Everybody should see the second graphic

Spurs Need To Go Mental Part 1
Spurs must change their mental approach next season if we are to succeed in our annual quest for Champions League football. It won't happen with a manager just waving a magic wand.

This is an introductory article on a series around the mental approach Spurs need to take with player transfers and the players need to take themselves. There will be an article tomorrow morning, Sunday and then the next article on Monday evening.

The series expanded to include other aspects, it wasn't a 12 article series when it started.

Tottenham recently came back from 3-0 down to grab a 3-3 draw against West Bromwich Albion. This was not the first time Spurs have had to do this, also recently we were 2-0 down against Southampton, 1-0 down against Sunderland.

It is quite common, especially in European games for ex-professional footballers to tell us it is time for the big players to stand up and be counted. An armchair fan would agree, a coach would tell you that is the wrong mentality to have.

Unfortunately that mentality is still rife among footballers and is the main reason why so many players have such dramatic highs and lows in the way they perform. The commentators will tell you he is out of form when in fact it is usually his mental approach that is wrong.

We have the problem here of this is how it's always been done and an aversion to change with an area that is a mystery to most people and therefore simply dismissed.

Take Emmanuel Adebayor, he's great when he wants to be and rubbish when he doesn't. How do you know which player is going to turn up. Last season (2012/13) he was dreadful, sulking. Now Tim Sherwood is playing him we are getting 8 trying games out of 10 from him.



The above graphic shows us anyone can have skill and that skill is not enough to succeed. You can get by, you can get to a standard but you hit a ceiling and only the right mentality can take you through it to the next level.

You notice how some teams perform better against the top teams, that is because the players can motivate themselves (they perceive it as a big game personally), as anyone should be able to for a big game. If you can't you shouldn't be playing the game.

A player should permanently be standing up to be counted, those that do it more regularly are those with the better mentality. They are the players who stand out in a game, who rise above mediocrity.

If you perceive a game against WBA or Newcastle to be as important as a game against Arsenal or Chelsea, you'll get the same commitment towards performance. That should be a standard but it isn't and that is something mere motivation cant do anything about, that requires a mentality change. 

You can achieve that through the use of a sports psychologist and a short daily routine of mental exercises. The result is a mentally improved player. Easy to achieve, easy to implement, costs virtually nothing and you are maximising the output of a multi-million pound asset (player). It's a crazy business practice not to employ it.

It's a philosophy, a way of life, always being ready, always being 'up for it'. Mental attitude separates people in all walks of life not just football, it’s what separates the true winners from everyone else.

If you don't stand up to be counted against the like of Stoke City or Norwich City (now relegated) then you don't deserve to be taking your place and lining up against teams in the UEFA Champions League.

The problems at Tottenham don't stem from the players not having had time to gel but from a poor mental approach by too many of them and that is worrying. It suggests that some of our purchases will not come good or will only turn up for the bigger games, those players are not going to win us anything. Some players consistently warm the bench. Fans may demand they should be playing but they are on the bench because of their mental approach, if they were motivated for every game they wouldn't be dropped, they wouldn't be on the bench unless they needed a rest.

If I were to ask you what are the big games, virtually all of you would say Chelsea, Arsenal, Man Utd etc. But that shows a wrong mindset, unfortunately if you ask our players the same question half would give you the same answer. They are the very players you don't want playing against the perceived lesser teams because the player takes them lightly. A player can have all the skill in the world but if he is not mentally up for the game his skill is wasted.

Every game is a big game, every game carries 3 points, none carry more. Just imagine for a moment that we lost all the games against the top 4 both home and away, we'd have no chance of Champions League football would we.

But what if all the players were 'up' for all the other games and won those, we'd amass 90 points. That would win you the title most seasons. The perceived little games are just as important, the team that most recognises that wins the league.

When you hear a player say 'It goes without saying all games are important', he is revealing he doesn't think so, he is in fact revealing he isn't up for some games. Mousa Dembele springs to mind when we lost to Leeds in the 2013 FA Cup. He revealed afterwards that he and others weren't 'up' for the game. They weren't motivated, they didn't see it as a big game.

Mousa Dembele's whole demeanour and body language in some games demonstrates the same approach. If it happened against Leeds it will happen again and again against any side he doesn't perceive as being important enough. If other players feel the same we haven't a chance of achieving anything. As I have mentioned that has to be addressed, not just for him but for all the players.

The answer to that question reveals how you approach different games. The games that seem unimportant, the games you are expected to win easily are the games where you simply must have the right mental approach, if you don't it becomes a potential banana skin, and we have seen plenty of those this season (2013/14) and that FA Cup tie was a case in point as was the Portsmouth FA Cup semi-final.

Which games would you say the players have been up for this season? Arsenal, Southampton (Pochettino factor), West Ham (10 men battle for a win), Manchester City?

What games have we been found mentally wanting in? WBA, Newcastle, Sunderland, Nottingham Forest (rescued by Mason) and now Aston Villa. A shambolic display against a team who haven't scored a goal and lost their last 5 games.

