Hugo Lloris on Antonio Conte: "I found Antonio Conte to be quite a character, driven by victory, which gave him energy, but he found it very hard to control his frustration when we started drawing, let alone losing, because his inner torment had to get out; and if he was tormented, then everyone had to share that torment too, and things could get very complicated very fast."He told me once that in any given week, his happiness lasted an hour, just after winning, and that was it. In training, he oversaw everything, organising tactical sessions with 10 outfield players against one goalie; but it was hard for the creative players to find their places in his restrictive game-play. The rigidity of the structure and set sequences did us a lot of good at first but, after a few months, teams learned how to play against us and it became tougher to win."During matches, Conte was as extreme and eruptive as he appeared, garnering respect and fear. Such a strong personality pushed wingers to prefer to play on the side opposite the dugout. I have never forgotten our first defeat under Conte: a 2–1 loss to NS Mura in Slovenia in the Uefa Conference League. Even though I wasn’t playing, I was still entitled to his screams and reproaches, just like everyone else. In squad meetings, we would spend at least 30 minutes a day doing video analysis, not forgetting the interminable preparation camps at our training centre."After the defeat in Maribor, he had screamed: ‘Mura, Mura, who’s Mura?! We lost to Mura!’ I can still hear him."If a player needed a little love, he’d better not knock at Conte’s door. For Conte, trust is earned in training. He has no filter; he’s sincere, honest. He’s a manager who lives only by results, whereas from a player’s perspective, performance is important too. That season, when we lost 3–2 to Manchester United (a Ronaldo hat-trick), a result which didn’t reflect our performance, I told Pierre-Emile Højbjerg and Harry Kane in the dressing room: ‘They may have just beaten us, but I bet you we finish above them.’ And so we did, ending up in fourth place after battering Woolwich 3–0 on the last day, situating ourselves halfway between Conte’s demanding nature and a little self-management because, by dint of being whipped and screamed at, we eventually stuck our fingers in our ears."
