French Are Lazy - What The Managers Say - Part 5
Now I understand many of you are getting withdrawal symptoms not having heard about cooking, gardening and my frogs lately but you having been getting a dose of life lessons wrapped up in football paper.
Wll, I went out to fill the pond with water and a movement in one of the plants was the littlest frog hopping once when he saw me, scary sight obviously.
That gives you a lift for the rest of the day so then off to the front door to bring the bins in and the key to the garage is missing off the keyring.
A search inside, a search upstairs in the shorts and or trousers I might have been wearing yesterday revealed nothing, nothing on the floor, nothing under or in the shoes but there is was outside the front door lying on the ground.
A garage key isn't something you think to have a spare of so perhaps I had better get one done just in case.
Be prepared.
Chicken goujons yesterday with boiled potatoes with a steak pudding the following day which I was going to cook in the steamer but didn't get around to it.
These things do make life easy, everything on it's shelf, water in the bottom, set the timer, turn it on and forget it until it pings.
None of this popping to see if the pans are alright, popping to see how it's doing, sit down with a glass of wine with a book, my blog or the TV.
Today, well it's toad in the hole with cumberland sausages, always worth changing the sausages you use to change the flavour slightly.
Thick gravy will be required as opposed to the thick 20 something fans who infest Twitter.
Roberto Mancini won 13 trophies as a player, both domestic and European and as a manager won trophies at Fiorentina, Lazio, Inter Milan, Manchester City and Galatasaray.
His philosophy was to obtain great players and by that he meant players with skill and the right mentality and hard work.
"If you tell me they all look like top players, then I tell you with some we need to work on mentality."You can look like a good player, but not have the mentality to win at the top level.
"In the summer when I changed players, and bought players that were for me good players, that month we start to work on their mentality and their attitude."Roberto Mancini
Pele used to use visualisation techniques to imagine how he was going to play and then simply went out there and did it
Glenn Hoddle used to use visualisation techniques to imagine how he was going to play, then go to the ground and perform.
Such was his ability, that he was and is known simply as God to those of us fortunate to have watched him, probably the most technically gifted English midfielder of his generation.
Didier Drogba did the same.
Didier Drogba did the same.
Why do so few do it, why is there still a stigma against things we don't understand and therefore do not generally embrace?
Breaking these barriers helps us improve.
We learn more from positives than negatives.
It takes motivation to improve negatives, it doesn't to improve positives because it's fun.
Spend more time focussing on your positives and you'll have greater motivation.
"The English players surprised me because on the pitch they are really professional."Outside the pitch I don’t know, but on the pitch nothing compares, not the French or Italians, because you have to push the French to work hard."The same is true with the Italian players – you have to push them too. The English you have to push to stop!Carlo Ancelotti
That is from an Italian and that tells you the problem with Tanguy Ndombélé and Étienne Capoue before him, laziness.
A desire to do as little as possible to get the job done, an entitlement to a starting berth, not something one should have to work for.
"It’s not easy to not always be the one who is picked by the manager. But my attitude is always to keep going, give 100% and put pressure on the manager to give me time to play as well."Kolo Touré
That attitude is a winning mentality attitude and I just don't see that in Ndombélé, I just see sulking.
Every player wants to play, it should be the biggest motivator to them, if it isn't then something is wrong.
A club employs a player to train.
A manager decides who he will reward with a game.
The rest he has to tell them personally they are being left out, how they react is important.
Giovani Lo Celso and Tanguy Ndombélé have reacted in opposing ways.
When should you tell players who is playing, who is a sub?
On the day.
If you do it before, if you do it on a Thursday before a Saturday game (in a normal season) then you are going to have disenchanted players with their heads down affecting the whole team atmosphere.
Thus you have to keep them all on board, all wondering, particularly with today's over sensitive youngsters.
You see them all on Twitter, the 20 somethings who know it all even though the only thing they have managed is a paper round.
"When I was a player, I hated getting left out and not told why. Too many managers do that."So when I became a manager, I always told people why – even if it was just a quick word. Then I’d say, “If you want to talk more, come and see me on Monday after the game.”Glenn Hoddle
At half-time the players need to rest, some of them will switch off if the talk from the manager is too long so you can't just pound them with information for 15 minutes and you should always finish with something positive.
