Spurs - Finding The Right Mentality
Tottenham have spent approximately £320 million rebuilding a team that finished 17th in each of the past two seasons.
After Saturday’s 2-0 defeat by Newcastle, manager Roberto De Zerbi identified his greatest challenge:
“To find the right mentality.”
He added:
“You can’t find the right mentality in the transfer market.”
That raises an important question.
What exactly were Tottenham looking for when they spent £320 million?
There is no doubt they have bought talent.
Sandro Tonali, Mateus Fernandes, Jan Paul van Hecke, Sávio and Omar Marmoush all possess qualities that could improve the team.
They have also added experience.
Andy Robertson is Scotland’s captain and has spent years inside a winning Liverpool culture.
Marcos Senesi and Martin Dúbravka bring considerable Premier League and international experience.
But after two seasons near the bottom of the Premier League, Tottenham require more than better players.
They need character, leadership and a different collective response when matches begin turning against them.
Some of the new arrivals provide evidence of those qualities.
But individual character is not the same as collective mentality.
And new players cannot, by themselves, change old ways.
Six members of Tottenham’s starting eleven against Newcastle were at the club last season.
When the substitutes are included, 10 of the 15 Tottenham players who appeared had experienced last season.
That matters because new players do not enter a psychologically neutral team.
They enter established relationships, expectations and responses.
They look towards those around them to discover what happens here when the team concedes, the crowd becomes anxious or the original plan stops working.
Against Newcastle, Tottenham played well for approximately an hour.
They controlled much of the match and created the better opportunities.
Then Newcastle scored.
De Zerbi described what followed:
“After the goal, we lost the distances.”
Tottenham did not appear to lack quality before the goal.
Their organisation and confidence deteriorated after adversity arrived.
The new players had not necessarily brought an old mentality with them.
They have joined enough of the existing team for its previous response to adversity to remain accessible.
The harder work now belongs to De Zerbi.
He must turn those individual qualities into shared behaviours that are triggered when something goes wrong.
Tottenham’s rebuild will not be complete when the new players begin playing well.
It will be complete when a familiar moment of adversity, no longer produces the familiar Tottenham response.