Antonio Conte: Tottenham Hotspur must exploit the unexpected preparation time ahead of Everton clash

According to the club’s official website, Antonio Conte has advised Tottenham Hotspur to utilise the unexpected preparation time they received ahead of their match against Everton in the Premier League. He spoke about the matter in an interview with the club’s media in the build-up to the game, which will take place later today.

The defeat to Middlesbrough in the fifth round of the FA Cup last week means that Spurs have just the Premier League to compete for in the remainder of this season. That has given them an advantage they were not looking for in the form of adequate preparation time. After all, they enjoyed the recent 3-2 victory against Manchester City after having a week to prepare for the league fixture.

Spurs had games in the mid-week from the start of the season till the previous game against Boro. That is if you overlook the international break and the postponements due to the Covid-19 outbreak and the heavy snow that resulted in the rescheduling of the league match against Burnley.

“It is what it is”

Conte has weighed in on their setbacks and tried to find some advantages, having been knocked out of all the other competitions. The boss conveyed that he will have more time working with the squad to impose his style for the rest of this season. He has suggested that the players should make use of this situation in the build-up to the match against the Toffees.

“For sure, if we are to find a positive situation, it’s this, from now until the end of the season, I will have more days to work with the players. We have to try to exploit this situation, more days to work with the team and to prepare for games.”

It is unfortunate that we find ourselves in this situation even with its “advantages”. After all, we would have preferred to keep battling in the domestic cup at least to have a chance at winning silverware in this campaign. But that was not the case, and we must look to make the most of where we are at the moment.

We only have one more mid-week match at the moment, which is against Brighton and Hove Albion on March 16. Tottenham also has the postponed North London derby, which would probably be in that category to avoid fixture congestion.

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The North London side must take advantage of the cards they have been dealt with in the rest of this term. In a way, that could be perfect for us since the depth of our squad in certain positions is questionable at this moment.

That issue needs to be addressed in the summer transfer window, but perhaps having just the league to focus on could help us attain a top-four finish to qualify for next season’s Champions League. Whether we can use the preparation time to be best or not will be known by today’s result.