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"I don't know" isn't good enough

3 min read


Mauricio Pochettino was asked why it didn't work out for Roberto Soldado at Spurs and his answer shows why Spurs are still in the dark ages in some respects.
"I don't know. Football is not mathematics. Sometimes there are a lot of reasons that are difficult to explain. I think it wasn't easy for him to adapt his game in England at Tottenham."
This reason it didn't work is pretty obvious, he totally lost confidence. It training he was smashing them in apparently but under the pressure of a game he went to pieces. That is mental, plain and simple.

 Quite frankly it is scandalous that the club pay £26-million, although in the end it was more like £21-million and not do everything possible to make that asset a success, it wouldn't happen in any other major business. It shouldn't happen at Tottenham, especially if we want to nurture young talent. We have to prove that when a player hits a mental stumbling block we can help them get over it, not simply leave it to them and keep our fingers crossed they can work it out for themselves, that is amateurish.

 Top level sport uses sports psychologists, football is a mental game, there are hundreds of players with similar ability, what separates them is their mental ability. We have failed Soldado and we are failing Lamela because of our reluctance to catch up with other sports and have the guts to lead the way in out own.

 As a club we are trying to provide the players with the best of everything so they have the greatest chance of being a success, except we forget about the main component, the head. Yes we are working at improving the mentality, yes that is working with many players, but we have to do more to help those that it isn't working for. All strikers have barren spells so we should have methods of dealing with it that are successful, clearly we don't have one and should explore the mental avenue.

 What if, as it should, it makes a difference to a player, you simply map it out across all players and you have quickly, easily and cheaply improved a whole group of players, a team, a squad, a club and you make us more attractive to other players because we would be leading the way, providing assistance others pay lip service too.

 Brain training is the next frontier of football coaching, we should be at the forefront of that and not waiting for other to implement it so we can just play catch up again. If we can't compete financially then we have to compete in other areas and any area we can steal a march on our competition helps to close the gap.

 I'm a Pochettino fan, I back what he is doing at Tottenham, but 'I don't know' isn't good enough, especially when the answer is so obvious and so easy to implement.

Further Tottenham Reading
Youth Development - Spurs have at last got a tie-up with a foreign club to develop youth
Rangers Loans - Pochettino like the work of Warburton, now ke'll have Oduwa & Ball to work with
What better way for your children to start the day than then by waking up in a Spurs bedroom and having their breakfast in a Spurs bowl while you enjoy your morning cuppa in a Spurs mug, simply go shopping at our Football Shop and make their day special every day.

3 comments

  1. Another pointless sports psychology article.

    Soldado was being sold. Why would Pochettino say he has lost confidence when trying to sell him for starters?

    Secondly, there were other isdues for Soldado, namely his lack of physical presence, better and bigger defenders to deal with and if course a lack of experienced creative players to play around him to get the ball to him in good positions. The lack of opportunities no doubt had an impact on his finishing and over time his confidence.

    I cant help but feel that this website would be better if the articles always so self indulgent, pessimistic and one dimensional.
  2. I'm pretty sure most teams including spurs do already employ sports psychologists. To suggest they don't, is a bit odd.
    Psychology doesn't always work 100%. I think that's the issue here. It just didn't work out for Soldado. Science doesn't know everything yet.
  3. Soldado's sale was agreed ages ago, we were just waiting to get a replacement so whatever Pochettino had to say makes no difference to his sale.

    Why demonstrate one dimensional thinking by not realising the impact the brain has on football, it's just that type of thinking that is holding us back in the dark ages.

    Yes Spurs do have a sports psychologist byt they don't worj with the players every day, they don't work with them on a compulsory basis. A player can go to them if the player feels they have a problem but a player is not ging to go and do something new without being told to.

    Rhe optional element has to change, it should be a permanent part of every players training. Yet again against Soke we show mental weakness that costs us points.