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Spurs Semi-final Solution


Spurs Semi-final Solution

Wrong-decisions

Spurs need a semi-final solution. We are a good enough side but mentally there are problems.

I have said before how Eric Dier bottles it in big games and regularly makes mistakes against the big sides. I get criticised for it, but it keeps happening.

The first goal was a result of him not doing his job as a defensive midfielder, instead. he behaved like a centre-half.

His job, when the ball was headed out, was to rush out towards the man on the edge of the box to prevent the shot. He didn't, he just trotted forward.

It was left to Harry Winks I think it was to rush at Kante, but crucially he was coming from the wrong angle and couldn't affect the play.

What Moussa Sissoko was doing trying to shut his legs instead of getting a foot in the way, goodness knows and as for Gazzaniga letting the ball through his legs, well he isn't better than Hugo Lloris as some of our fanbase claim.

The point is though, they should never have been put in that position. It was Dier's failure to act as a defensive midfielder that caused the problem.


I have spoken many times of the solution, using psychologists and sports psychologists as a  compulsory part of training, not just if a player wants to talk to someone, a player doesn't know they have a mental issue.

We should become world leaders in assessing a player prior to purchasing him, but also after we have signed them. Then we need to work to mentally build them instead of leaving to chance and experience. That is a reactive method and top-level sport has moved on, football is lagging way behind in this respect.

A player coming to Tottenham needs to know that he is going to be developed in every facet of the game, both on and off the field and that includes his head. Football is a mental game, yet it is the one area of the game that gets the least attention.

Under pressure people revert to default, Dier's default is to stay back as a central defender and he forgets his duties.

The same problems keep occurring, yet we are not bringing in the specialists who can cure them. Until we do, they are in danger of continually resurfacing, as they have done again.


4 comments

  1. I think you're after a team of robots with no mental weakness that consume silverweas for energy. ! 😊
  2. Sounds good to me Steve :-D

    Anything to improve that side of our game is welcome it seems to me. We're already much improved I believe. Even without professionals MP is working hard on that side of things. Maybe Clive is right to say that getting professionals in to help with this is a good thing. I can't see how it could be anything but actually. The worst would be no discernible improvement, but I suspect there would be benefits to be seen. It's also another opportunity to get ahead of the game - ahead of our competition.

    COYS!!
  3. There was a song in the 60s called The Urban Spaceman and the last line in the song is guess what " I don't exist " You might as well play subutio if you think mentality and with that emotion can be taken out and channelled into a 11 a side sport.
    A winning mentality comes from winning and expecting to win every time you walk out on to the pitch. You can think it all you like but until you start winning with a couple of players in the side that refuse to lose. It doesn't exist and will never. You can't build a winning mentality without winning anything !
    • "with a couple of players in the side that refuse to lose"
      That right there is why I can't agree with you Steve. Those guys are exactly what a winning mentality is about. How do they get that? More to the point - how do we encourage that in them?

      There is a very real difference between those that are half expecting to lose and those that do everything they do with the idea of winning in the front of their minds.

      I believe the more winning runs we go on; the more we beat the big teams; the more we get exactly that mentality into our players and, dare I say it, our fans.

      I believe MP has found the core attribute that goes to this, and that's courage. Mental courage. Some can continue to believe and hope in spite of having had experience of hopes being dashed. Picking them up and getting on with it again, without those mental reservations, is a sign of that courage.

      I think MP has it, as does Harry Kane, in abundance. I could name a few more but these are the ones tha…