Antonio Conte admits some of his Tottenham players 'collapse' when 'under pressure'

Antonio Conte has pointed out that some of his Tottenham Hotspur players have "collapsed" when "under pressure" this season.

Spurs resume their Champions League campaign on Tuesday night as they take on AC Milan in the round of 16 first leg.

Conte watched his Tottenham side beat Man City and then followed that up with a 4-1 defeat at Leicester City last weekend when a top four spot was theirs.

Spurs have notoriously failed in big moments over the years and Conte has hinted that some of his players can't live with the pressure.

"If you want to win or achieve certain goals and have a good position in the Champions League or in England in the Premier League, you have to be stable," said the Italian, who had his gallbladder removed he fifteen days ago.

"And that stability is lacking this year. I always talk about it with my players. It's very hard to stay focused, it's very hard to stay focused all the time.

"It's not an easy task to be so focused. We're working on it, playing under pressure all the time is good for some players and bad for others.

"Sometimes the players feel motivated, other times they feel so pressured that they can't perform.

"Maybe for a while they perform well, then they all of a sudden crumble if they feel too much pressure.

"We are working on it, we want to make our players more resilient."

He added: "I think the pressure is different between Italy and England. In Italy you talk about football from Monday and you finish on Sunday. You only talk about football and then you have a lot of TV talking about football and putting a lot of pressure.

"You were born this way and you grow up this way, with this pressure, and you are used to living with this type of situation.

"In England I think there is an atmosphere that allows you to enjoy football without too much pressure, because football is a sport and in Italy sometimes football is not just a sport, it It's a war between teams and fans."

Spurs have had a tough string of injuries this season with Dejan Kulusevski, Richarlison and Lucas Moura among those who have suffered and in recent days skipper Hugo Lloris has been ruled out for up to two months, Yves Bissouma has had the ankle surgery and Rodrigo Bentancur faces a long time with an ACL injury.

And Conte says that played a role in his team's turbulent season.

"There are also external factors like player injuries that are very important to us," he said. "And those injuries influence the team, influence the growing evolution of the league.

"You can be prepared for anything, you can be a tactical man, good strategies, good formations, you can have great quality players, but if those great quality players get injured, you have to change things. .

"Every manager wants to have the best players available. Luck has left us."

Injuries to Bentancur and Bissouma and suspension of Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg mean Conte is without midfielders at San Siro.

He said he hadn't had enough time to consider the option of playing Eric Dier in a more advanced role and effectively confirmed that Oliver Skipp and Pape Matar Sarr would start.

"We have the solution at home, with the two young players, Skippy and Pape Sarr," he added. "You know, we are talking about two young players, their first game in the Champions League, they are really young - 20 and 22.

"Especially for this reason, we must be good at helping them overcome the emotion, and then we trust them."

Conte was back in the dugout for the pounding at King Power Stadium and says it's important to be back with the team in tough situations.

“Of course it was really difficult to stay away from the team,” he added. "Because you have a sense of responsibility that you want to stay with your players at all times, to breathe the environment in every situation.

"But this problem happened and now I feel much better than before.

"I'm not 100% yet but I think I'm recovering well, it's very important for me to stay with the team, to work with them and to try to stay together in a difficult moment for us."

Milan boss Stefano Pioli believes his side are equal to Spurs.

He said: "We think we are equal to Tottenham. Winning the Champions League is a dream but there is no point in thinking about it now.

"A week ago they beat Manchester City, but we are neither better nor worse than them. It will be a big game that we will have to play well."

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