A leading sports performance coach believes Antonio Conte’s post-match rant after Spurs’ 3-3 draw with Southampton could have been a self-defence mechanism.
The Italian went on a 10-minute tirade against his players after they blew a 3-1 lead to draw against the Premier League’s bottom club.
He accused them of being “selfish”, not being able to play under pressure and lacking fighting spirit, saying he could no longer “hide” his real feelings.
Conte, who looks certain to leave his post at the end of his contract in the summer, if not before, is the latest Spurs boss who has been unable to bring silverware to the club, something that will hurt him given his fierce winning mentality.
Sports performance coach Jeremy Lazarus, who has Premier League players, managers and top-level performers in other sports among his client list, believes Conte’s desire to protect his identity as a winner could have caused the extraordinary outburst.
“We have all got a sense of who we are and Conte will identify as a winner,” he told the PA news agency.
“If our sense of identity gets threatened we don’t all respond well to that. We will either put up barriers or do something to preserve our sense of self. He almost certainly identifies himself as a winner and he needs to protect that then he will come out all guns blazing.
“It could be a build-up of various factors and there is always a straw that breaks the camel’s back. And maybe what he saw on Saturday, compared to what he was expecting, was enough.
“And he thought, ‘I’ve had enough, I can’t keep defending the players’. That seems a pretty plausible explanation.
“I don’t think there was calculation there, it felt like he thought in his opinion his players weren’t giving their side of the bargain. I am not saying that’s the case, I am saying he probably thinks that.
“Some people may have said he was acting. It was not an act, he is a passionate guy and a winner. If he was acting then he is in the wrong profession – it was an Oscar-winning performance!”
Spurs’ difficulties on the pitch have been dwarfed by the personal trauma Conte has suffered this season.
Fitness coach Gian Piero Ventrone, a strong ally of Conte, and close friends Gianluca Vialli and Sinisa Mihajlovic all died within a few months of each other and then the Italian fell ill, needing emergency surgery to remove his gallbladder – all while living in a hotel in London away from his family.
“We have…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Football365…