The Problem at Spurs is Direction

Well, I was out yesterday going to see my first Grandson so had to watch a full match replay when I got back in the evening without knowing the score.

As I reported in my last article, there had been a turning point with Troy Parrott and the Athletic article, clearly inspired by my own previous article about his attitude and mentality, was unaware of the discussions that had taken place with the player, or rather their outcomes.

Make no mistake, Troy Parrott has the talent and he wants to be a top professional footballer. he is a teenager and all teenagers go through a stage where they don't listen to others.

With Eric Lamela dropping out of the squad, Parrott was given an opportunity by Mourinho and put on for injury time to give him encouragement, to show him that he needs to listen, work hard and in a professional manner.

Like I say, there had been a positive upturn in attitude, a realization, at least in words, that his behaviour has not been what it should be. Call it a peace offering, calling showing the slate is wiped clean, call it what you wish, it is down to Parrott now to show he has taken on board what being a professional is all about.

Right, onto the game.

I talk a lot about mentality. I do so because it is the be-all and end-all of success.

Positive attitude achieves, negative attitudes don't. Mourinho and the commentators talk about the team spirit Nuno Santo had installed at Wolves and that he regards it as the most important element by far at Wolves.

What that means is a positive mental outlook, a whole squad with a positive belief and a positive belief in themselves.

It is something Mauricio Pochettino was trying to instill in Spurs.

I say trying because one incident summed up Tottenham and why we have problems.

We had a free-kick some 10 yards from the half-way line.

Did we look to play it forward? No.

We were winning 1-0 and had a negative mindset.

We played the ball backward, allowing Wolves to come and press us in our own half. We went back and back, everyone abdicated responsibility, passing the buck to another player.

That negative approach led us to pass back to the goalkeeper and eventually misplacing a pass and giving them a throw-in 10 yards outside our box when they haven't even touched the ball or made a tackle!

From the play resulting from that throw-in they scored an equalizing goal. Goodness knows what Tanganga thought he was doing.

Why didn't he swing his foot at it and volley it away or sidefoot it away?

Instead, he went for it with the wrong leg and blocked it towards his own goal, crazy.

Rather than the individual mistake, it is the negative mental attitude that put us in that position in the first place and unless that mental attitude changes, it will happen again.

One problem Tanganga has, is that he is being introduced into a team with the wrong mental attitude and it is a question of whether he keeps his attitude or whether negativity seeps into him?

We initially flourished under Pochettino because the players were all young and positive, as soon as that positivity started to wane, it was a battle.

I have given the simple and cheap solution a thousand times but that isn't the traditional way so isn't put into practice, thus the attitude isn't changing.

The only other option is to sell and buy, with the hope that you are buying people who, when put in a negative environment act in a positive way and are not dragged into a negative malaise.

That is the expensive method, a method that can't be maintained without success and thus has a lower percentage success rate than working with sports psychologists as a regular and compulsory part of training would.

Troy Parrott may not have had the issues he has had if he had been.

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