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Tottenham are broken
There is no teeth-gnashing sense of entitlement here that comes with a lot of fans, but this Spurs team is broken. Probably irreparably.
Pochettino is mostly thought of as a fitness-based coach, but that’s not quite right. What he is is a motivational coach, specifically one who creates mental strength so that his teams are 1+1=3 outfits, or over-achievers. That’s also not quite right. More accurate is that they are maximum achievers. He squeezes every last drop of footballing juice from his players. This has served Spurs very well.
But the mental strength is gone, or less is greatly diminished, and it becomes very clear when the 4 components of mental strength are considered.
Belief. In themselves and their team mates. Immense fitness gave a lot of players this early, but the belief is reduced. Famously finishing third in a two-horse race with Leicester, plus many other bridesmaid results seems to have evaporated the belief. The players no longer think they can.
Optimism. Thinking things will get better. Going from Sherwood, even a broom would have provided a sense of optimism. But over five years it appears the players have gone from happily grinning with total optimism, through a time of ‘as good is it gets’ to where they are now, seemingly living with a ‘they were the good old days’ mentality. The optimism cycle certainly appears at an end.
Perseverance. Remember how it went from ‘lads, it’s Tottenham’ to last 10 minute winners and equalisers? See how that’s also gone. Quoting my second favourite tattoo fail, Spurs had very much become a ‘never don’t give up’ side. (Favourite tattoo fail: only God will gudge me.) Now it’s more like what Homer once said to Bart, ‘son, if you can’t win, don’t try.’ Okay, so it’s not that bad, but there’s no way we’re truly pushing to the final whistle.
Resilience. Setbacks were bumps and irritations. They were inconvenient but they also weren’t terminal to the success. Now every setback is a crisis of sorts, even on the pitch heads drop and fingers point. The soundbites coming from players and coaches that once would have dripped defiance at a setback, now seem little more than scripts being read that few would believe.
All in all, Pochettino’s coaching style seems to me to be one where the team must be refreshed regularly with new players, and players with significant upside in their mentality. That’s what he does. He best impacts players from years 1-3 and after that they decline. It’s like they’ve got everything they can and maximised themselves, and if nothing is won the questions in their heads mount much faster than Pochettino can provide answers.
This makes for a high wire act for success where so many things need to be right at the exact same time. Sadly for me, this doesn’t look like it quite happened and instead it looks like a season where it all slowly unravels.
Dr Oyvind, Earth, hoping to be wrong
We’ve got our Arsenal back!
Smashing goals past lower-league opposition for fun…all the young guns flitting about the field like angry wasps…early round League Cup wins…Camaraderie and hugs all round! The glory days are back my friends.
In seriousness though, that was a lot of fun to watch. I don’t care if they are ‘only’ Championship level, that was the best Arsenal performance in ages and there’s so much promise there, so many academy stars (and a couple of young signings) knocking on that first team door that the summer exodus doesn’t look scary or I’ll judged, it looks to be a masterstroke.
Early days yet, so no proclamations of a golden Class of 2019 or whatever, but we genuinely have some great talent coming through right now and it’s exciting.
I’m just glad Jenkinson got to sit this one out and enjoy the win from his Arsenalificated bedroom. #AlwaysaGooner.
Alay, N15 Gooner
…Arsenal fan here revelling in the superb victory yesterday. So many points to take out from the game but what excites the most has to do with the return from injury of what should be our main full-backs, Tierney and Bellerin, who were excellent.
A mention has to also go to Rob Holding who marked his return with a superb goal and a celebration reminiscent of Tony Adams.
Did I mention that Calum Chambers had a hat-trick of assists while playing full-back? Incredible stuff.
Oh, and the future Neymar, Don Martinelli scores a superb brace. It was a good night to be honest and a great boost to Emery who’s had some calling for his head. You have to look at the Tottenham debacle to realise how nothing is ever to be taken for granted.
What do we think of Tottenham?!
@jafyaa, Nairobi, Kenya
When an Arsenal win only makes you angry…
I appreciate it was only Forest but last night’s game was proof of why Arsenal fans are so frustrated at the moment.
Weirdly, in the Mustafi and Chambers partnership, Emery may have stumbled upon something. Don’t get me wrong – if Bellerin’s fit, he plays, but the aforementioned duo seem to work well. Not as a centre-back pairing but as right-back and central defender.
