Antonio Conte admitted that the international break came at a bad time for Tottenham Hotspur but that does not mean some people at the club cannot exploit the fortnight.
Conte likes the world 'exploit' when it comes to situations that present themselves in football and he admitted ahead of the break that he will help some players during these two weeks.
"Honestly it’s a pity to have the international break because in this moment we are in good form, in a good moment about the results, the performance, but I know very well there is an international break and with the players that have to go with the national team we will see them after nine days, ten days but with the others we prepared two different situations of rest," said the Spurs boss.
READ MORE: Every word Fabio Paratici said about transfers, Antonio Conte, Bentancur, Kulusevski and Romero
"Before two days to rest and then to work and then another two days to rest and start work again, but for sure we want to try to exploit this period for those not going with their international teams to try to continue to improve on the technical and tactical aspects."
So who left at Tottenham can benefit from this international break? Here are seven people we reckon could 'exploit' this fortnight.
Sergio Reguilon
The Spaniard has been putting in mixed displays in recent weeks since recovering from his bout of Covid and getting his place back following Ryan Sessegnon's injury.
Reguilon scored almost immediately after coming on for Sessegnon at half-time against Everton. However, since then the wing-back has struggled with his end product, despite getting into some great positions.
By his own admission, the 25-year-old is learning a new experience in being a wing-back and these two weeks - days off aside - give Conte and his coaches the chance to get some one-to-one time with the player on the training pitches of Hotspur Way.
Some of the footage this week from training has shown Reguilon firing in cross after cross to the likes of Eric Dier and Harry Winks and that will just be the tip of the iceberg as Conte works the Spaniard hard.
Emerson Royal
For Reguilon, see also Emerson Royal. While Reguilon has his spot in the team back due to Sessegnon's injury, Emerson has lost his place to Matt Doherty.
The key is that the Irishman has been contributing to Tottenham's goals, either directly or in the build-up and that's something the Brazilian needs to do.
Bought last summer as a traditional right-back, Emerson, like Reguilon, must learn to play at wing-back and improve on what is just one assist this season in 35 appearances in all competitions.
Previously called up to the Brazil squad, this will be the 23-year-old's first international break spent at Hotspur Way and he needs to take full advantage of it on the training pitches with Conte and his staff.
Eric Dier and possibly Cristian Romero
Eric Dier deserved to be called up to the England squad for his performances since returning from injury and while on one hand Conte will have wanted his performances to be recognised by Gareth Southgate, having his central defender wrapped up in cotton wool back at Hotspur Way isn't the worst thing.
The 28-year-old missed a month with a thigh injury and Tottenham were lesser for it, missing his organisational skills in the back line.
Conte believes Dier is one of the best defenders in the Premier League and having played every minute of every game since returning from the injury last month, two weeks to recharge his batteries could have come at a good time.
The Spurs boss might also be hoping privately that similar happens with Cristian Romero. Argentina called up the 23-year-old for international duty, despite him being suspended, in the hope that an appeal over his ban might at least remove one of the two matches.
Romero did not appear in Argentina's win against Venezuela on Friday night and all eyes will be on whether he is allowed to play against Ecuador on Tuesday night (12.30am Wednesday morning in the UK).
With pretty much every international break having been a disaster for Romero with injuries, quarantine or suspension, a nice quiet return to Hotspur Way without any risk would fit the bill perfectly for Spurs.
Oliver Skipp and Ryan Sessegnon
This is a pretty basic one. International breaks are always better for injured players because obviously they're not missing club matches.
It gives them that little bit extra time to recover and find their way back and in this case aim to be back in action before the end of the season.
Japhet Tanganga does not have that luxury as knee surgery means he will be out until pre-season. Ryan Sessegnon was expected to be out for around five to six weeks with his hamstring injury while the timeframe remains unclear over Oliver Skipp.
Conte suggested to football.london last week that the 21-year-old midfielder was improving and if he continued to progress could potentially be ready to face Newcastle next weekend. However, that is believed to be optimistic even if positive steps are being taken in Skipp's return from his pelvic injury, affecting the pubic symphysis.
Either way, the international break is more time for the two young players to recuperate and heal.
Antonio Conte and Fabio Paratici
He might not have wanted the international break to come right now, but there have been some benefits of it for the Italian to 'exploit'.
The 52-year-old has poured all of his time and effort into turning things around at Tottenham, putting in long days and nights of work and he has been doing so while living alone.
This break has given Conte the chance to fly to Italy for a couple of days of much-needed family time with his wife Elisabetta and daughter Vittoria and again this weekend.
The pair still live in Italy because 14-year-old Vittoria is in her final years of secondary school and her parents did not want to uproot her at that stage, meaning Conte has been spending lots of time away from his loved ones, relying on visits between the two countries whenever they can.
This week will also allow Conte to continue to discuss the future with Spurs' managing director of football Fabio Paratici, who admitted this week that the pair speak on a daily basis.
Paratici could use this time to speak in more depth about the future and try to convince Conte that Tottenham will match his ambitions next season.
"[The rest of the season] is the first thing that we have to be focused on and the second is my job, but it's not just my job, the job of my structure, so the scouting department and speaking with the staff and Antonio every day about what we can do to improve this team," said Paratici.
"It's not just about players but also staff maybe, the best pitches maybe, the best infrastructure. So it's normal that when we speak about the summer we speak about recruitment, but we work every day and we speak all the time about what we can do to be better, so we follow like this. We continue to work in this way, in this direction."
