I am also now wondering whether it is why Frank made such a big deal about saying he wanted to improve set pieces and defending at the start this season. It was because he knew that we didn’t have the attacking threats straight away. Some may say that sounds like an excuse for him, and it could possibly well be, but it is true we don’t have the top level players for it. However, they aren’t all completely useless and should be doing better than they are, which makes me think that it is a mentality or motivational issue as much as them not having the ability. The only way to get rid of this is to get rid of the players and bring in more professional ones. We have lost Kane, son, lloris, super Jan to name but a few who would have kept standards high. Who within the current squad could you rarely see pushing standards on? They are all so pathetic.
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Manager Thomas Frank
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I am also now wondering whether it is why Frank made such a big deal about saying he wanted to improve set pieces and defending at the start this season. It was because he knew that we didn’t have the attacking threats straight away. Some may say that sounds like an excuse for him, and it could possibly well be, but it is true we don’t have the top level players for it. However, they aren’t all completely useless and should be doing better than they are, which makes me think that it is a mentality or motivational issue as much as them not having the ability. The only way to get rid of this is to get rid of the players and bring in more professional ones. We have lost Kane, son, lloris, super Jan to name but a few who would have kept standards high. Who within the current squad could you rarely see pushing standards on? They are all so pathetic.
Todays Telegraph article on our home form
Thomas Frank’s start to life as Tottenham Hotspur head coach could hardly be more contrasting as the Dane attempts to use the Champions League to find some home comfort.
Spurs have the best away record of any Premier League team under Frank and yet he has made the worst home start of any Tottenham manager since André Villas-Boas. The meek defeat by Chelsea on Saturday night meant that only the Premier League’s bottom three have made worse domestic starts than Frank’s side. No top-flight team have scored fewer league goals at home so far this season than Tottenham (five), while only Wolverhampton Wanderers have won fewer games at their own stadium.
In all competitions, Tottenham have won three of their seven home games – with victories coming against Burnley in the league, Villarreal in the Champions League and Doncaster Rovers in the Carabao Cup. In total, Spurs have scored nine goals at their own stadium.
That is a worse record than Ange Postecoglou, Antonio Conte, Nuno Espírito Santo, José Mourinho and Mauricio Pochettino managed in their first seven home games in charge, with all six securing more victories and more goals.
Villas-Boas started with just two wins from his first seven home games in charge, with his team scoring eight goals in those matches.
Frank not only needs a victory over Copenhagen in the Champions League on Tuesday night but needs his team to do it in style to give Tottenham’s home fans something to get excited about.
It seems like a lifetime ago that Spurs beat Manchester United to complete an unbeaten final season in their old White Hart Lane home under Pochettino. Since then, the club have spent an unsettling spell at Wembley and failed to turn the new stadium into a fortress. United are the next visitors in the league on Saturday.
According to Opta, Tottenham have lost 41 home games in the league since moving into their £1bn stadium in 2019, which is only seven fewer than Woolwich have lost at the Emirates since their stadium move in 2006. In all competitions, Spurs have lost 46 of their 167 matches at their current home.
Some of those with an inside knowledge of Spurs believe the period spent at Wembley, together with the stadium move and high ticket prices, have contributed to a number of traditional home supporters walking away or steadily losing interest.
Tottenham have the third-most expensive average season ticket in the Premier League and the number of day-trippers and corporate visitors has contributed to an atmosphere that can become flat, sterile and sometimes mutinous.
One former employee even claimed that when the home crowd are not engaged and fully behind the team that it can feel like playing away from home. The reactions of Djed Spence and Micky van de Ven to the Chelsea defeat and Frank’s apparent desire for them to acknowledge the home fans did not present an image of unity, but their pair have since apologised.
Guglielmo Vicario, the goalkeeper, gestured at one home fan after the Chelsea defeat as he prevented team-mate Lucas Bergvall, who had been forced off with concussion early in the game, from reacting to anger from the stands.
“In every environment there are very good people and some bad people,” said Vicario. “Probably he [Bergvall] got in contact with one bad person. That doesn’t necessarily say that everyone is a bad person. But there are some bad people in every environment and I had to protect him because he was a little bit emotional at that time. It’s part of my experience to do that.”
Frank took up the theme of the atmosphere inside the Tottenham stadium by appealing for more help from supporters during games, starting on Tuesday night.
“I think the fans were fantastic for the first 30 [minutes] and after the game if we perform badly and on top of that we lost the game, more than fair enough they boo us,” he said. “But during the game, we need a little bit of help. And especially when it’s not going the right way. They can be the turning point. We are down 1-0 last 15, imagine they carry us over the line and we got a little bit of an unfair 1-1? What a feeling. That point can be the difference in a long season.”
Pochettino had his squad train at the stadium before playing their first game inside it against Crystal Palace, which Spurs won 2-0, but insiders struggle to recall a manager holding a meaningful training session inside it since.
Tottenham have invited fans to watch open training sessions at the stadium on a couple of occasions, but otherwise managers have exclusively used the club’s equally impressive training campus to prepare for matches.
Frank has not held a training session at Tottenham’s home stadium yet and that might be something for the 52-year-old to consider. It is a tactic Enzo Maresca has employed at Chelsea on occasion with some success.
