Dembele demonstrates Spurs mental weakness
Mousa Dembele has inadvertently demonstrated Tottenaham's mental weakness by suggesting he and the Spurs players don't think Gary Neville's comments about Spurs being mentally weak are right.
I wrote recently that the way Tottenham are addressing their mental weaknesses, the same weaknesses that MauricioPochettino says we have, is wrong. I wrote that if a player can't see a problem then he can't fix it and simply chatting to like minded players isn't going to make a blind bit of difference.
If you have a problem you see a specialist, not an amateur who doesn't even think there is a problem.
Gary Neville hit the nail on the head. He is the best TV analysts on TV and has no axe to grind with Tottenham. He can give an honest independent assessment and it mirrors what I have been writing for the last couple of years, Tottenham are mentally weak, we do not have enough players with a winning mentality.
For some reason Mousa Dembele disagrees but Dembele is the same guy who openly admitted he couldn't get motivated to play Leeds and often plays looking as if he has no motivation, that a game simply isn't important enough to him personally. His head in the sand approach does Tottenham no favours.
How can you not expect a team losing against a side who have a proven mental weakness at the start of the second half to not come at you. That's an unbelievable thing to say. The one thing a side would want to do is get an early goal to get back into the game.
What Dembele is actually implying is that Asteras Tripolis are weak opposition and Spurs are so far superior that they should only be thinking by how many they lose by.
'We were too relaxed, this can not happen again. We need to speak about it.' We were told you spoke about it after Newcastle, so it already has happened again. What is the point in you speaking about something to your fellow blind team-mates?
How can you be surprised by a team losing trying to do something about it in front of their own fans?
You couldn't shout 'mentally we are not winners' louder if you tried.
What is it I have been writing for a couple of years, when we are 2-0 up we need to be clinical and not have the attitude we have, oh well it doesn't matter if we miss an easy chance, were winning. Yes it does matter, if you are winning 2-0 you should be scoring 4 or 5 on a regular basis, not once in a blue moon. Our attitude is summed up by Emmanuel Adebayor always dropping into midfield to pass the ball about, totally forgetting about trying to score another.
Winners are born, but they can be made, however to become winners requires a total mental shift which won't happen without specialist help. The problem needs to be diagnosed, shown to be a problem, then a solution provided and put into action. Each element has to be accepted and understood by the player. Enlightenment.
Without that enlightenment no solution will work. Players will pay lip service and chat about it but nothing will change because deep down each individual player doesn't think it's a problem with them, it's a problem with others. basically they'll all be conning each other. They'll think they have sorted things and I can guarantee you they won't have.
Dembele's attitude demonstrates why so many people in the game are frustrated by him, he has all the talent and should be a far better player than he is but his mentality holds him back, Emmanuel Adebayor is exactly the same.
What we need is a squad with the attitude of Hugo Lloris. Last season he has admitted Spurs have a mental weakness which they have to address and he produces a consistent high level of performance week in week out. He does that because he has the right mentality, a winners mentality, no game is a small game, every game is an important game.
Tottenham players must start to realise that, they won't though until the club employs a Sports Psychologist to sort them out.
I wrote recently that the way Tottenham are addressing their mental weaknesses, the same weaknesses that MauricioPochettino says we have, is wrong. I wrote that if a player can't see a problem then he can't fix it and simply chatting to like minded players isn't going to make a blind bit of difference.
If you have a problem you see a specialist, not an amateur who doesn't even think there is a problem.
Gary Neville hit the nail on the head. He is the best TV analysts on TV and has no axe to grind with Tottenham. He can give an honest independent assessment and it mirrors what I have been writing for the last couple of years, Tottenham are mentally weak, we do not have enough players with a winning mentality.
"When I think of (Mauricio) Pochettino at Southampton, a team that always seemed ready, they were always alert. You never thought you could catch them out, certainly not with what I’d call basic tactics like this.
"And yet when you talk about typical Tottenham, he’s got to affect the culture at that football club and it runs right the way through it.
"This is a coach who had a bright team, an alert team last season. He’s got to affect the culture at this football club.
"It’s what I think of Tottenham historically, never ready, weak, weak up here (in the head), and they have to change that culture.
"I think Pochettino needs to be given two or three years to run amok through that club to get rid of that type of attitude."
For some reason Mousa Dembele disagrees but Dembele is the same guy who openly admitted he couldn't get motivated to play Leeds and often plays looking as if he has no motivation, that a game simply isn't important enough to him personally. His head in the sand approach does Tottenham no favours.
"I think we’re not weak but I didn’t hear this. I think we think differently about this. Every team has some weaknesses and we have our own things to think about.
"We need to be ready quicker, from the first minute. We did it in the first half and then in the second half we didn’t expect them (Asteras) to come at us.
"We were too relaxed and this cannot happen again. We need to speak about it.
"Personally there are some reasons why in the second half we didn’t do so well but we will talk with the team about it. A lot of people have their opinion so we will talk internally.
"We were surprised by them. It can’t happen again because we could have ended up drawing or losing.
"We need to learn that even when we’re 2-0 up it’s not over yet. That’s the lesson."
How can you not expect a team losing against a side who have a proven mental weakness at the start of the second half to not come at you. That's an unbelievable thing to say. The one thing a side would want to do is get an early goal to get back into the game.
What Dembele is actually implying is that Asteras Tripolis are weak opposition and Spurs are so far superior that they should only be thinking by how many they lose by.
'We were too relaxed, this can not happen again. We need to speak about it.' We were told you spoke about it after Newcastle, so it already has happened again. What is the point in you speaking about something to your fellow blind team-mates?
How can you be surprised by a team losing trying to do something about it in front of their own fans?
You couldn't shout 'mentally we are not winners' louder if you tried.
What is it I have been writing for a couple of years, when we are 2-0 up we need to be clinical and not have the attitude we have, oh well it doesn't matter if we miss an easy chance, were winning. Yes it does matter, if you are winning 2-0 you should be scoring 4 or 5 on a regular basis, not once in a blue moon. Our attitude is summed up by Emmanuel Adebayor always dropping into midfield to pass the ball about, totally forgetting about trying to score another.
Winners are born, but they can be made, however to become winners requires a total mental shift which won't happen without specialist help. The problem needs to be diagnosed, shown to be a problem, then a solution provided and put into action. Each element has to be accepted and understood by the player. Enlightenment.
Without that enlightenment no solution will work. Players will pay lip service and chat about it but nothing will change because deep down each individual player doesn't think it's a problem with them, it's a problem with others. basically they'll all be conning each other. They'll think they have sorted things and I can guarantee you they won't have.
Dembele's attitude demonstrates why so many people in the game are frustrated by him, he has all the talent and should be a far better player than he is but his mentality holds him back, Emmanuel Adebayor is exactly the same.
What we need is a squad with the attitude of Hugo Lloris. Last season he has admitted Spurs have a mental weakness which they have to address and he produces a consistent high level of performance week in week out. He does that because he has the right mentality, a winners mentality, no game is a small game, every game is an important game.
Tottenham players must start to realise that, they won't though until the club employs a Sports Psychologist to sort them out.
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