Bill Nicholson

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These words came from the mouth of Billy Nick, and how much they still apply.


The official Tottenham Hotspur Twitter account has tweeted a video link of the great Bill Nicholson OBE and what he has to say about the game could be coming straight from the mouth of Mauricio Pochettino.

"The most important aspects of the game, which is all about movement and control, movement off the ball particularly. I wanted players who were going to be good at that;
a) control of the ball
b) pass a ball first time which was absolutely necessary of course
c) take up exceptionally good positions off the ball.
"You've got to have 11 players who will understand each other's game. That's how it all worked out, they were all playing for each other. There was great friendship amongst all of the players"

It all sound very familiar. Players don't just arrive at a club with our level of intensity and off the ball movement and just naturally fit in. They have to work incredibly hard on the training ground to know exactly where they should be on the pitch and what type of off the ball run they should be making, at any given time. They have to know what all their teammates roles are and how they perform them, where they are likely to run to, where they are creating that might be in 3 or 4 passes time.

Generally, when we sign a player they need time to adapt to our system as a result, that makes signings in January very difficult because to get to our level of fitness and gain the tactical know-how seems to take at least a month. You sign anyone at the end of January and you are not going to see the best of them until March and by then there is only April and half of May before the season has finished.

You look at some of our passing movements and you'll see first time passing cutting a team open. As they react to each pass, we are keeping them on the back-foot, behind the game, we are the team mentally in charge at that point.

The team spirit amongst this group is fantastic and it seems they want to stay together as a group and achieve things. Bill Nicholson would be proud.

[Glenn R]

I agree. We can learn a lot from the past, and I think Pochettino is taking that in. Or has taken that in.