Conte told to stop making 'excuses' as he says Spurs defence like relegation team

The north London side are sitting in fifth position in the Premier League, five points from the top four having played a game more than Newcastle United who sit ahead of them.

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With a 4-2 defeat to Manchester City in their last game, Spurs have now conceded 31 goals in 20 Premier League fixtures this term, a tally that is the sixth-worst in the division.

Conte has made his name as a boss who builds on a strong defence, but that inability to keep a clean sheet is proving costly in their hopes of securing Champions League football, something the Italian says needs to improve.

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Speaking to the media, Conte said: "It doesn't depend on the players or the individual part. You attack or defend with the whole team.

"I think that maybe we have to improve the spirit, the collaboration, the will and desire to suffer also because maybe we've forgotten to suffer and understand that if we want to win the game, sometimes you have to stay there and suffer to defend a result.

"The will and desire not to concede a goal. Last season, I can't remember how many clean sheets we had with Hugo [Lloris], but this season, in every game we're conceding at least two goals.

"This is a medium, this is an average like a team that is fighting in the relegation zone. I repeat, this is a negative situation that I have to analyse. A negative situation or a positive situation.

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"A positive situation, we have improved a lot in how to handle important opponents like Manchester City. It was the same against Liverpool. Forget the game against Liverpool because we lost 2-1, but we deserved much more against Liverpool, but at the end the most important thing is the final result."

talkSPORT co-host Danny Murphy is a fan of Conte, but the former Liverpool midfielder believes the Italian's inability to improve his players is ultimately what's costing Tottenham at the moment.

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He told White and Jordan: "A coach generally at a bit club is dealing with egos and man management, more than he is actually coaching. The coaching is still there but it's easier when you've got brilliant players.

"You've then got coaches who improve players at a club where you don't necessarily have the best players, but as a collective like at Newcastle for example, they're competing because of the coaching and togetherness, like Pochettino did at Tottenham and made that team a unit.

"I think that Conte is used to managing top players at top clubs. He's dropped down a level, if you like, in terms of the level of player and he's struggling to improve them.

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"If we do a quick comparison of Newcastle with budget at type of player. Newcastle are in the top four with the best defence in the league with a back four of Dan Burn, Kieran Trippier who Tottenham let go, Schar who was a laughing stock 18 months ago when Newcastle were all over the place and they spent about £40million on Sven Botman who has been available for two years because no one took a risk.

"They've got Pope in goal who anyone could have got from Burnley at any point and Tottenham didn't.

"A bit of cute recruitment and good coaching, Eddie Howe has made them better, but they're playing with a back four and he's got them organised with players who are hungry and willing to learn and coached well on the training pitch, you can get results.

"Conte's thing about needing better players and 'we can't compete yet', that's just an excuse for not being able to coach them and make them better."

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