You want players going out for the second half with a positive mindset, however the first-half has gone.
Positivity breeds success, negativity breeds failure.
Now when you have two games a week it is rather different because the players know there is going to be rotation so they know their chance is going to come.
It is up to the player to do the job the boss asks, not the job they think they should be doing and leave their mark on the game, even if that is simply doing their job in the most efficient way possible.
Success is inspiring, people follow the successful.
Mourinho is a winner, he is a commander.
He has come into the club with a detailed plan and amid uncertainty has said "OK, this is the way we are going to tackle it."
He has taken a commander's role.
That is something players can get behind.
This chap knows what he is doing, he has been there and done it before, if we follow him we win things.
With that mentality, we can.
What you are going to see and come to understand in upcoming editions of All or Nothing is that José Mourinho doesn't do everything.
He assembles a team of experts in their field and relies on them to do their job, he has to trust them implicitly.
He can then oversee the actual training with the players and manage.
Fans are clueless when it comes to building a squad, they would just buy every name and spend money that doesn't exist, but that is only the tip of the iceberg, handling egos is a factor they never consider.
What about the player who likes to be the big fish in a small pond?
What about the player who likes responsibility, likes to feel important?
What about the player with designs to improve and have an ever growing important role?
What about the player using you as a stepping stone?
What about the disgruntled player, how does he affect everyone else?
What about the player who likes lots of positive communication?
What about the players who are better than they have shown because the right framework for them to blossom hasn't been found?
What about the player carrying an injury, like Trippier in his final season with us (King, Dembele, Wanyama)?
There are stacks of questions, stacks of problems to solve.
Remember Adel Taarabt at QPR under Neil Warnock who told his players not to pass to him in their half of the field and actually fined them is they did because he'd try and nutmeg someone and lose the ball.
Or Gareth Bale being told he didn't have to defend and Clink Dempsey being asked to do his defensive duties for him?
A whole swath of our fans didn't even see that and were always on Dempsey's back, yet he was vital to getting the best out of Bale.
If you have all these ego's you have to somehow manage them.
Taarabt was told he would get QPR promotion, that was his responsibility basically, to score the goals, to make the difference.
How do you do that with more than one ego?
Don't you need some worker ants, Doherty, Sissoko, Højbjerg?
Does your worker ant have to be a household name as well, another ego.
This is a whole group of players working together every day, there has to be a mixture, just as there will be a mixture of mentalities.
You can't just speak to them as a group and give group instructions, you have to man manage each and every one of them as the minute they are not on board with you they won't give their best and therefore can't be trusted.
They want to be individuals, simply saying this is your role within the team doesn't work for all, particularly if they see their role as bigger than that.
You have to get them on board with the vision (goal) be it for the season or for the longer journey (building the cub towards a European trophy for instance).
We saw with Pochettino that once a journey has been undertaken there has to be another one, a bigger one and you have to keep the players on track with it, you have to maintain their focus on stepping stone objectives.
This is why they have to buy into it, be enthused by it and why they have to determine their own roles and own goals within it (as spoken about previously).
You have seen in the All or Nothing series that Harry Kane wants to be up there with Messi and Ronaldo, he has that aim, that desire and that will push him to become better.
If he had the mindset of I could never be as good as Messi or Ronaldo but I'll try, he wouldn't improve as far as with the positive mindset.
Trying isn't good enough, striving to achieve a goal is a minimum requirement.
What is Ryan Sessegnon striving for?
What is his thought process?
He looks out of his depth frequently at the moment but he is in the development stage so putting Harry Kane's mentality into his head would work wonders.
I wrote when he first broke into the side under Tim Sherwood that players needed his mentality, a winning mentality knows a winning mentality when it sees one and time has proved that assessment right.
So we have the team goals and the individual goals and these have to be married up, can you achieve both or will one override the other and what effect will that have to the individual or the team?
Matt Doherty has come in and by all account is a solid professional but second only to Alexander Trent-Arnold as an attacking right-back, something he isn't given credit for by the 'name or chequebook' supporters.