One of the biggest problems we had with Koscielny and Mustafi at the back is Mustafi is prone to errors, was being protected by Xhaka, and Koscielny’s positioning was always terrible, exacerbating the problems we have with Mustafi.
Take Xhaka out of the team and pair Mustafi with Chambers and you have two players that can play right-back and centre-back and ALTERNATE between the two meaning they can cover for each other.
When Arsenal look solid at the back we look as though we can take anyone on – including City and Liverpool. So the message to Emery is clear – don’t ever play Maitland-Niles as right-back ever again, bring in Mustafi from the cold to play in the cups and sell Xhaka in January leaving a central midfield hole for Maitland-Niles to fill. And once Captain Brainfart has gone, give the captaincy to Holding.
Graham Simons, Gooner, Norf London
Missing Ander
Just wanted to put this out there regarding some of the comments about the Man Utd hits and misses transfers. Some people seemed to get a bit upset that Herrera was put down as a hit with one Yahoo labelling him a ‘passion merchant’ and nothing more.
Here are the results since Solskjaer took over when United have started with Herrera and when they haven’t in all competitions.
With: P 14 W 10 D 2 L2
Without: P22 W 9 D 4 L – 9
So even though it’s all competitions if you take the normal structure of 3 points for a win etc then with him we have got 32 points out of 42. Without him we have collected 31 points out of 66. That is the difference he made and this is the void we are currently really feeling. The fact he left for free really does smart!
Bradley Kirrage
How to fix the offside rule?
See a lot of opinions about VAR – VAR is not the issue, all VAR does is increase the accuracy of the result based on the rules of the game. The rules are the problem not VAR.
The biggest issues are off-side and handball, here is an answer to both:
1) Make the offside rule work to the attackers advantage (we want more goals) by saying ‘ if there is clear space between the last defender and the attacker then offside is called’ simple! So what we would actually measure and to the human eye is a much easier thing to see (a gap) is whether the attacker was past the last defender – so much easier to ascertain in real time and in VAR. Easy!
2) Handball – change the rule to reflect how we behave – deliberate handball – foul or penalty depending on where it happened, Accidental handball everywhere but the penalty box – free kick, inside the penalty box – penalty corner which gives the attacking team an opportunity to score. Defender accidentally handballs in the penalty area – penalty corner same as before. Use VAR to determine if accidental or deliberate and should only be reviewed in real time (all VAR repeats should only be ever in real time – it’s so dumb to review in slow mo, it changes everything!). Easy!
Joe (why implement VAR and not change the rules)
Just get rid of VAR
I’m sick of VAR. It takes all the fun out of the game. Call me a PFM, but I would like us to go back to when refereeing mistakes were all part and parcel. Actually, while we are at it let’s get rid of the linesmen as well. Why can’t the referees just call throw-ins and offsides? They’ve got eyes haven’t they. Frankly the game hasn’t been the same since Wenger flounced over the channel with his uppity continental nonsense about fitness and diets. Bring back the glory days of two footed tackles, Vinny Jones, and Darius Vassell being considered an elite striker. Sure it looks good when KDB roles two midfielders before effortlessly cutting a pass between three defenders for his 35 assist of the season, but is it really as entertaining as watching Ali Dia con his way onto a premier league pitch? No!
Oliver, Skegness
Bernardo deserves more credit
Alex raises an interesting point to why City players missed out on the world XI, however I think he is doing one Bernardo Silva a disservice.
1) He was so good last year that City didn’t miss the only “outstanding performer in their position in the world” that is KDB, so he must be doing something right.
2) Not only did he help City to the treble, but he also led Portugal to the inaugural UEFA Nations League title, picking up the player of the tournament award and assisting the only goal in the final past a Netherlands team that fielded Van Dijk, De Light and De Jong who are deemed the ‘best’ players in their respective positions in the world.
I would argue that there is a case for him to be considered ahead of Hazard and Modric based on those feats alone.
But regardless, if we are to assume Alex is right, and take his assertion to it’s logical conclusion, then why wasn’t Guardiola named manager of the year? To achieve so much, without any recognised “outstanding performers” should mean that by default the system he implemented and managed would make him a shoo-in for best manager?
Martin Todoroski, MCFC
