Spartan hype?

[Paullus Scipio]

I'd say that confronting the Spartans head on was one of the more interesting aspects of Theban tactics. I've seen more than one comment that the Spartans tended to send their least reliable allies against the best of the enemy troops. That could be part of the complaint against the Spartans.
Didn't the Spartans initially want the Athenians to fight the Persians at Platea, as an example?

I have always found it interesting that the Spartans placed the Mantineans on the right at Mantinea. My feeling is that they intended to allow the Mantineans to soak up the advance of the deep Theban phalanx, and then take them in the unshielded flank as they forced the Mantineans back. This might explain the high casualties among Theban officers, who I presume would have been stationed on the right. This would have been a difficult maneuver both to time and to carry out and was obvioulsy not wholly successful.

This is not correct, in my opinion. After Leuktra, one would have expected the Spartans to be champing at the bit for a chance to show the Thebans who was 'top dog'. Xenophon tells us the reason why the Mantineans had 'the post of honour' on the right.
"As for the question of leadership, they arranged on the spot that each state should hold it when inside its own territory." Xenophon, 'History of my times' VII.5.3.
The battle took place in Mantinean territory, ergo.........