Antonio Conte reveals area that Tottenham need to improve most

Antonio Conte has explained that Tottenham's inconsistency and lack of stability is behind their recent run of poor form, but insisted he is still trying to improve the situation.

Spurs were dumped out of the FA Cup at the fifth round stage by Championship side Middlesbrough on Tuesday night, losing 1-0 after extra time and looking second best for much of the match at the Riverside Stadium.

Tottenham have now won just six of their 13 games in 2022, losing all of the other seven. Conte has revealed that the team's streaky nature was evident before his arrival in November and that he is working to solve the problem.

When initially asked how it felt knowing he would end the season without any silverware, Conte replied: "In this moment I'm the last person, I don't think about myself. When I speak with my players and in my team and say that we have to think about 'us', not 'me'.

"For me, no problem, and for me there is the desire, the will, the patience to try to continue to work very hard to improve, to make this team more stable than the past, because I think this is the key that can change the situation.

"I try every day [to change the situation] through the work. Also sometimes to speak.

"For sure in this type of situation you need to find the right key to go into the mind of the players, because it's not only sometimes a tactical problem or a technical problem.

"Sometimes you have to try to work and to push in other aspects, the mental aspects and try to stay focused and to work also on the training sessions, to keep focusing.

"I know that it's very difficult because to be focused in every moment of the training, of the game is not easy, but if we want to be competitive in the future, these aspects we have to improve a lot.

"The truth is that today we are talking about a defeat. The last game we won, two games ago we lost, three games ago we won, and I think that I can't hide the reality, no?

"The reality that we are having too many ups and downs. We have to try and work, and I think this is a problem now and maybe also in the past.

"In my opinion there is only one way to try to improve, and to continue to work many aspects and to persevere.

"To be patient because you need to have patience in this process, and to hope in the future the situation will be much better and not to wait for a long time."

Tottenham will hope to get back to winning ways - again - when they host Everton in the Premier League on Monday.