Spurs Home Post Match 1-6 (SIX !!!)

[Thracian]

On 2017-5-19 at 14:08, foxinsocks said:

What does last night teach us? – it was a painful lesson.

 

I was impressed with the quality of spurs – great passing- attacking in numbers  and defending (often we were outnumbered in their box 5 to 2,  But best of all every time Son or Kane shot at goal the shot was in the corners – high or low left or right – never at kasper. 

Shooting: I previously  mentioned the book the book “Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise” by Anders Ericsson Robert Pool   https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B011H56MKS/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

- this book shows how with “deliberate practice”  (stretching, qualified, concentrated) mortals can gains the skills and the mindset of the elite (eg one guy got a golf handicap of 2 in 24 months).  EG: turn and run across the front of box,  shooting from the edge of the box through a crowded area (dummies) to hit a hoop in each corner of the goal… until they can do it 10 times I a row.

 

Slimani: I watched Kane muscle Benny off the ball – he is a stronger guy than when he was with us.  Slimani  looks to have lost weight and be quicker – but he need to work on his upper body strength so that he can out muscl PL defender and be able to run directly into the box (like Costa). I believe that “deliberate practice could help Slimani be a great PL centre forward … If he will put the work in.

 

Mahrez:  if one of you said to me “look, we’re bought this guy for £25m” and I watched his last six games I would think it was a joke.  We all know he can be great – that’s the frustrating thing about him – but his form is someplace else right now. IMO it is not a physical thing…I think he needs to practice to improve his decision making. He needs to watch videos and then freeze the action and decide what he should do and then play it forward and look at what happened.  This type of work is slow – but very beneficial.  If he goes he goes – but if he is still our player, then this is what must be done to improve his game. WE are paying him a fortune surely we could spend some time working on this issue.

 

Ambition: Based on last night – I don’t think any of our 11 would start for Spurs ahead of their players (OK maybe Vardy or Albrighton at a pinch)… This is a message to our owners –yet we can’t risking blowing silly money on unproven players (e.g. Mendy, Musa, Slimani, kapustka etc).  If we want to compete in the top 4 (a fine aspiration) then we must bring in players who cannot be out of place there.  Yes , I know that as a team we can show great synergy – we won the league – but if the owners ambition is to be top four then we have to bring in the right players.  Benny is a good lad – but he is not a top 4 CB.  We need two quality CBs this summer.  We need cover for Simpson.  WE need to ensure we develop Slimani (as above)… but we need different options (e.g. a player like Arnautovic, defoe, Ronbdon etc).

 

Shakes: We were looking better at 1:2 but then they score no 3 and we were done.  Shakey chased the game and we got walloped – he could have shored it up and settled.  Good for him.  If I was doing an audition I think I would have accepted 1:3 and hoped to get the job.   I hope they appoint him sap.

 

Re spurs:

Spurs have a good quality side – yet because of their wage structure they are set to lose some of this talent – and worse some of it will wind up at its competitors.  This is a moment for Levy to believe.  (Just as it is a key moment for our owners. ) If he adopts a willingness to pay for results and quality he could be in the Champions league for the next five yeas.  Or maybe he doesn’t want to risk the money to compete with the top clubs? It will be a shame if he fails to seize this opportunity.  NB it is aalways better to pay top dollar to staff you know rather then new hire you don’t know.

 

Re my comments about Deliberate Practice above – I think this has real value – I do wish our club would read this book.

I liked reading that. Some thought provoking points. As for reading the book, I'm already a believer. Even relatively ordinary players with regards to pace or breathtaking trickery can develop an astonishing ability to be effective by concentrating on specific things.

 

Similarly, complimenting players can be trained to supply the set-ups.

 

It's why partnerships can be so effective and why i believed in them so much.

 

For instance I used to love volleying goals. But only occasionally did i have a partner who understood that and who would take a forward pass and respond with a ow but bouncing return which allowed and, indeed, encouraged such a strike.

 

Another example is to use a dummy runner by feeding a pass diagonally backwards from the wing and having two runners, one of whom lets the ball run through his legs, taking defenders' attention while the second runner benefits from momentary time and space and shoots from a more central position.

 

To see such ploys become successful in matchtime is a coach's dream. Happy days but no need for a world beater in either situation. .  

 

 

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[Thracian]

On 2017-5-20 at 20:46, Kendal Fox said:

I totally agree. But perhaps it's worth taking the consideration that it's Spurs fans who initiated the rivalry in the first place....

 

Take a look at WeAreTottenhamTV for example, saying that they were glad they "put Leicester back in their place" ???! Inferring that if we, "little leicester", knew our place, we'd have simply aimed to survive in the league and let them win it last year... Just take a step back and you'll see how ridiculous and, dare I say, "bitter" an attitude that is. And it's not coming from us...

They are a class team. But their fans are anything but that.

To me it's something of a compliment for Spurs to acknowledge our rivalry. They are a good, potentially outstanding side and we've given them many a decent and sometimes successful battle as I'm sure we will do again.   

[ALC Fox]

24 minutes ago, Thracian said:

To me it's something of a compliment for Spurs to acknowledge our rivalry. They are a good, potentially outstanding side and we've given them many a decent and sometimes successful battle as I'm sure we will do again.   

That's a good way of looking at it to be fair.

 

They're a brilliant team and I remain quite neutral about them personally. But a part of me does find it amusing that, while they've had their best season in a long, long time, they've finished above Arsenal for the first time in yonks, they're widely praised in most circles, and their manager is the subject of gushing compliments by pundits, presenters and ex-players, they've actually ended the season trophyless, Arsenal won the cup and Wenger became the most successful FA Cup-winning manager of all time