The Morning Thoughts - Mental Strength, Toby Alderweireld, Improvement, FA Cup, Saturday Punt

Spurs players making progress

The sandy beach at Dymchurch is a short way away along the coast.

A very good morning to everyone from a decent looking morning on the coast, the sun isout. A trip to Hythe this morning, a lovely old town to stroll down the high street

Right onto thoughts about Spurs this morning.

Mental Strength

I have banged on a lot about mentality, it being so so important in top level sport and many simply don't get it. To achieve anything mental barriers have to overcome and this young side has to learn how to deal with the pressure when big games come around.

We are now starting to see that they are coming to terms with what is required. It is just another building block for long term sustained success, the required goal. beating Manchester United, beating Arsenal, drawing with Liverpool and Juventus, after being two goals down in just 7 minutes gives us all a big lift.

Previously when a big game comes along we have often faltered, like the semi-final of the FA Cup last season. Winning, not looking good and feeling unlucky, is the be all and end all in these games. we are now firmly in the mix for a top four place.

Thanks to our mental growth we are now seeing the results on the field.

Improvement

What is the next step in our improvement? Continue the mental growth and improve our finishing. We are still not clinical enough. Again, I have banged on about netting four or five goals, not settling for two and playing keep ball or managing the game as it is often referred to.

Manchester City have shown us this season what I mean. They bang in four goals regularly now and we all have to play catch up to that. A team must be trained by default to want to score goals, they must be as clinical when they are 4-0 up as they are when they are 1-0 or 2-0 up..

Over the years we have seen Spurs squander chances when the game is won and for most fans it doesn't matter, the game was one, but, if we are to win trophies, that is the wrong approach. We have to clinically put those chances away so that when a chance comes when we are losing or the score is 0-0, our default setting is to score.

Turning on and off clinical finishing will hinder our progress. Players must be mentally attuned to concentrating as hard with a chance after 85 minutes when we are 3-0 up as they do when the tie is close. Again, clinical finishing is a mental thing. The brain tells us what action to perform and how well to perform it. Train the brain and you train the feet.

FA Cup

Next up is the big opportunity we have in the FA Cup. I don't understand why fans have looked at who is left and decided we can't win it. Perhaps they haven't thought it through, perhaps they haven't realised that the semi-final and the final are at Wembley, our home ground this season, where we are now very comfortable.

I think we have a cracking opportunity to win it. First we must be very professional against Rochdale and hope for a good draw in the quarter-finals. If we can get to the semi-finals then we can beat anyone at Wembley.

Toby Alderweireld

Toby Alderweireld is coming back from injury and in such circumstances  and yes he has to get match fit. he hasn't been left out because of the contract situation, that will be assessed at the end of the season.


What we have seen though, is that he is not essential to success, that he can be replaced. That will no doubt be part of our thinking when contract negotiations resume. He will be 29 on 2nd March so will no doubt be looking for one last payday and you can't blame him for that.

A trophy may well help the club convince him to stay on improved wages, even if they are not the wages that he is perhaps, and I don't know, but perhaps asking for.

I see an Arsenal player, Hector Bellerin, has criticised an Arsenal fan TV YouTube channel that criticises the players all the time, suggesting that people who do that are not real fans and of no interest to players. Guess he must have been reading this blog!

Saturday Punt

I'll  stop at the bookies in Hythe to place three trebles and a fourfold on Swansea (6/5), QPR (10/11), Plymouth (19/10), Gillingham (13/10).

If all correct the bet returns £98.50 for the trebles and £56.02 for the accumulator, £154.52 overall. If just the shortest priced treble the bet returns £19.32 at £2 per bet, £10 overall. Charlton let me down last week, conceding in the 94th minute.

Don't gamble with money you can not afford to lose.

Stay safe and happy.

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