Tottenham Nuno Espirito Santo has compared his side to a boxer as they look to improve ahead of Sunday's north London derby at Arsenal.
Spurs have gone from not conceding a single goal in their first three matches in the Premier League to conceding 10 in their past four games in all competitions.
Asked how that can be achieved, Nuno used the example of a boxer, which is particularly apt as the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium hosts Anthony Joshua's heavyweight title defence against Oleksandr Usyk on Saturday night.
"First of all, [to fix it we need] the confidence. That we have. That we must have," he said.
"Just to use a simple example of boxing, with people talking about the big occasion on Saturday night.
"You cannot spend all the round throwing punches. Sometimes you have to protect yourself. If you get a punch, instead of opening your guard, you should close your guard and respect that your opponent also has these moments.
"So using this simple situation gives us a lot of what we should do. So we are organised, we are stable, we are solid. No matter what happens we must keep on doing.
"We are playing good football. We are looking threatening and looking for the goal. You score, you have to go again. So it takes times but this is the process."
When asked whether set piece training had become more difficult with the new advisory limits, Spurs boss said:
"Good question. That's why we have training sessions without nobody seeing us.
"I agree [with the the limits]. I'm concerned with the situation of dementia and what heading the ball can cause.
"It's a big concern for us but it's part of the game. Honestly I will not lie to you. I don't count how many times our players head the ball. Maybe I will get myself in trouble for this, but football is jumping, heading, it's part of the game."
Source -
football.london
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