#having a fresh starting xi most of whom are young and haven’t played for the team/pl (on this level) before | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

lee-kangin · 7 months

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something i’ve seen frequently in football circles especially with the rise of social media (where ppl engage with the sport in absolutely bizarre ways but that’s another topic for another day) is this longstanding obsession with ‘(winning) mentality.’ how is it quantified? how do you prove its existence? how consistent must it be for a club to acquire this ‘mentality?’ it’s just bonkers to me because you’d assume that every club and every fanbase would want to win, just some a) have better resources to do so or b) some overperform/underperform as is the case with any sport which leads to drawing some kind of conclusions about this ‘mentality’ or c) some fanbases just have a better time rationalising a potential loss within the external factors which of course also leads to drawing conclusions about this ‘mentality.’ i guess my problem with it is just that it’s become such a buzzword where teams get either praised or insulted for their mentality when it’s so subjective and influenced by other factors too (doing well, doing badly, general trajectory of the club, personal satisfaction with individual achievements, media opinion, etc).

#was looking at absolutely ludicrous exchanges on the bird app and it’s just like ?#for example woolwich fans (and henry) saying tottenham fans have a weak mentality for being satisfied with a draw #which a) is not true and b) one could point to their team being on top of the league all season and croaking during the run in #is that winning mentality? but then again you could argue that they had a young squad that overperformed massively #and even then you would be ignoring external factors in all of these situations which for spurs’ case would be #having a fresh starting xi most of whom are young and haven’t played for the team/pl (on this level) before #and that historically tottenham have had an abysmal record at the emirates so a draw and positive footy are taken as a good result #and for woolwich (calling them this bc i don’t want fights lol) you’ve also got to see that #the season had a full wc in the middle and many many other top 4-6 teams underperformed #i just feel like this buzzword that we’ve got now this mentality is disguising #discussions abt the core issues of a team or even halfway intellectual discussions abt football #and it’s a bit discouraging like you want to talk abt a club struggling or doing well and it’s like it’s the mentality harhar #mentality at its essence is important don’t get me wrong you’re more likely to play better for a team if you believe you can do well #but every fan can point to times of good and bad mentality. what’s more important is that the captains get up and the whole squad believes #in itself and whatever it is that is binding them together and just have faith #that’s what makes the winning so special. not so much the mentality and the potential pressure it puts on a player and club to perform #but that belief in something beyond just winning that is what makes it consistent #in a perfect world anyway in reality the richest clubs win that’s just the way things go

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