Only Postecoglou will know if Spurs dressing room has mentality problem – Pundit says
Stephen Warnock does not think Ange Postecoglou has managed to fix Tottenham’s mentality issues, problems which have plagued the club for many years.
Ange Postecoglou is not a happy man
Postecoglou certainly did not hide his disappointment following his side’s 1-0 loss at Selhurst Park, with the Australian admitting that his team failed to match Palace in terms of effort (talkSPORT).
This cannot be brushed off as a one-off either, as Tottenham had a similar issue away at Brighton earlier this month when they simply failed to turn up for the second-half.
It is something that the Australian would have to fix rapidly if he does not want to see his side being left adrift in the race for a top-four finish.
Stephen Warnock’s assessment
Warnock pointed out that many managers before Postecoglou have also tried to sort out Spurs’ mentality and failed to do so – namely Jose Mourinho, Antonio Conte, and co.
He put the loss on Sunday down to the away side’s sloppiness when trying to play out from the back and also praised Oliver Glasner’s men for the way they put the Lilywhites under pressure.
Warnock said: “Yeah, it’s the mentality you’ve got to change within the whole changing room. It’s happened now with numerous managers who haven’t been able to change that mentality.
“Whether it’s the concentration levels of the players, whether it’s them taking their foot off the gas after a couple of good results. Only the manager will know what’s going on inside that changing room – what the feeling is amongst the players when they sit down and have conversations and do their debrief about the game.
“There was a lot made of Spurs’ poor possession, but I think you’ve got to give a lot of credit to Crystal Palace. They forced them into errors but there was no doubt that some of the play out from the back was very, very sloppy.”
Watch what the former Aston Villa left-back told Sky Sports:
Using the ‘Spursy’ tag is lazy analysis
Many pundits will undoubtedly see the performance on Sunday as evidence that Tottenham are still ‘Spursy’, pointing out that they have been this way for years.
However, the reality is that almost the entire playing squad has changed over the last few years, and so has the coaching staff.
While it would be easy to write this off as a mentality problem, a closer look at Postecoglou’s away record suggests that it might actually be a structural issue.
The post Only Postecoglou will know if Spurs dressing room has mentality problem – Pundit says appeared first on Spurs Web.