Tough & Difficult

The chief evidence I have at present that Mauricio Pochettino is still a potentially great manager but at this stage not a winner like the greats of the Premier League a.k.a. Sir Alex Ferguson, Pep Guardiola, Jose Mourinho, Arsene Wenger et al is what comes out of his mouth as he tries to lessen expectations - though there are times when he is now setting a little more expectation in response - but it is not as dominant as the words "tough" and "difficult".

Even though Spurs came back to winning ways with a 3-0 win against Cardiff and it gave Harry Kane the record of having scored against every Premier League team he has now faced (28 in all so far), the second half performance tailed off.  Maybe not in the disastrous way it did against Wolves in their 3-1 loss on the weekend, but sufficiently not to score in the second half. 

A part of that switching off has to do with the mentality of the club.   Mentality of a club can be seen a league table.  The largest goal difference (Liverpool and Manchester City are in the 40 goal difference range) about 15 goals scored more or conceded less (goal difference) than Tottenham's.  If we examine the teams at the bottom their negative goal differences provide a leading metric of their potential to be relegated.  

At present Tottenham have a similar goal difference to that of Chelsea, but Chelsea are currently rebuilding with a brand new manager and so are Arsenal, whose goal difference is also similar to Tottenham.   While Pochettino has done amazing, and only second to the great Bill Nicholson - the difference between the two at present is that Bill Nicholson is a proven winner, he may not have won often but he landed the biggest accolades and trophies at some point in his career.

Pochettino may become one of those great managers one day but only once he watches the language he chooses and hearing him once too many times say that the next match is going to be "tough" or it is going to be "difficult" may seek to remind his players not to get complacent, but that in the Wolves game they did get complacent despite the warnings, only speaks to me how language can lower the bar in us psychologically speaking.

I look at the language of Klopp and Pep and they frame games differently.  Their language is not peppered with trying to lower expectations or sow some doubt into their team's ability to be utterly ruthless on the field of play.  Spurs and Liverpool have similar squad player skills, both teams have a cohesive system of play but Liverpool are not second guessing themselves.  Neither are they are raising expectations, Klopp is sowing a winners mentality into his players.

That Liverpool have been fearless against Manchester City in recent clashes underlines this tiny difference in not setting the game up as "tough" and "difficult" even before a game is kicked.  What use is language like that to a Liverpool player to play fearless but ruthlessly efficient football?

Even in the Cardiff game, the language a manager uses can begin to hide the flaws that fans can see and that make fans agitated.  Noting that today was a win for Spurs, the actual expectation was that Spurs lost their way in the second half, but also experienced some defensive lapses in the first half that Cardiff did not have the quality to penalize.  Wolverhampton Wanderers certainly did penalize those lapses with their three goals on Saturday.  The same player was involved in those defensive lapses which was this aimlessly drifting right full back called Kieron Trippier. 

Of course games are going to be tough and difficult mentally if there is a massive weak link that good teams can expose and that Cardiff City could not expose them, does not make them a "tough" and "difficult" game.  There was no reason to stop at 3 goals.  The reason Liverpool and Manchester City are doing so well isn't because they have better squads than Spurs, it is that everybody wants to score as many as possible, while holding the backline firm. 

For sure seventy-five million pounds was an expensive signing for Liverpool's defense, but that signing of Virgil Van Dijk is so far paying off handsomely, with Liverpool possessing a defensive line that exceeds even Manchester City's prowess.  The real story of "tough" and "difficult" is making those words that describe the top team and not the opposition.  For sure it is good to be temporarily in second place - but using words like "Tough" and "Difficult" for one's own team is not the way forward.  All great managers played sophisticated mind games with the opposition and got into their heads.  How does one get into the heads of an opposition by portraying them better than they really are.

The only thing that couching with words like "this is going to be a difficult match for us" or "this will be a tough game" is paying deference to the other team while sending out a signal that there is not a winning mentality in one's own squad.  Spurs have been given everything in all other areas of the game but so far not a winning or winners mentality.  It is more than addressing the question about when Spurs are going to win something - because if the underlying language does not change or get reframed - a lone cup win in a low level competition like the Carabao League Cup does not change a thing.

It is when Spurs speak the same language of winners like Manchester City and mirror what Liverpool are doing now to amass their best start to a league campaign and the third best start in the Premier League era.  For sure Spurs also have made the best start - but what will get them over the line is an undisputed attitude of a winner.  They can beat Cardiff 3-0 in games like today but it is that inner mentality and framing of language that will make it tough and difficult for the opposition and not to describe the opposition as the ones who are going to be "tough" or "difficult" to beat.  There is no reason why Spurs cannot compete at the level of play of their two more mentally stronger rivals.  They can and that is the pathway to becoming the winners they now should be and not just become.