Mental weakness at Spurs

[Bus-Conductor]

I agree with you for the majority of that. But come on, Dier's mentality must come into question if he's come on the pitch late against Newcastle, not focusing when the whistle blows, and then is at fault for conceding a goal because of his lack of focus. That, my friend, to me, is a lack of a good mentality.

Hopefully it was just a one off, but the game against Tripolis on Thursday didn't help.

Being played out of position isn't helping. He's not a RB and I think he's a liability there. I'm not sure he's the sharpest tool in the box either, like I said, they've all got some footballing issues, but I like the mental strength that all those I have mentioned show. I believe I read somewhere that Dier captained every level of Sporting's academy he played for, not bad for a foreigner.

It has to be matched, ultimately, with footballing ability, but I liked what I saw at Villa with Lamela happy to shove Benteke back and scrap for the ball despite the mismatch in size, and Mason happy to get stuck into the fray too. I also love the character and maturity Bentaleb has shown for a kid of 19. And all three of those have got some ability. Good attributes.

 

[spurs-r-us]

Part of the problem is for as Long as i can remember we tend to buy players that are entertainers who have No more than a dozen good games a season.
These players are unplayable when on their game but when not or the opposition stop them they go missing all too often as well.
For example many years ago it was noted that the gooners would be steady,reliable and consistant players whereas we would go out and buy someone who had a great game against us but ignore the fact they dissapeared in the other 20.
It may be an indicator as to why they have won the League about a dozen times to Our two, it might not be the whole story but its part of the problem the rest poor manager selection and managers.

AVB pretty much exclusively bought 'steady, reliable and consistent' players (in theory).

I think you'll find that the general shit feeling around the club comes from us NOT having a proper entertainer for the first time in years. Definitely the first time since Berbatov, anyway.

 

[jurgen]

The trouble with all our strong minded players being young, Dier being a case in point, is that they have nobody more experienced to help guide them, and in fact it probably reinforces softness in them. Dier's come out of one of the top academies in the world, seems to have his head screwed on, ok he's playing out of position, but Kaboul as captain should have his defence coordinated and concentrating for the whole 90 minutes - not a chance of that and Dier gets hung out to dry. Even with the likes of Eriksen, there's no player further forward bollocking him when he shirks, that could be the 30 year old Adebayor but that's not going to happen - Parker would have spent half the game shouting at him to get him moving. Or what does Mason learn playing with Dembele, how to be outrageously talented but produce very little and seemingly not give a shit whether you win or lose?

Also one of the troubles is that players with good mentality cost more particularly if allied to ability, which means they fail the number 1 rule of our transfer policy. That being said, I haven't seen enough of Stambouli yet, but the guy won Ligue 1 with an unfancied team, whereas Capoue was the star of a lower mid table team that never reached those kind of heights - to me Stambouli seems like he might be the kind of character needed, strange that he barely plays in the league then..

 

[spike472]

The trouble with all our strong minded players being young, Dier being a case in point, is that they have nobody more experienced to help guide them, and in fact it probably reinforces softness in them. Dier's come out of one of the top academies in the world, seems to have his head screwed on, ok he's playing out of position, but Kaboul as captain should have his defence coordinated and concentrating for the whole 90 minutes - not a chance of that and Dier gets hung out to dry. Even with the likes of Eriksen, there's no player further forward bollocking him when he shirks, that could be the 30 year old Adebayor but that's not going to happen - Parker would have spent half the game shouting at him to get him moving. Or what does Mason learn playing with Dembele, how to be outrageously talented but produce very little and seemingly not give a shit whether you win or lose?

Also one of the troubles is that players with good mentality cost more particularly if allied to ability, which means they fail the number 1 rule of our transfer policy. That being said, I haven't seen enough of Stambouli yet, but the guy won Ligue 1 with an unfancied team, whereas Capoue was the star of a lower mid table team that never reached those kind of heights - to me Stambouli seems like he might be the kind of character needed, strange that he barely plays in the league then..

Great post and agree with the lot of it

 

[Gringospur]

It is interesting to note, further to Bus-Conductors post.
Dier captained every level of Sporting's academy.
Lloris captain of France
Jan captain of Ajax
Fazio captain of Sevilla
Stambouli vice-captain of Montpellier
and Kaboul captain of Tottenham

It seems the transfer policy is trying to take the aspect into account.

You'd think we have a mountain of mental strength. Well defensively, at least.

 

[shelfboy68]

AVB pretty much exclusively bought 'steady, reliable and consistent' players (in theory).

I think you'll find that the general shit feeling around the club comes from us NOT having a proper entertainer for the first time in years. Definitely the first time since Berbatov, anyway.

Yes i would tend to agree with you regarding lack of entertainers right now although the point i was making was that a lot of our entertainers would turn up once every now and then.
Every team needs special players to win something out of nothing but also we need consistant players for when special ones go missing.