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5 live yesterday on psychology of players/transfers

thfcsteff

thfcsteff

George Hunt
A great segment during 5 Live's Monday Night Club which if you can find it is well worth the effort.

It went into the psychology of players and how important it is to get that evaluation right when spending. I agree whole-heartedly with some of the things said, such as looking at a player's off field lifestyle, whether he's married/steady, who his friends are, how he trains and how he responds to disappointments on and off the pitch plus what presence he brings to a dressing room.

I think there is a very, very clear trend developing in AVB's squad, notably the ability to communicate and bring good spirit into the squad. I don't think any of our signings recently have lacked the ability to speak reasonable English, and they have all seemed very very able to blend with the squad/not develop cliques.

Listening to Holtby, he strikes me as a very, very well-researched signing beyond his abilities. The lad sounds cheerful, balanced, energetic and happy to be part of a squad. It will be a very, very interesting signing as I think it could prove a benchmark for the future. We all want the massive money Falcao but those are beyond our reach. This sort of signing looks firmly, firmly like our majority future work. Yes, if Bale goes we will probably splash for one, but I suspect it will be a very rare player who can tick all the boxes I think AVB and co want from a player at our club.

This squad might be lop-sided in one sense, but in another I get the impression we haven't had a squad as 'close' and 'unified' for a long time. That, in itself, could be the difference in getting CL football this season...anyway...
 
You make some good points, but I couldn't give a stuff about togetherness if a "together" squad plays abysmally like we did at Leeds. I think you need a couple of firecrackers in the team, and maybe someone who won't tolerate below par performances.
 
lurker of old said:
You make some good points, but I couldn't give a stuff about togetherness if a "together" squad plays abysmally like we did at Leeds. I think you need a couple of firecrackers in the team, and maybe someone who won't tolerate below par performances.
Click to expand...

Very decent point with regards to Leeds, it was a poor performance and Dembele confirmed the reasons why (which themselves were poor, if not wholly refreshing in their honesty) but I think there are always one or two games a season like that for everyone (even Utd, City and Chelski) so what interests me is how this squad and manager bounces back tomorrow night. I fully, fully expect the likes of Parker and Daws to impress themselves upon everyone in a powerful, non-negative way, and furthermore, I expect a proper performance and result. Personally, I think tomm and Sunday are our two most important matches of the season so far. It's really right and these are the sorts of games we need to win...
 
Sounds interesting, will try to find it. Psychology undoubtedly plays a huge part in football. Fair point about Ade though, having been a pain at every club he's been at I'm suprised AVB signed him permanently if he is so temperamental.

However, in terms of a squad needing good team spirit, look at City last year: the likes of Nasri, Balotelli and Tevez all appear to be fiery, potentially disruptive characters, all of whom have had off-field problems, yet they won the league. Sometimes I think we could do with a few characters like that, all our team seem to nice.

It would be interesting to know the likes of Mourinho and Fergie's opinions on what sort of characters are best for a squad. I think you need a certain degree of horrible tacos like Roy Keane etc in order to be successful.
 
I think we've suffered a lot over the years being a London club, attracting a certain type of player that's wants to live the London footballer lifestyle.
Hopefully we're starting to filter these targets out.
 
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