Spurs archaic trust in hope
We all make mistakes in life and the age-old saying is it's how we deal applied equally to football. You can't avoid making mistakes, they will always happen, but you can minimise them.
The more tires you are, especially mentally, the more mistakes you will make and consequently the fitter you are the less you will make as a result of fatigue, which also causes injury. When you have made a mistake though if you let it worry you it will multiply in effect and you'll make even more mistakes. Being able to handle it emotionally is a key ingredient to success.
Each player will have his own method of dealing with mistakes, what they mustn't do is react to mistakes, there is little point a player being startled for a moment or his teammates stopping to stare at him because he or they are then out of the game for a brief moment and that may be all the opposition needs to score a goal.
How many times do you see a side concede a goal to a mistake and then they concede another silly goal soon after? That happens because the players or some players haven't dealt with the original mistake very well, they have let it affect their game and the teams performance. The one mistake has had a compound effect and been multiplied to probably cost points.
We as fans know certain players are going to make certain mistakes and we are waiting for them almost, hoping that when they do arrive they are not costly. Some players will hold their hand up and acknowledge something is their fault, they are taking responsibility which is a good sign. All players need to simply accept it has happened and forget about it, move on, you can't go back and change it but you can change the future.
Do you or your teammates dwell on it or do you simply move on. It can be analysed on the training, a cause found and a solution put forward but while a game is going on you need to be 100% focused on what is going to happen next. The player who can simply forget it and not let it affct the rest of his game is the player destined to perform at a higher level than a player of equal ability who isn't that mentally strong.
A mistake doesn't have to be major, it could be something as simple as a poor first touch, or a misplaced pass, a pass that is played to slowly so it is intercepted, failing to make a decision and doing nothing or an unsuccessful tackle, all can affect a player's confidence and the confidence in him of his teammates.
For players who are affected what emotionally happens is that a players anxiety and frustration increase as he replays it in his head. Roberto Soldado is a case in point at the moment in front of goal, in training he smashes them in, in a game anxiety take over.
Soldado lacks belief right now, the game against Fiorentina when one-on-one with the goalkeeper showed he doesn't believe he can score, h doesn't trust himself, when confident he would have tucked the chance away without thinking.
The anxiety and frustration lead to a fear of making a mistake and therefore confidence in what you want to do, in your own skill, your own ability, even though you have proven you have it many times before.
Mentally strong people react in a positive way, the next action they take is positive and when they are in a similar situation they react in a positive way. A striker has to be prepared to miss to be able to score. If he is frightened of missing he is in a negative mindset and he diminishes his chances of success dramatically.
To me it is crazy that we pay £26 million for a player and when he is down on confidence we don't bring in a specialist sports psychologist to build his confidence and return him to the level that he shows in training and has shown at previous clubs. The cost is minimal, the benefit is simply massive, both on and off the field.
If you have the best facilities but use archaic methods you are working against yourself. If something isn't working and the method for dealing with Soldado's confidence isn't working, then you change what you do to change the result. All we are doing at the moment is in effect pinning our faith in hope when there is a blindingly obvious solution staring us in the face.
We bottle the top four every season we are in a chance of it, not through lack of ability but through the lack of a strong mentality. It seems as if our players haven't truly believed they are good enough to achieve it, even when in a really strong position. Nerves, fear, anxiety have taken over and our performances diminished while others get stronger.
It's all in the head, emotion is controlled by thoughts, they affect performance so should be an integral part of any training regime, not an option a player can choose for himself. If we want to build something then let's build it properly and stop trusting to hope.
Further Tottenham Reading
A delve into the archives has plucked out two articles from May 2014 that are still relevant today.
Ardiles was spot on a year ago
Waving a magical managerial wand won't fix Tottenham
The more tires you are, especially mentally, the more mistakes you will make and consequently the fitter you are the less you will make as a result of fatigue, which also causes injury. When you have made a mistake though if you let it worry you it will multiply in effect and you'll make even more mistakes. Being able to handle it emotionally is a key ingredient to success.
Each player will have his own method of dealing with mistakes, what they mustn't do is react to mistakes, there is little point a player being startled for a moment or his teammates stopping to stare at him because he or they are then out of the game for a brief moment and that may be all the opposition needs to score a goal.
How many times do you see a side concede a goal to a mistake and then they concede another silly goal soon after? That happens because the players or some players haven't dealt with the original mistake very well, they have let it affect their game and the teams performance. The one mistake has had a compound effect and been multiplied to probably cost points.
We as fans know certain players are going to make certain mistakes and we are waiting for them almost, hoping that when they do arrive they are not costly. Some players will hold their hand up and acknowledge something is their fault, they are taking responsibility which is a good sign. All players need to simply accept it has happened and forget about it, move on, you can't go back and change it but you can change the future.
Do you or your teammates dwell on it or do you simply move on. It can be analysed on the training, a cause found and a solution put forward but while a game is going on you need to be 100% focused on what is going to happen next. The player who can simply forget it and not let it affct the rest of his game is the player destined to perform at a higher level than a player of equal ability who isn't that mentally strong.
A mistake doesn't have to be major, it could be something as simple as a poor first touch, or a misplaced pass, a pass that is played to slowly so it is intercepted, failing to make a decision and doing nothing or an unsuccessful tackle, all can affect a player's confidence and the confidence in him of his teammates.
For players who are affected what emotionally happens is that a players anxiety and frustration increase as he replays it in his head. Roberto Soldado is a case in point at the moment in front of goal, in training he smashes them in, in a game anxiety take over.
Soldado lacks belief right now, the game against Fiorentina when one-on-one with the goalkeeper showed he doesn't believe he can score, h doesn't trust himself, when confident he would have tucked the chance away without thinking.
The anxiety and frustration lead to a fear of making a mistake and therefore confidence in what you want to do, in your own skill, your own ability, even though you have proven you have it many times before.
Mentally strong people react in a positive way, the next action they take is positive and when they are in a similar situation they react in a positive way. A striker has to be prepared to miss to be able to score. If he is frightened of missing he is in a negative mindset and he diminishes his chances of success dramatically.
To me it is crazy that we pay £26 million for a player and when he is down on confidence we don't bring in a specialist sports psychologist to build his confidence and return him to the level that he shows in training and has shown at previous clubs. The cost is minimal, the benefit is simply massive, both on and off the field.
If you have the best facilities but use archaic methods you are working against yourself. If something isn't working and the method for dealing with Soldado's confidence isn't working, then you change what you do to change the result. All we are doing at the moment is in effect pinning our faith in hope when there is a blindingly obvious solution staring us in the face.
We bottle the top four every season we are in a chance of it, not through lack of ability but through the lack of a strong mentality. It seems as if our players haven't truly believed they are good enough to achieve it, even when in a really strong position. Nerves, fear, anxiety have taken over and our performances diminished while others get stronger.
It's all in the head, emotion is controlled by thoughts, they affect performance so should be an integral part of any training regime, not an option a player can choose for himself. If we want to build something then let's build it properly and stop trusting to hope.
Further Tottenham Reading
A delve into the archives has plucked out two articles from May 2014 that are still relevant today.
Ardiles was spot on a year ago
Waving a magical managerial wand won't fix Tottenham
4 comments
On another note Soldado is an embarrassment we couldn't have found a player less suited to the lone striker role in the premier league than this weak slow lazy dwarf, the sooner hes moved on the better.