Tottenham boss Antonio Conte admits he is making his players suffer during training.

The Italian took over from Nuno Espirito Santo in November, which did not give him a chance to establish a pre-season with his players.

Instead, Conte has them working in hard in training during the campaign, building up their fitness levels and tactical awareness.

"We are doing what we did and will continue to do a physical work to match with the tactical work which is very important," Conte told reporters.

"If you want to give an identity to your team, you have to work. You have to work a lot.

"You can see very well in my one month and a half, I had the whole squad only for maybe two, three weeks where we played. I'm trying to exploit every minute that I have to work in many aspects with the players.

"This team has to improve the level and the physical aspect and the tactical aspect if you want to try to be competitive in this season.

"I know very well it's not easy when you come into the season and you didn't start the season. When you start the season you have three or four weeks of time to prepare your team but I'm enjoying working with these players because they are showing me great energy and will and desire to improve every aspect.

"We are doing this. I have seen the stats. Our stats are improving a lot."