A revealing Dier interview
It has taken many a Spurs fan a while to realize the importance of the mental side of the game and appreciate building a winning side, as opposed to an unlucky losers side, is about building a squad of players with the right mentality. Skill is a given.
it is not the easiest thing to do to release a skillful player or for some fans to let them go. Fans become far too attached to players and are frightened that if we let a player go he may succeed elsewhere. No doubt it will happen with Veljkovic, who fans have been conditioned to believe was the hottest prospect at the club, yet still can't get near the first team squad.
Mousa Dembele, Erik Lamela are others who have undoubted skill, but simply haven't produced it often enough. Under Mauricio Pochettino, you improve and adapt your game to the teams requirements or you don't play, whoever you are. A manager can not let sentiment get in the way of decision making. There have been a string of players leaving Spurs who didn't live up to expectations, a string of players who didn't, wouldn't adapt to the requirements of the team, but preferred to trundle along within their own comfort zone.
Football, indeed life, is about taking your chances. You'll never go out with the girl of your dreams if you don't ask her out, equally you won't get a chance to impress in the first team unless you prove you are worth it in training first. Football is not a charity, you don't get given, you have to earn.
If you instil that mentality throughout the club then you have a squad striving to constantly prove they are worth a place. Right now you simply have to perform when you are picked otherwise you could find yourself on the sidelines for quite a while. That must produce mentality spurs everyone to perform and we are seeing the results with player after player being picked for England.
The latest two have been Dele Alli and Eric Dier who have formed such a solid partnership in midfield. The interview Dier has given following his debut against France had this very theme running through it.
"I am sure that's what the manager wants, problems. Hopefully, we have given him some and us young lads have just got to keep pushing. I am sure more experienced players will be worried about that and they'll keep pushing.
"It is just a matter of keep going and see what happens. I will just try my best and see where that takes me. Our club manager is giving young English players a chance and if you take it then I guess that's where you can end up [2016 European Championships].
"I think that's what all us young Spurs boys have been doing. I think maybe he [Pochettino] just doesn't have the fear that other managers have in giving people a chance, you know?
"I think if we then didn't take our chance, then we probably wouldn't be where we are now. He has no fear in giving you a chance, but then it is obviously up to the player to take it."
It sounds obvious, but how many times have you heard a fan complaining a player wasn't given a chance. He gets a chance in training every day, you have to show it there first to prove you deserve to be picked, you can't just wait until a first team game and then try to perform, that's a failure mindset. No top club will want you with that outlook, there will always be clubs lower down who will. They get a better player who can then become a big fish in a little pond. A player who wants success, but wants it the easy way.
You have to be wary of these players because when you put them back in an environment where they don't have automatic selection on a plate they mentally can't handle it and don't perform. The fact we now have players who know they must perform is what makes this part of th building process exciting. At last we have a side made in the mould of winners. We are not there yet, we still have to continue to build and improve, but we have the guidance, the mindset and players with that mindset to do it.
That outlook is the single biggest change we have made at Spurs and it was the most important one that had to happen. Thinking like winners is the first step to becoming winners.
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