It's clear the players are putting in two different levels of performance dependent upon the importance they attach to the opposition. That's the wrong mental approach, the wrong ingrained mentality.

Take a look at the above graphic. 
1 Self-doubt, would you say we displayed that against Liverpool? 
2 Lazy, only doing the basics, we constantly show this by not clinically killing off teams and slow pedestrian passing.
3 Poor integrity & personal values are demonstrated when not giving 100%.
4 Unmotivated as we have already seen several times this season
5 Weak attitude. Newcastle and the start of second half the biggest demonstration. Continually moaning to the referee is a sure sign of a weak attitude, Capoue does it and Lamela does it with his body language. It's simply looking for someone else to blame.
6 Distractable and unfocused. Same as above.
7 Fragile mindset. Again the second half performance against Newcastle or Vlad Chiriches against Besiktas and WBA.
8. Anxious and panicky, Lamela against Man City, Chiriches against Besiktas, Spurs from corners, Kaboul penalty against City, clearance straight to Wanyama against Southampton (rescued by Lloris). Countless examples of this.

You get the picture, we demonstrate a lot of the negatives far too often and not enough of the positives. It's not a coincidence it's a weak mentality. Each individual needs to be assessed in that way, each potential purchase analysed.

Players who believe certain games are bigger than others are the players who will have highs and lows of form. They are more likely to perform in what is a big game for them and less likely in a perceived minor game. A side with too many of those players will always lack consistency.

It's all a part of that winning mentality I have spoken about before, it's the mentality Tim Sherwood has and the mentality he has been looking for and not finding in his players. It's the reason for his outbursts, it's the reason we have been poor this season, not a failure to gel.

Mauricio Pochettino has been brought in to change that mentality as he told reporters after the Newcastle game but it's a far bigger task than simply having a few team meetings and saying you shouldn't do this, you need to do this.

A far more scientific approach needs to be taken, a professional approach and is an advancement that will eventually happen in football. Tottenham should take the lead. If the club can take a talented but unmotivated player and change his mindset then the benefits are massive. Equally weeding out the weak minded and only buying those with the right mentality will save fortunes in wasted transfer fees.

Quite frankly it's bad management not to employ it.

If you break a leg you go to a hospital to repair it, you see a professional, you don't don't go to your mates house who looked after someone with a broken leg and is a dab hand with plaster of paris.

Why then with multi-million pound footballers are we not turning to professionals to 'repair' players mental approach, where is it being left to amateurs, players having meetings among themselves. A coach is not a professional psychologist and not an expert in Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP).

The players will need to be mentally prepared better next season, educated if you like, to instil the correct mental approach, a winners mental approach. To some people it's natural, to others it's attainable, but to others (the closed mind) it's impossible.

If every game is seen as a big game by each individual then their performances over a season and therefore the teams performance would significantly improve. Give everything in every game and we'll be winners. You have to approach a game as if it is vital, because it is and then approach the next game as if it's vital and then the next.

Players have to be hungry for success, too many of ours are not. They need to find that hunger again, find that desire, find that passion. It's no good just doing it against Arsenal.

This season has already demonstrated that that has not changed, the mental approach of players is ingrained and Tottenham won't make Champions League until it is addressed properly and not in the half-hearted manner we seem to be approaching it.

You have to either improve the mental training or accept that we will forever be buying players with our fingers crossed that they have the right mental attitude. Selling them when they don't and buy another, then another, then another. If we get a group with the right mentality it will be as a result of luck and when that side breaks up it's back to square one with no plan.

The warm up procedure, the training session, the stretching, the cool down, little has changed, nutrition has got better but the mental approach hasn't. You have to question whether it is even being worked on at all. If you fail doing something and keep simply doing the same things you will continue to fail. It takes bravery to change, perhaps Spurs need to employ a sports psychologist.

We know it is being worked on, the players can talk to the coaching staff, talk to Younes Kaboul and have team meetings! Totally amateurish. If a player doesn't think he has a problem he isn't going to take anything on board and change.

A professional will show a series of examples, show a pattern, he will show their is an area where an improvement can be made and then show how an easy solution can produce a marked improvement. Then a player will take it on board as improvement means bigger wages, more chance of winning things and potential to play at bigger clubs.

Tottenham should be on a never ending quest for higher and higher levels of performance through continuous self analysis at every level, right the way up to the Daniel Levy himself. We have a strategy but certain aspects appear to be overlooked and the mental approach is one of them. It is everything in sport.

Our first-half performances all season (2013/14) have been lazy, mentally weak. Games have been approached with the wrong mindset.

Next season we must put it right.
Alas we haven't and the approach we are taking looks doomed to failure. The board must take responsibility and change the ethos of the club and implement a better self improvement model. They must take on and implement the Kaizen continual improvement approach to every single aspect of the club, however tiny that improvement is.

Abdicating the responsibility to the coach is weak management, professionals undertaking the mental work for the coach is the way forward and it can't happen soon enough.

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