Fiery Tottenham boss Antonio Conte is turning Spurs into ‘nasty’ fighters capable of winning ugly

Roy Keane once described an iconic Sir Alex Ferguson team talk in which the former Manchester United manager dismissed the threat of their opponents in three words.

“We all know what Tottenham is about. They’re nice and neat, but we’ll do them. He came in and said, “Guys, it’s Tottenham,” and that was it. Brilliant.’

Antonio Conte doesn’t like it when his team comes across as nice. That’s not what ‘Conte-ball’ was made for. This fiery manager prefers when his players are mean.

“Good nasty,” Conte described it on Saturday, and the Italian said that was the biggest factor in Tottenham turning a 2-0 deficit into a 3-2 win.

Their football was negative in the first half. It was safe, musty, stodgy. It was polite play. Too many lateral passes and not enough forethought, one of the few chances that ended with an Emerson Royal shot flying over the Steve Fletcher Stand, prompting Tottenham’s own supporters to chant ‘What the f****** hell was that?’

It was nothing like a top four team should be playing at Bournemouth, with all due respect to Gary O’Neil’s side.

The second half was different. They won their duels. They created opportunities. Lucas Moura was introduced and had an immediate impact, even struggling with a ball boy in his desire to get the game going again.

It was then that Tottenham began to look like a competitive team. They went after Bournemouth, scoring three times to secure a much-needed win after back-to-back Premier League defeats to Manchester United and Newcastle.

That second-half mentality will be needed from the start in Marseille tomorrow. Tottenham must be mean, uncompromising, unwilling to come second and confident with the ball. Conte has described that Champions League tie as a final, as a defeat would see them leaving the elite European competition.

“I’ve asked my players to show more personality, take more responsibility,” Conte said of his team discussion at half-time. “In the second half, despite conceding the second goal, we started to play mean, with the desire, with the will to hurt the opponent.

“It was great to see the desire of my players, the reaction they had. They were mean. Good mean. I could see in their eyes that they decided to win this match.

“Now this victory should give us enthusiasm and passion to enter Marseille and play a final.”

Conte adapted his team for Bournemouth with Marseille in mind. There was no Rodrigo Bentancur and no Eric Dier in the starting line-up, the latter sitting on the bench for the first time this season. They were brought in in the second half, along with Ivan Perisic, and all three substitutes made a significant contribution to the turnaround.

Nine of Tottenham’s 26 goals this season have come from corners, the most of any Premier League club. They have become the corner kings with the help of regular coach Gianni Vio.

The majority of their corners were in-swingers, just like on Saturday with devastating effect. Perisic led to a header from Ben Davies for 2-2 in the 73rd minute, then Son Heung-min took care of Bentancur, making it 3-2 in stoppage time.

Bournemouth was bitterly disappointed by this defeat. O’Neil’s team took advantage of Tottenham’s initial softness, with Kieffer Moore scoring twice to give them a two-goal lead.

Moore’s finish for his first was superbly executed and he bullied Emerson to take home his second.

But as Conte said, Tottenham felt the comeback was inevitable once they got the bit between their teeth. Now they have to take this mentality to Marseille.