Effort can't be coached, some players will put it in and others won't. Some lazier players can be carried by the rest of the team if they're really good enough to make crucial differences despite lacking effort but they're a rarity. In football speed of thought > speed of action 9 times out of 10. You can improve a player's footballing intelligence but it takes time and a willingness to learn. It takes time for players to learn to read the game well so they know the best times to press, where to close down space in midfield, when to mark space and when to mark men, when to play a pass or hold onto the ball, and what pass to play. Tactics have a place in the game at every level. We might not have had a tactical discussion before a kickabout at school but we all knew who the quick lad on the other team was and when we had to defend against him we took account of his pace. Its more complicated at a higher level, as there are more possibilities regarding analysis of other players, and the time spent on the training ground means that you can tell your players to double up on a man, or to be careful when going forward not to leave space in behind etc etc 'Experts' and pundits on TV and in the press do often make football more complicated than it is, its how they make their living! And I know that I sometimes overthink and overcomplicate things regarding tactics on here too. But while football is a simple game at heart, making people play better football is not an easy or simple thing to do, especially when they lack effort and the willingness to learn and improve. That seems to be the case with too many at Spurs. Physically and technically we have some good players, some very good players in some cases. But many of them seem to lack mentally, both in terms of desire/effort, and in terms of decision making on the pitch. Pochettino has got one hell of a job on his hands to improve them on that front.
ideally both have to be refined..but to think one tactic works against everyone is a pig headed attitude..and for a player to think his natural game will work against everyone is also a tad arrogant....for me..if your a pro you should have the brains to be able to switch things in a match as an individual....we don't do that. Even lower oppo teams manage it for one match when they are playing for cup glory. We just plod along hoping to squeeze the damn square peg into the round hole. you and I and the rest sit there saying the same things every week..but the players don't change a thing and nor does the manager...for me theres something wrong there..attitude wise and I don't think you can be a good player if you cant graft hard...and then earn the right to show off your skill...its ok if your a Bale or a Ronaldo.....but our bunch need to have an alternative method....we don't have a strength...Stoke do..Palace do..we are lost souls it seems...
Incompetence, this isn't just incompetence Spain !... Seems to me its bordering on bear stupidity. At this rate Spurs will be relegation contenders and fighting for survival, come March. Someone needs to make a judgement call now. IMO the dross should be cleared out and replaced by hard premiership experience and grit,. all in this January window. To be involved in a relegation battle in this season (of all season) will do this club untold and long term damage. As we know, there isn't much room for complacency in this league, but I'm not sure if coach Pochettino understands this. I'm not even sure if Pochettino fully understands the depth of feeling and pride at this club. If he is to stay., I want to see more sweat and tears from him as a coach/manager and he needs to communicate a positive sense of urgency and motivation to his payers.. I can see no other way out of the mess.
I am not buying the 'our players don't try and are lazy' view. I have seen plenty of application, plenty of sweat, plenty of running about and positively buckets and buckets of passing the ball. What I have not seen so much of is football brains! Eriksen has one for sure, I think Soldado has one and Kane certainly does but many of our players look bereft of ideas. How many games this season and last,come to that, have we seen Spurs battering a well drilled and populous defence to no avail. How many times have we seen them continue with this failing tactic until finally Lennon is called from the bench to try something else. I remember Walker talking about his team mates a couple of years ago claiming that he and Lennon were the 'thickest' in the squad. Tongue in cheek, of course, but right now when Lennon comes on he looks like a bright spark in more ways than one. What does that say about our current squad? This squad has enough about it to make a decent team, as we have seen against Everton, Arsenal, & even ,despite losing, against Chelsea. I take on board what Strachan said about it being harder to play fast football against defensive 'lower' quality teams but even so! With the amount of talent in our squad I am convinced there are many managers out there who could make it into a competitive team, so once again I have to question why we employ a relatively naive Argentinian with limited experience of the PL or even European football. What we need is an experienced case hardened Manager who understands the PL and can work with millionaire prima donnas who need to be told what a very simple game this is, provided they know what they are supposed to be doing.
I think that what we need is sensible and balanced team selection. We lack width and creativity in virtually every game and we're often sticking players into unfamiliar roles and failing to pick complementary pairings.
I assume Harry was one... who's your other? Depends on your point of view I suppose. All were either flavours of the month or emergency appointments in my opinion. Not necessarily talking about the past either. I mean going forward from here.
Hang on though - that's a good point. You can't even count BMJ since he had no EPL experience when he was appointed. I mean - maybe he had a particular knowledge of the Prem that I don't know about? Maybe most Dutch football-types do. But anyway that leaves Hoddle (flavour of the month and massive PR bonus but barely any EPL experience), Pleat (Ha! There's your case-hardened manager with EPL(ish) experience!) though maybe he doesn't count, Santini (big name and decent experience though none of it outside French football), Jol (same but less experienced and no big name), Ramos (only experienced in Spanish league), Harry and then AVB (barely any experience anywhere), Sherwood (ditto but maybe more so and wasn't even a serious appointment), and now Pochettino (handful of years finishing mid-table in a couple of countries). Absolutely amazing really when you think about it. Imagine another business with budgets of hundreds of millions repeatedly appointing people to one of the most crucial positions in the company who have no idea what running a business like theirs is like. And it repeatedly failing but the process continuing anyway. I'm not getting on my Harry-horse again and yes, I recognise that he had good players (though he should also take some credit for that), BUT the one manager we've appointed who had bags of EPL experience and had achieved very good things at his previous clubs (record EPL finished for Pompey and West Ham and a Cup for Pompey) did alright for us didn't he? The ONE time we've appointed someone whose CV actually indicated that they might be good for the job it worked out. Amazing. Just that fact alone is incredible. (The fact that we sacked the only two appointees who looked any good is of course another matter of amazement).
I'm not sure that experience of the EPL matters that much ie Pellegrini, none at all and look what's happening. Wenger also.
Jol - Hmm.... Ok if you overlook any real first-hand managerial experience of the premier league but he was again, an emergency appointment (where we got very lucky) so we hardly went out and found him. You know Jol was Santini's assistant and simply got promoted. So his "employment" was really a similar case to Sherwood arguably. More like... Jacques has walked out so right place, right time. But that said, 2 out of 14 managers with experience who understand the PL isn't exactly a great hit rate is it? A ratio of 1:7 (or 14%) is poor by any standard. Judging by your recent posts, you clearly don't rate MP and want him gone. So who would you realistically appoint instead who's either a) available or b) likely to come to Spurs? Sounds like you want a Pulis type figure.
I don't think it's strictly necessary to appoint a manager with Premiership experience - everybody has to start somewhere. My main worry about MP is that, once again, he is trying to impose a system on players who are, in many cases, clearly not suited to it. I'm not quite ready to give up on him. Yet, anyway!
I've only just recovered from saturday. I can see why i've been forgetting we are playing with increasing regularity. I watched all of that game and it was utterly ****. We got dominated in large periods of the game, at home, by Palace!
I think Poch will do alright,but it won't be until next season,when he can get the players he wants,and get rid of who can't or won't play his system
