Since Gary became a regular for Sky Sports I have been hugely impressed with him. He knows his stuff, doesn't come across as an arrogant caanntt like most of the others and is not biased like messers Merson and Thompson. Take his comments about us the other day. The fact is once again as he has more often than not this season hit the nail right on the head.
He stated that Spurs were a "mentally weak team" and lets be honest about it, the years he played for Utd against us he saw that pretty much every game. The prime example being the time we found ourselves 3-0 up against them at the Lane at half time only to capitulate and lose 5-3.
The whole issue for me is how do we address this mental weakness? Most of our top players will more than likely be snapped up at the end of the season leaving us with the dregs that we cannot get shot of. What can Poch do to install mental toughness when it is quite clear a lot of our players don't give a monkeys?
Can we turn the corner or will we revert back to the midtable team we were in the 90s?
Thoughts?
Neville and mental weakness
posted on 28/10/14
Bentaleb
I agree about the players that you wrote about, Rose, Eriksen, Dier ( odd mistake aside)have not been bad at all. I think its the teams play in general that gets criticised
posted on 28/10/14
I do love G Nev!!
Should be given 10 year contract to be England manager and bring back the passion etc to the team
posted on 28/10/14
comment by HeNgY (U9129)
posted 4 minutes ago
Bentaleb
Just because they are Young doesn't make them immune to criticism!
Lamela should be dropped because his performances have been below par.
Dier should be critised because his performances have contributed to letting in goals, being out of position or not doesn't matter he's a professional ( btw he's played more as RB than CB overal )
If they aren't doing the business then every player should be droppable weather Young or not
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Of course they shouldn't be immune to criticism. I get just as frustrated with Lamela losing possession or Eriksen drifting in and out of games but I think we need to cut them some slack.
I don't see what dropping Lamela achieves. For the whole of last season Lennon was anonymous and isn't going to get any better so would he be an improvement or a set forward in the future? Townsend is equally as frustrating as Lamela and has shown less in Europa games.
I think we just have to accept that we are going to end up 5/6/7th this season and give players like Eriksen, Lamela and Kane a prolonged run in the side. Let them try things and develop. It isn't going to come off all the time and is going to be frustrating.
But in the long term it will be better for the club than reverting back to the likes of Lennon (who have been good servants to the club) but aren't going to take us forward.
posted on 28/10/14
I don't want to drop Lamela for Lennon ( he's finished ) but why give Lamela more time than say Townsend both Young and Townsend actually done more/shown more in the prem (mainly with qpr)!
Personally I'd be putting Kane in for Lamela
Chadli Kane Eriksen
>>>> striker >>>>>>
That's my choice
posted on 28/10/14
Good news naughton back for selection so dier can have a rest
posted on 28/10/14
comment by HeNgY (U9129)
posted 59 seconds ago
I don't want to drop Lamela for Lennon ( he's finished ) but why give Lamela more time than say Townsend both Young and Townsend actually done more/shown more in the prem (mainly with qpr)!
Personally I'd be putting Kane in for Lamela
Chadli Kane Eriksen
>>>> striker >>>>>>
That's my choice
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Decent selection.
I'm not for one minute saying Lamela doesn't have flaws. He is actually quite similar to Townsend in this respect. Both are clearly talented but the decision making is poor and they both need games to help improve this.
Unfortunately they are going to frustrate us at times this season.
posted on 28/10/14
Somewhere along the line I'd like to see Dier play in his natural CB position, even if it's europe for now. I think that he just might become a very good CB for us.
posted on 28/10/14
Some clubs do seem to have an ethos don't they, no matter who the players are. Stoke comes to mind, for being tough etc, barca for the style of play.....
And spurs for being weak minded, bottling peasants
How to change it? I guess the club ethos is known to the players when they join, so I guess subconsciously they regress into that over time at the club
It will take years of a different style of management to shake it off I feel. May never happen of course and we may always be like this
I personally would love to see a really strong spurs side, who don't roll over and fight for every ball.
posted on 28/10/14
Peasants????? Meant caaaants
posted on 29/10/14
We need a couple of tough Argentinians/Uruguayans to instil a winning mentality. A scrappy defensive midfielder like Mascherano + a full-back or centre-back. A strong and hard-working striker wouldn't go amiss.
I can't help but feel that some of the players voted for Kaboul as captain as they knew he was a little soft and wouldn't give them what for if things weren't going right. You need only look at his consistent communication breakdowns with Lloris to know that he is not a real, vocal leader. Yes, he looked it against Arsenal but otherwise, not so much.
We have a young team, so a certain amount of mental fragility is perhaps to be expected. It is therefore vital that our more experienced players provide strong leadership. At the moment, they are not doing that.