What Was Aurier Thinking
What Was Aurier Thinking
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| Serge Aurier cost Spurs dear |
"Mauricio, can you give us an idea of what you have said to your players after that and whether there has been some sort of inquest."
That question from a journalist in the press conference highlighted why journalists are clueless and simply don't understand the sport they wish you to believe they are experts in.
It assumes a knee-jerk reaction, it assumes you chastise children. What exactly would that achieve? Mauricio Pochettino ended up laughing at him during his answer such is the absurdity of the journalists approach and a professional coaches approach.
That isn't how the successful operate. Yes, there are times to fire people up, but there are times when you don't, times when it isn't needed.
You need to look at things in the cold light of day, not when your emotions are running high. You need to figure out why and what you can do. You need to develop solutions, once you have solutions, then you can discuss it, then you can rectify it.
To discuss without solutions just highlights and exacerbates a problem, which is of no help in the short term with a game coming up at the weekend.
Motivation comes from within, not externally from the manager. That is temporary, from within permanent. You might want to question the motivation, you might want to ask, to the group, that each individual looks inside themselves questions their motivation.
If players see their future away from Spurs then shouldn't they be having a stellar season, proving to the world that they are a player to sign? That would shout out you have the right mentality.
But what does fleeting performances prove, what does a lack of effort prove, what does turning off or giving up prove? What does that say about you?
Asking him if the next week is the biggest challenge he has faced as a manager is way beyond stupid. How are these people actually paid to ask such absurd questions?
As Mauricio told him, you need to show your quality as a man as well as a player and that's something these journalists simply can't relate to.
Tottenham were good in the first half, we created chances but were not clinical enough and to stop them getting in behind us, we dropped deeper. That surrendered the midfield to them where we defended to keep them in front of us and try to hit them on the break.
A player in contract dispute didn't anticipate quickly enough that a right-footed striker would want to get the ball onto his right foot and take a shot. It was, therefore, a poor goal to concede just before half-time.
The game turned thanks to Serge Aurier and they scored 3 in the last 10 mins to distort the score when some had clearly given up.
You can see in Fig 1 below that he is goal side of his man who is about to play a give-and-go pass past him.
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| Bayern Munich 3rd goal Fig 1 |
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| Bayern Munich 3rd goal Fig 2 |
You can see in Fig 2 above that Aurier has tracked his man back, but he then needlessly tries to tackle him, fails, leaving the defence exposed.
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| Bayern Munich 3rd goal Fig 3 |
In Fig 3 above Aurier tried to tackle his man and bring him down but failed. had he stayed on his feet then the attacker would have been going nowhere. He would have had to continue and been kept wide. He would never have been able to cut into the danger zone.
It is basic defending.
As soon as Aurier misses him the attacker angles diagonally toward our goal and Alderweireld wants to drive him down the line but can't. You know what happens next.
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| Bayern Munich 3rd goal Fig 4 |
It is frustrating when professional footballers make such basic mistakes, like later in the game when one of our players, either Sissoko or Ndombele I can't remember which, tries to bring the ball down with his right foot above his waist, yet where the ball was coming from his left foot should have been used.
The ball deflected off him to the opposition yet had he tried to control it with his left foot, we would have retained possession. Little things matter and mount up. It always amazes me that a professional can't use his standing foot, there is no reason why they can't.
COYS
2 comments
After Aurier heads the ball straight back to the middle of the top of the box, he then decides to leave the back 4 line and rush at the Bayern player (Tolisso) that comes down with his header near the top of the box even though Winks was on his way to close him down. Now Winks isn't sure what to do because Aurier is in the space he should be in and Countinho is unmarked out on the left. This creates confusion by the Spurs defense because Aurier went out of position again (almost commited a penalty too) and Winks is now trying to figure out where to go. That's why after the goal goes in, Winks throws his arms up in the air and turns around and yells at Aurier.
And yes, Jan overcommited to the left of Lewandowski and why he was late to block the shot off the right foot.
I say unfortunately, not because we would actually have been better off without him on the pitch, but it does illustrate that even after the weekend, where the red was almost certainly harsh, he doesn't seemed to have learned any sort of lesson.
The first booking at the weekend was totally unnecessary. The player was no threat yet he went to ground and obviously, for even the terminally stupid to see, did a scissors foul on him. Why? The ball went off anyway.
Less than a week later he gets very close to getting sent off yet again just minutes into the game. I'm not generally one to pick on players but he must surely cut out these stupid fouls if he's to play more. It won't even be down to MP that he plays less if he spends most of the season banned.
Come on Serge. Get your b…