Soldado tweets Mind The Gap


SPURS 2 Arsenal 0



A tweet by a Roberto Soldado, not the Roberto Soldado reminded me of his time at Spurs and how a negative mentality got the better of him.

He may not have scored the goals we would have liked, but he took to us and we took to him. Clearly he had quality and his crosses were pinpoint but when your confidence is shot then it is a devil of a job to get it back again, unless you change your environment.

It's that mentality thing again, mentally positive and positive things happen, you start to achieve the things you want to achieve, negative thoughts, a negative mindset and negative things happen, everything seems harder and you enter a downward spiral.

If you don't believe you are going to score then you'll look for a way out, like the pass Roberto Soldado made sideways against Fiorentina in the UEFA Europa League. Wth just the goalkeeper he fluffed a sideways pass for an open goal tap-in.

A golfer gets the yips, and while I only played darts for fun, I got the hips. Literally, and I do mean literally, I could let go of the dart. I'd go through the throwing action but I'd still have the dart in my hand at the end. I knew the dart wasn't going to go where I wanted it to and a mental block meant I simply couldn't let go of it, I'd have several attempts and still be holding it.

In the end I had to tell myself it didn't matter where the dart went just to get myself to release it and over the weeks I had to build from there. That shows the power of the mind, it can physically stop you doing something if you have a negative mindset.

To think that doesn't apply to football and individual footballers is simply stupid, it does. Bernard Langer, a famous German golfer, a former member of the Ryder Cup team and major winner got the yips. He couldn't put, he couldn't hit the ball, he knew it wasn't going to go in the hole. Eric Bristow a multiple world champion darts player in the 70's and 80's, mentor of the best player the sport has ever seen, Phil Taylor got dartitus (same as yips) in 1986.

It happens in top level sport.

Last season we simply gave up, before that we were losing heavily because players didn't want to play, we were awful. A game against a top team was a game to dread, now it's a game to look forward to.

Our mentality is improving all the time and I have to say so is the fans generally. Fans help an environment and I'll go on record once again in praising our away fans because they help create that environment when we are away from home. It is important for the players that there is a loyal group there that they can go to and thank for their very vocal support. They know they are not alone and that helps a positive mental attitude so tremendous credit to all you travellers.

Even the home games are becoming noisier, that will be important at Wembley next season, the players are going to need that support with the opposition raising their game.

Spaniard Roberto Soldado always enjoyed our support throughout his torrid time and he has spoken many times how he appreciated that. His bond with us is still there and he still tweets his support for the club. Top man.

Yes COYS! Vamos!

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