Antonio Conte calls for 'patience' amid Tottenham's poor run

Antonio Conte urged for 'patience' following Tottenham's 2-1 defeat at home to Newcastle due to several injury concerns and a packed schedule disrupting a thin squad.

Though Spurs started on top in Sunday's loss, poor defensive errors saw the Magpies race into a two-goal lead. Harry Kane pulled one back in the second half but it wasn't enough to save his side.

Tottenham were weakened by injuries to Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and Cristian Romero in the lead up to Sunday's encounter, and speaking post-match, Conte believed these absences and Spurs' ruthless fixture list will contribute to such on-pitch setbacks.

"My only worry in this moment is that we try to keep the fingers crossed and to not have injuries," Conte said. "We're not a team with so much depth to face so much competition with the Premier League and the Champions League.

"We knew the situation and I spoke to the club and I said we need to go step by step with patience. I said we needed two or three transfer markets. Every three days we're playing a massive game. Hojbjerg had played every game and in the end, he gets an injury because he was tired and it was the same for Cristian Romero and for Richarlison.

"For Dejan Kulusevski, we hoped to have him back much sooner but instead the situation got worse and now we have to wait. Lucas Moura started the season with a problem in his tendon and now he's trying to recover. Oliver Skipp played his first game since January.

"When you put all these situations together, you have to understand that at this difficult moment it's about coping. We'll try to get to November in the best possible way. For some players, this was the seventh game in a row.

"For sure this type of situation makes me frustrated because I would like to play this type of game, also in the Champions League, with the best team and then to have on the bench three, four or five good substitutions and not to try to invent situations, you understand? But we knew this.

"When I spoke before I always said look, we have just started the process for Tottenham to bring Tottenham into the best position to be more competitive to fight for something important, we have just started.

"For this reason we need to cope with this situation. For me it is not easy, it is not simple but we have to cope and to manage the situation with experience and stay together.

"Today I don't have complaints about the attitude, will and desire of the players because every single player performed. The attitude and effort was really strong and really big but sometimes it is not enough.

"Before they scored, I only saw one team. Nick Pope made two or three amazing saves before they scored. For the goal, for sure we can do much better. I don't want to comment on the referee's decision as I don't like to do it but for sure we could've done much better in that situation.

"The second goal could've killed other teams but I saw a good reaction from my players. There's a big risk to concede goals and lose your head but instead we tried to score and create chances to level the game. In the end, we didn't do it. In my personal opinion, the draw would've been a fair result."