Former Juventus and Inter coach Antonio Conte says his trophies are a reminder of why he has to win. The 54-year-old was speaking with The Telegraph about his career to date and what the future holds for him, and began by talking about tactics and formations he uses with his teams:
“You can reproduce some tactical situations,” said Conte. “In every club that I coached at, I brought Subbuteo, also sometimes to explain some tactical situations with my players. I’ve always had one at my home.”
“People think it’s a defensive system, this is not true. I repeat, it’s not true,” said Conte. “You can see how many goals my teams score in every season.
“It doesn’t depend on three or four at the back, it depends on the way you build the team and build the attack. At the same time, it’s not good to be too offensive. And not too much defence. You have to respect the characteristics of the players and adapt to them. My experience tells me that if you want to win the league or lift a trophy, you need to have a stable team. Last season, Manchester City was the best example of a team with great balance, defensively and offensively.”
“Those trophies are a big, big responsibility because they stay there to remind you that ‘oh look, you have to win’,” said Conte. “You did this and you have to continue to do this.”
“If the final target is to win the league and lift trophies, it’s important to offer entertainment to the crowd,” said Conte. “But to be only an entertaining team is not enough if you want to win. I know because I coached the top teams and they always asked to win.
“For me, now it’s impossible to work for an only entertainment team because the expectation is always that you have to win. I love my past, but at the same time the expectation you bring is always very high and if you don’t win, you have failed. The best possible option is to entertain and win.”“And to be celebrated, I have to win. Otherwise, the others are waiting to celebrate my failure. This is the truth.”
“My history says that I always arrived at my clubs in a difficult situation with problems. I always build. After my first season at Chelsea, when we won the title, we could have become dominant in England. We spoke with (Romelu) Lukaku and (Virgil) van Dijk, and with those two important players we could have changed the situation.”
