The Language of Tough & Difficult

At last I am beginning to see Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino speak about greater ambitions as this week he talked about the Tottenham Chairman would have sacked him if we won just a few cups and but finished 10th in the league.  He said this week that for Tottenham to reach the next level they have to win the top competitions.

That is a far cry from the language he has to date normally used with qualifiers such as "tough" and "difficult" before a ball had been kicked.  There is method in the madness to downplay certain aspects of playing strategy but the tone of words used must be balanced with a stronger message - one that the Chairman and the clubs players also hear loud and clear.

Unlike Jose Mourinho, the Tottenham boss is far more pragmatic and straight forward and keeps himself out of playing mind games and if anything usually offers greater respect for his fellow managers.   That is not a bad psyche to have because that is the psyche of relaxation and can lead to a team playing football at the unconscious level. 

Manchester City have a good manager because he has been the best to date along with this stints at Bayern Munich and Barcelona to get his team playing at an incredible unconscious level a.k.a. at top form the team play as a unit and more importantly in flow with each other and the connection on the field leads to lots and lots of well worked but simple goals.

The old management styles of Sir Alex Ferguson did have a great deal of mind games incorporated but those were in the days when a ruthless management style was accepted by professional players.  While Ferguson would still succeed at no nonsense manager and defining who is actually in charge - there is a more relaxed style of management appearing.

This relaxed style can be found in other sports also where inching out greater performance is no longer simply the best trained and fittest bodies on the field, the inches needed for an advantage are today found in cognitive and mind power.  The inches that were yesterdays game are now inches of mind power also - where inches are still a vital part of that game.