy schedule ahead of a mid-season World Cup, it will be exhausting.