Dejan Kulusevski has revealed that Antonio Conte has been working the Tottenham team extremely hard at Hotspur Way during the mid-season break. With 11 of the first-team squad heading off to Qatar for the 2022 World Cup, those not involved in the competition returned to the club's Enfield base at the end of November to recommence their training following a short break after the 4-3 win over Leeds United.
Kulusevski was one of those to be back early as Sweden missed out on a place in the World Cup finals, thus giving him the chance to get back to full fitness after missing ten games through injury in October and early November. Maybe not having his whole squad to work with ahead of the Premier League restarting once again, there was certainly no let up from Conte and his coaching staff.
"No, he is good," said the Swede when asked about the head coach. "He has been... he don't care about anything, you've just got to do the work. It don't matter if you're cold, if you're hurt. It don't matter if it's dark or if it's raining, you've just got to do the work and that's how it is supposed to be."
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Getting a taste of what pre-season training is like under Conte back in the summer, Kulusevski and his teammates have had to go through exactly the same once again due to the break in play. A tough period for those at Hotspur Way, the 22-year-old believes that their training over the past few weeks was in fact harder than what they went through ahead of the 2022/23 campaign.
"It has been like another pre-season. The thing we did before we just forgot everything and started over from the beginning with hard work and just a lot of running and gym," admitted the former Parma loanee. "I think it was a little harder than pre-season. We did a lot of running, a lot of gym."
Some of the running even took place after dark at Hotspur Way, with Kulusevski revealing that the team were still being put through their paces at around five or six o'clock in the evening.
"It has been a lot of training, been so much running in the dark but in a way that is fun. It is fun also with your team-mates, with your brothers so we've been enjoying it," said Tottenham's No.21. "Sometimes the light doesn't work so you know you have to run in the dark."
Even prior to Wednesday's 1-1 draw against Nice, Conte put his players through a double session at their training base on Tuesday. Their work will only benefit the players in the long run, with Kulusevski feeling in top condition ahead of the Boxing Day game at Brentford.
"I feel good, I feel very good. Now I think it is just the moment to rest for these three or four days before the real games start," said the attacker. "I think the work has been done now and it is time to recover and be ready for Monday."
Chipping in with goals and assists in Tottenham's first two friendly games against Motherwell and Peterborough United Under-21s, Kulusevski did add another assist to his tally after playing in Matt Doherty for the opener against Nice. Indicating after the Motherwell game that the team were doing some new stuff in games that he likes, the January addition went into a bit more detail about what Conte now has his team doing.
"Like you saw today, we tried to press high. I think we worked a lot on our pressing and it is important we get better," he explained. "We won the ball a few times today up but I think that the next thing is when we win the ball, we have to choose the right pass so we can score."
Tottenham's results in the weeks leading up to the mid-season break were extremely mixed as they struggled to string back-to-back wins together, seeing Newcastle United leapfrog them in the table and Manchester and Liverpool close in on them in the process. Conte's men need to find some consistency from Boxing Day onwards, which was one thing they did in the second part of last season as they came from behind to clinch a Champions League finish.
"I expect better results than the first six months of the season. I think we can do better and we've been working so now it is time to show what we've been doing," said the Stockholm-born player.
"We have a lot of quality players that still can make more. We have very good players that you saw at the World Cup also and almost every player did very good so I think we just have to stay healthy and play like we can.
"I can't wait. We're in a good position in the Premier League, we are in the Champions League against Milan so it's going to be six months but it's going to be fantastic and I'm looking forward to it."
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