How to improve Dembele, Lamela, Townsend
Tottenham needs to get the best out of more players, there have been too many under-performers in the squad.
I gave the three players, Dembele, Lamela and Townsend as an example in the title but as I talk about this you'll see how Emmanuel Adebayor, for instance, is adversely affected by his ego.
Yesterday I discussed a positive attitude and asked our supporters to put aside their negativity and embrace a more positive approach. Today I'd loke to look more at performance and what drives performance.
There are two main components of performance, one is a task and the other is the players ego. For a player to be the best he can be, he has to focus on the task and want to be the best he can be at that task. If what matters to him is to be the best at that task and at each task you will have a superb player on your hands.
He can't achieve that without the right mental attitude though, but if that is what he wants to achieve and sets about doing it then he is demonstrating the right approach. There are a second sset of players who have a big ego and if pandering to their ego is more important to them then you'll have inconsistency. With a big ego you are always trying to prove yourself, justify yourself, you want the adoration, but being the best you can be at a specific task or skill is not your main focus.
If you want to get the best out of these people you have to shift their mentality away from themselves and towards the task. When they appreciate that being the best they can be at each task will get the best results, they will improve and perform at a higher level. An increased skill and increased performance will satisfy their ego. The key is getting their ego to buy into what you are doing. If they don't you have no chance with them and you'll have a disruptive influence in your squad.
Emmanuel Adebayor wants to be loved, he wants to think he is the main man, but he only wants that on his terms. If he can be focused on the task then he can perform to a high level, few managers have managed to focus him in that way though. Tim Sherwood played to his ego undoubtedly, set him off with a point to prove and his ego would drive him to achieve it to justify himself. The key was isolating the task for him, which in that particular instance was scoring goals.
Some tasks are minor, some are major but accepting where each fits into the grand scheme of things
The team that works wins, the team that shirks doesn't. The journalists tweet about Spurs players taking bets on when Paulinho would pull up with a strain in training is hardly trying to be the best he can be. The likes of Dembele, Townsend, Lamela have got to move more away from the ego, Lamela likes to show off, and more to the tasks they are being asked to perform.
Lamela began that last season and to an extent Dembele did, I'm not sure Townsend has grasped that yet. Put the two together, task orientated being the best you can be and an ego as a driving force to achieve that is how world class players are created. They don't happen by accident.
Further Reading
An invitation to Spurs supporters
I gave the three players, Dembele, Lamela and Townsend as an example in the title but as I talk about this you'll see how Emmanuel Adebayor, for instance, is adversely affected by his ego.
Yesterday I discussed a positive attitude and asked our supporters to put aside their negativity and embrace a more positive approach. Today I'd loke to look more at performance and what drives performance.
There are two main components of performance, one is a task and the other is the players ego. For a player to be the best he can be, he has to focus on the task and want to be the best he can be at that task. If what matters to him is to be the best at that task and at each task you will have a superb player on your hands.
He can't achieve that without the right mental attitude though, but if that is what he wants to achieve and sets about doing it then he is demonstrating the right approach. There are a second sset of players who have a big ego and if pandering to their ego is more important to them then you'll have inconsistency. With a big ego you are always trying to prove yourself, justify yourself, you want the adoration, but being the best you can be at a specific task or skill is not your main focus.
If you want to get the best out of these people you have to shift their mentality away from themselves and towards the task. When they appreciate that being the best they can be at each task will get the best results, they will improve and perform at a higher level. An increased skill and increased performance will satisfy their ego. The key is getting their ego to buy into what you are doing. If they don't you have no chance with them and you'll have a disruptive influence in your squad.
Emmanuel Adebayor wants to be loved, he wants to think he is the main man, but he only wants that on his terms. If he can be focused on the task then he can perform to a high level, few managers have managed to focus him in that way though. Tim Sherwood played to his ego undoubtedly, set him off with a point to prove and his ego would drive him to achieve it to justify himself. The key was isolating the task for him, which in that particular instance was scoring goals.
Some tasks are minor, some are major but accepting where each fits into the grand scheme of things
The team that works wins, the team that shirks doesn't. The journalists tweet about Spurs players taking bets on when Paulinho would pull up with a strain in training is hardly trying to be the best he can be. The likes of Dembele, Townsend, Lamela have got to move more away from the ego, Lamela likes to show off, and more to the tasks they are being asked to perform.
Lamela began that last season and to an extent Dembele did, I'm not sure Townsend has grasped that yet. Put the two together, task orientated being the best you can be and an ego as a driving force to achieve that is how world class players are created. They don't happen by accident.
Further Reading
An invitation to Spurs supporters
7 comments
Dembele has amazing ball control and strength to go with it but through lack of confidence or desire from being played too deep he has lost his momentum. A good coach shud be able to lift him back to his best.
Townsend wud be a good player if he was only deployed on the left as an out and out left winger. His pace and ability to beat a man wud cause loads of trouble, but on the right he jus cuts in and shoots. So predictable!
If Lamela don't produce nxt season then he won't in the epl.
As for the other 2 it's up to Poch to do his job as head coach and play them to what suits their individual abilities the best. But as Poch only plays one formatio…
Wud Messi be the best player in the world if his coach wanted him playing as a holding playmaker????
Players have certain skill sets and coaches shud play the players in their best roles and not try to force players like Aaron Lennon to be a left sided player wen it jus blatantly takes away from his natural game.
Play to ur players strength not try and stick square pegs in rnd holes.
No coach shud have a set way of playing,it shud be all dependant on who ur playing and what players u have got,that way you find ur opponents weakness and exploit it.
But some are missing the point here.
Nobody would argue a player has a skill set and you play them in the best position if that position i available but any player, if he wants to enough, can add to his skill set and play in a different position.
Bobby Charlton learned to use both feet, it wasn't natural, Kevin Keegan wasn't gifted but became European Footballer of the Year through sheer hard work.
A player should always be improving, but standing still or getting worse and that is a personal responsibility in the end as only the player can make his own decisions. He allows a coach to teach him. Dembele accepts that when he says it is ultimately down to him, which is good news for Spurs as he should get better next season, then we have quite some player.