It is patently obvious to anyone with half a brain that Pierre-Emile Højbjerg is going to make a big difference to our midfield, the way Tanguy Ndombélé hasn't.
The mentalities of the two couldn't be further apart and a character like Højbjerg's is what every player should have, but they don't, they aren't trained to, which they should be.
But let's no go there again(for now).
Running off at a tangent, let me tell you a little secret.
Our fans make an excuse for Ndombélé saying he hasn't been fit, after a year he should be, but José Mourinho has studied physiology in order to be able to discuss injuries with players.
He is a manager who believes in having knowledge and having experts where he doesn't have the knowledge, that way he can earn respect, admiration and create empathy.
His players know they are not going to bullshit him over an injury, he is one step ahead of them through the knowledge they don't have.
Physically, Mourinho will know the score with Tanguy better than Tanguy knows it himself.
A player will stay as long as they think they are growing.
Ndombélé does not see himself as growing at Tottenham and has switched off.
He has closed his mind to the possibility and see the only answer as moving elsewhere.
You can try and bring a player like that back on board and Mourinho clearly has with his lockdown training but it hasn't worked.
Without a change of mindset he is useless to the club and the club useless to him.
A player has to grow, feel the football is good, feel it promotes them a profile as an individual.
They don't want to be lost as just part of a team, even though in practice that's what they must be to get their individual goals.
How does a striker achieve that with Harry Kane in front of them?
There are easier opportunities to shine as an individual at other clubs than sit behind Kane.
You have to have the right character to do it so the sales message for every potential purchase for that position is different.
You can't just sell them on what the club wants, they are interested in what they want, so how is the club going to develop them with limited opportunities?
That marriage is a balancing act.
It works for some at some clubs and not at others.
A player isn't going to fit in every club.
"To lead a side you must motivate it, and to motivate you must be yourself motivated. I motivate people with my own motivation."If you are fully motivated, if you show them that, if you make them feel that you have that, they will do well."If you are not a guy with motivation, with passion, how can you make other people feel passion for the game? After that I think you learn with experiences."The moment that you learn that every person is a person, that’s the point you become a better leader, especially in a group like ours, in football, with very gifted people."José Mourinho
Mourinho has to create a hunger for glory feeling, well it's more than a feeling, it's something you can almost smell, almost touch, that it's almost a substance, an object.
It's something hanging in the air that drives players forward, that adds to their enjoyment, you'll get better performing players.
There is a huge difference between creating that and stating or having a club desire for glory.
You have to captivate everyone.
The player has to captivated by it, it has to be hanging in the air everywhere they go in the club, from the canteen to the laundry room to the medical room to the training ground, everywhere.
Do you see it in our supporters, I don't.
Coaches see what a fan doesn't.
A fan wants the side to be constantly playing to win but a coach, and Mourinho has personally done this, will tell a side that if they can keep the game as a draw until the last 15 minutes then the opposition will take risks and we will win the game.
It happens and the coach is seen as god like.
This is where clinical finishing come in, another of my bugbears, another aspect a winning mentality places so much importance on.
For Son and Dele to be angry they missed chances is brilliant, it's exactly what we want, clinical finishing should be practiced in all situations when they arise, manchester City have it.
That creates an aura itself and that creates mistakes in the opposition, it's self perpetuating.
That can only happen if everyone has bought into the mission.
Again, a mental feeling, again a glaring need for a psychologist to help foster the right mindset, particularly at a club that doesn't have it.
The dynamic of the group is what helps success, get the dynamic wrong and it affects everybody so a player fans might see as ideal may not be ideal off the pitch and thus have a detrimental effect on the squad and on performance.
If you have one guy not putting in 100% on the training field then some players will see him getting away with it and start to do it themselves, you are then on a slippery slope.
This is the dilemma with Ndombélé strolling around in games and not putting the effort in on the training pitch.
While we are on the training pitch, let me ask you a question.
When should you practice a skill, when it's going well or when it isn't?
The answer is when it's going well because you don't want it to go bad so you put the continued effort in to prevent the bad from arriving.
Have a great day and I'll speak to you soon.
COYS
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