Good teams have good habits.

Players in good teams get their fitness levels right, make sure their bodies are in good shape, get their heads sorted before going onto the pitch, and when on the pitch stick to what they are supposed to do.

It's a bit like driving – good drivers do things like changing gears smoothly, braking smoothly, assessing distances appropriately so that they never have to brake sharply and concentrate on the task on hand, taking in what they see and observe. Bad drivers are poor observers – with a narrow vision, unable to comprehend a child playing behind a car as a potential hazard. They see but they don't observe.

Sound familiar? On Saturday we lost a goal because Zamora got behind Leacock - out of his vision. Poor defending arising out of the inability to observe what is going on round you. Can you teach this? Probably not, but good players learn and ensure that they learn a new habit of looking around and making sense of what is going on. You don't just see, you observe and take action. But first the habit of looking around must be learned so it becomes automatic.

Watch the riveting film ‘Zidane', and he is observing the whole time. He never switches off. He is a study in absolute concentration, weighing up his options, looking at other players, looking at the field of play, and while it is surprising how few times he actually touches the ball, he hardly ever wastes it. It is always a productive use of the ball.

That is what all players should be doing all the time, but they don't. Like the majority of drivers, who would answer a question of ‘did you not see the oil slick?' with a ‘yes, but' meaning that they saw it but did nothing when they should have slowed down and become more alert at that moment, ready for action.

What's your point – I can see you thinking. My point is that if you do not have good habits of observing and being ready to take appropriate action a la Zidane then you will not become a good player. Savage has been knocking around the Premiership for quite a while because he has worked incredibly hard to get where he is. Stubbs is another with good habits.

Build a team with enough players with good habits and you get a more consistent team. Yes, we lost on Saturday, but we are slowly increasing the amount of time we play good football in each game. That is a good habit.

But good habits take time to bed in. Bad habits can destroy a team overnight as we all know. Too many players who need to learn good habits and you don't have a team that has good habits, just eleven people all flailing around. There are signs that at last in this misbegotten season, we are finally learning some good habits – will the younger players learn? Maybe that's why we have recruited two Aussies… tough minded, physically hard and work hard in training in getting it right.

On the plus side, even in the nightmare against Villa, we played some good football to begin with but then a goal goes in and a bad habit emerges – collapse. A good habit would have been to work that bit harder and hold it at that point, and then when the momentum flows back in your favour, you create chances and get a goal back.

Much as I dislike Manure, watching them against Blackburn was an object lesson in this. They held them and then came back and got a draw. It is what will win them the Premiership – this sense of mental resolve of ‘we will not let them win this one'.

My sense is that no matter what PJ is saying about writing off this season and looking to the next, he is already working on inculcating good habits now – the thing about the last four games, we have actually competed for most or part of the match. It is about getting the mentality right now. Not waiting for next season – that would be too late. The good habits are starting to emerge and we may yet win one game – against Arsenal? Anybody offering a fiver for that one?

Photo: Action Images

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