Home
Tottenham Talk

Couple of points from the NŠ Mura game

Couple of points from the NŠ Mura game

Couple of points from the NŠ Mura game

OK, what did I see against NŠ Mura, well, the same as you probably.

I saw a start that put us 2-0 up and a side who then relaxed knowing they had the game sewn up.

I saw a side that then lacked motivation, drive, commitment and concentration.

I saw a side passing sideways more and not going for the jugular.

I saw Dele Alli playing lazy passes, casual passes.

If you overhit a pass in the final third it is often because of a lack of concentration, alack of feeling of the importance of the pass.

Get this right and we score.

But we just play, what I would call a general ball, we just play it into an area without due care and attention.

Dele, Doherty and Moura were the three major culprits of this.

Sorry to mention is again, well I'm not really, but it's mentality.

Why aren't we teaching players to focus at the vital moment, why aren't we teaching them to control their emotions, why aren't we teaching them to switch into the right frame of mind in an instant.

It can be done.

You train them to have a trigger that instantly sets in motion a positive mentality and emotions, emotions of an important goal creating pass successfully achieved.

With a trigger that can be brought to bear in an instant.

The result would be more successful passes in the final third instead of these casual ones we make.

That would help us be more clinical in front of goal and have the knock-on effect of increasing performance all over the pitch.

What else did we see.

We saw that movement creates passes.

Scarlett went off, Kane cam on and immediately the midfield had passes to make that cut through the defence because of his movement.

Take that back a step.

If there is no movement in midfield then the centre-backs have nobody to pass to, the only option is a sideways pass or along ball over the top into a channel.

Why do we need a defensive midfielder to drop back five yards from a centre-back to collect the ball from him?

That just means we have fewer players available to pass forward to being marked by more players than we have to pass to.

Our centre-backs can play a pass.

There were times when Skipp and Højbjerg both dropped right back, yet the opposition have every man behind the ball.

Neither were dragging the opposition out of shape, neither were creating space.

It was pointless.

Why can't we give our centre-backs more responsibility and use our defensive midfielder(s) as another player we can play a forward pass to?

We would need to develop first-time passing drills so we can implement them at times during a game.

It isn't a tactic you have to use all the time but a variation to give the opposition something else to think about.

It also aids the ball direct to a target man and pick up the second ball rather than a long ball to him with nobody around him.

I'll mention the beef about throw-ins again and the fact we need better drills because this off the cuff stuff doesn't work.

We need a specialist throw-in coach, which is often generated a specialism of a member of the coaching staff, rather than their sole function.

With movement being so important to passing has anyone ever considered a movement off the ball coach.

For instance, we don't have enough options when our centre-backs have the ball, the players don't seem to know what to do.


Well that's it for this morning's offering folks.

  • Don't forget to share this post on social media
  • Visit the THBN website each day
  • If you are a supporters group, distribute the article or direct members to it
  • Americans share share share, a big audience I'm looking to grow further
  • Outside UK - again looking to grow the audience, every share helps

1 comment

  1. I so agree. I actually felt Gio was more frequently at fault for bad / sloppy passes than Lucas but did contribute too to balance up a bit. Dele was generally poor at times but was progressive at others. Responsible for giving away possession needlessly which led to their goal - via the corner (What a goal though ;-)). Doherty seemed to do nothing but pull us backwards & lose the ball unnecessarily. I believe he needs to find much improved form before he should be considered for playing.

    The last thirty minutes definitely papered over the cracks. Many commentators only see the score & think we showed recovery from Sunday. I thought the opposite. We started well and, exactly as you said, seemed to assume job done. There was an opportunity there to send a message to supporters & players alike that we really had learned the lessons of how a poor mentality can sabotage a good team. Then we just sat back & relaxed. Really not good enough and not even heading in th…