Antonio Conte: "I'm not stupid; I can teach football to many people"

Antonio Conte

told

fans, "I'm not stupid" and "I can teach football to many people," which was a strong defense of his decision to pass over Djed Spence.

Since moving to Spurs from

Middlesbrough

in July, Spence has only made one short sub appearance. Some Tottenham fans wanted the right-back to get a chance after Emerson Royal was sent off for a dangerous tackle on

during Saturday's 3-1 loss to fierce rivals Arsenal in the North London Derby.

But Conte made it clear that questions about his strategy before Tuesday's Champions League game at

don't make him happy. The head coach of the Spurs said: 

"If we were able to exploit the situation, especially last passes, we would have been able to score many goals against Arsenal."

"Instead, we made really bad mistakes for the last passes because we had the opportunity to go one-to-one, but every team has to think and understand the way to play different games."

"Last season we won 3-0 [against Arsenal], and when you win, the opponent has to explain, but for me it's important to have a plan, to put my players in the best possible situation to exploit their characteristics. Otherwise it can happen that you can concede six, seven or eight goals – in England, that happens a lot of times."

"In my career, it never, never happened because I don't like to play open, concede a lot of space and concede six, seven or eight goals. I won in England, I won in my past and I think I can teach football to many people."

On Spence, Conte said:

"The fans have to be fans. They can think anything, but I see every day the training sessions. If I don't decide to pick a player, it's because maybe he's not ready."

"We are talking about a young player with a good prospect, but I try to pick the best team. I'm not stupid, I don't want to lose. I try to pick the best team. If they trust me it's okay, if they don't trust me then I'm the coach and I need to take the best decision for Tottenham."

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