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Spurs Don't Act Like Winners


Spurs Don't Act Like Winners And Can Learn From Cricketers

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Spurs don't act like winners and could learn from cricketers

Our team could learn a lot from cricketers. The prime thing they can learn is body language.

In top level sport mentality separates the good from the great. Do you think Ronaldo, Messi, Bale or any number of others became as good as they are by settling for second best? No, they did everything possible to improve, they dedicated themselves to it. Ronaldo poses and he does it for a reason, not just his ego.

But let's go back to cricket for a moment. Australia had a period of dominance where they acted in the field as if they were on top, even when they weren't, they were on their toes all the time and the opposition batsmen were alone in the middle mentally wondering when these guys take a rest.

The object is not to allow the batsman to turn on and off his concentration, you keep him mentally in a state of high energy and his reserves deplete, thus he makes more mistakes and you are more likely to get him out. The mentality is that if a chance comes our way we have to take it so every batsman knows he can't give  chances, pushing him mentally into his shell.

England then adopted the same approach, fielders were always on the move, there was no slouching or day dreaming, the attitude was one of ensuring the batsmen felt isolated, that there was a whole team against them, which of course there were.

Tottenham play at the moment at a slow pace with no urgency,we do not make the opposition think they are in for a hard game. They can relax and concentrate on keeping their shape to frustrate our slow passing, at time we walk.

If our passing was faster and by that I mean the speed at which we kick the ball to each other, you start to unconsciously tell the opposition that they are not going to have time to think, that they are going to have to play reaction football. Our movement off the ball is often ponderous, again a calming influence for the opposition.

If they feel they are rushed, then they have to rush decisions and the more you do that to an opposition the more you tire them out and that's when more mistakes are made. We don't mentally push the opposition into mistakes, we wait for them to happen.


Small differences make the difference at the top level and as I have said for 5 years, to much ridicule, we have to train ourselves to be clinical,we have to concentrate on scoring those last minute chances when we are 2-0 or 3-0 up. It does matter because you can not simply turn on and off clinical finishing, as and when you need it, as we are finding out.

There isn't a lot wrong with us, as some are claiming, but there are small problems that need rectifying. We need to impose ourselves on the field, the opposition need to know they can not give us one chance, let alone the several we often need to score a goal. The opposition need to know, by the way we handle our body language and play on the field, that there will be no rest bite, that they do not have time to turnoff concentration, vital to conserve energy.

Ronaldo's whole air is look at me I'm great, you can't give me a chance and that plays on defenders minds, he backs it up with goals. You can not say that our demeanour imposes our personality on the opposition. It needs to, they need to know we are winners and to be winners you first have to act like winners. We don't.

Mentally, we need to dominate the opposition far more than we do. Mentally Spurs have a long way to go still and that will only improve with the use of sports psychologists more. We need to innovate and become world leaders in it's use, not simply follow the traditional set path.

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COYS

6 comments

  1. it's not mental thing it's technique you cannot demand to a player who hasn't great vision to play the ball quickly.
    the yesterday remembered me of AVB era boring displays
  2. here is fact of mental thing Spurs have lost 20 Premier League games thanks to goals scored in the 90th minute - more than any other side in the competition. Drama
  3. Basic Lesson N° 1 for Kane & Co....
    Stop facing the wrong way...stop coming back for the ball...you are allowing the defender to play on his front foot and, he can see much more than you because you have a restricted view of the attacking third!
    You have to turn the defender so that he's playing on his back foot which leaves him vulnerable...this means that your body position should be angled to where you want to receive the ball and have the choice of a pass...your first touch should be to ensure control of the pass and not as you have been doing immediately thinking that you can beat the defender by turning into him!
    It would be nice to think that a one-touch layoff was on the cards but since all of our attackers tend to gravitate towards the ball carrier (who's facing the wrong way) instead of trying to open up passing lanes then that's probably not on the cards, and for you HK it certainly is not since you spend most of your time looking for worms!
    The one (attacking) …
  4. I understand and feel the frustration.

    I also agree with much of what's been said. We do need to up our mentality and approach to games. We struggle with teams who are set up to frustrate us. It's definitely something we need to move past.

    I believe we can. I agree our mentality, which incidentally is vastly superior to how it was in previous seasons, needs to improve further. It's the one factor that really separates the men from the boys.

    Kudos to Clive for highlighting this over many years now.

    I'll get a rare opportunity to travel to Wembley for the Newcastle game. I'm hoping and expecting a better performance than we've seen recently. The mentality must be better if we're to guarantee getting the three points. We ended last season very strongly. It meant little but left me feeeling extraordinarily proud. We MUST repeat that this season - if only for the last two games.
  5. If anyone thinks that last night's type of performance is going to win us anything next season then they need to wake up and smell the coffee.
    Those issues that I've tried to highlight this season remain unsolved and our qualification for the CL next season owes more to the number of lifelines we were handed by our competitors during the run-in.
    • It wasn't too impressive; that's for sure. As you say, we got over the line due to poor performances by our competitors. Wednesday we managed a close 1-0. Newcastle looked far more up for it than we did on the day. We deserved the win - but not by much. It should have been a steam-rollering. It was anything but.

      We need to find the mentality we showed to finish off the season last year. Picking up the 'Spursy' reputation after having worked sooo hard to leave it behind would be absolutely unthinkable.

      Let's hope the management have that firmly in their sights and we can have a relaxing and fun last game of the season at our temporary home.

      COYS!!