Tottenham’s patchy home form pre-dates Frank, but there remains a sense that he has not entirely helped himself in trying to fix it so far.
Xavi Simons form a concern
While Frank quickly seems to have found a formula that has proved effective on their travels, he has not found a way of balancing greater pragmatism against a need to go on the front foot at home.
He is the first Tottenham manager to have to construct an attacking line-up without either Harry Kane or Son Heung-min since Villas-Boas, which has been as difficult as most people might have predicted.
Of the new attacking signings, only Mohammed Kudus has offered much encouragement with one goal and five assists. Injury has contributed to on-loan forward Randal Kolo Muani failing to register a goal involvement so far, but the form of £52m arrival Xavi Simons is a concern.
Simons is yet to score and has managed just one assist in 746 minutes, while Brennan Johnson has scored three goals in 629 minutes. Johnson is not always easy on the eye, but his numbers are often good.
He was the club’s top scorer with 18 goals last season, one of which was the winner in the Europa League final, and he also managed seven assists. Johnson netted in each of Tottenham’s two victories at the start of this season, against Burnley and Manchester City, but has often been the first forward to be dropped by Frank.
Given Son scored 11 goals and managed 12 assists last season, a Tottenham team without both him and Johnson is short of 48 goal involvements. Frank is without the injured trio of Dejan Kulsevski, Dominic Solanke and James Maddison, who contributed to a combined total of 68 goals last term.
Nuno had both Kane and Son at his disposal, so early comparisons between Frank and the Portuguese, who was sacked after only four months in charge, are unfair. The Dane has changed his front four on 13 occasions already this season but remains confident he will find the right combination.
“It’s fair to say every team I’ve managed, we’ve been able to score a lot of goals,” said Frank. “Also a Brentford team with let’s say on paper, lesser players, creating a lot of top goalscorers. I’m convinced we will do the same here.”
Thomas Frank’s start to life as Tottenham Hotspur head coach could hardly be more contrasting as the Dane attempts to use the Champions League to find some home comfort.
Spurs have the best away record of any Premier League team under Frank and yet he has made the worst home start of any Tottenham manager since André Villas-Boas. The meek defeat by Chelsea on Saturday night meant that only the Premier League’s bottom three have made worse domestic starts than Frank’s side. No top-flight team have scored fewer league goals at home so far this season than Tottenham (five), while only Wolverhampton Wanderers have won fewer games at their own stadium.
In all competitions, Tottenham have won three of their seven home games – with victories coming against Burnley in the league, Villarreal in the Champions League and Doncaster Rovers in the Carabao Cup. In total, Spurs have scored nine goals at their own stadium.
That is a worse record than Ange Postecoglou, Antonio Conte, Nuno Espírito Santo, José Mourinho and Mauricio Pochettino managed in their first seven home games in charge, with all six securing more victories and more goals.
Villas-Boas started with just two wins from his first seven home games in charge, with his team scoring eight goals in those matches.
Frank not only needs a victory over Copenhagen in the Champions League on Tuesday night but needs his team to do it in style to give Tottenham’s home fans something to get excited about.
It seems like a lifetime ago that Spurs beat Manchester United to complete an unbeaten final season in their old White Hart Lane home under Pochettino. Since then, the club have spent an unsettling spell at Wembley and failed to turn the new stadium into a fortress. United are the next visitors in the league on Saturday.
According to Opta, Tottenham have lost 41 home games in the league since moving into their £1bn stadium in 2019, which is only seven fewer than Woolwich have lost at the Emirates since their stadium move in 2006. In all competitions, Spurs have lost 46 of their 167 matches at their current home.
Some of those with an inside knowledge of Spurs believe the period spent at Wembley, together with the stadium move and high ticket prices, have contributed to a number of traditional home supporters walking away or steadily losing interest.
Tottenham have the third-most expensive average season ticket in the Premier League and the number of day-trippers and corporate visitors has contributed to an atmosphere that can become flat, sterile and sometimes mutinous.
One former employee even claimed that when the home crowd are not engaged and fully behind the team that it can feel like playing away from home. The reactions of Djed Spence and Micky van de Ven to the Chelsea defeat and Frank’s apparent desire for them to acknowledge the home fans did not present an image of unity, but their pair have since apologised.
Guglielmo Vicario, the goalkeeper, gestured at one home fan after the Chelsea defeat as he prevented team-mate Lucas Bergvall, who had been forced off with concussion early in the game, from reacting to anger from the stands.
“In every environment there are very good people and some bad people,” said Vicario. “Probably he [Bergvall] got in contact with one bad person. That doesn’t necessarily say that everyone is a bad person. But there are some bad people in every environment and I had to protect him because he was a little bit emotional at that time. It’s part of my experience to do that.”
Frank took up the theme of the atmosphere inside the Tottenham stadium by appealing for more help from supporters during games, starting on Tuesday night.
“I think the fans were fantastic for the first 30 [minutes] and after the game if we perform badly and on top of that we lost the game, more than fair enough they boo us,” he said. “But during the game, we need a little bit of help. And especially when it’s not going the right way. They can be the turning point. We are down 1-0 last 15, imagine they carry us over the line and we got a little bit of an unfair 1-1? What a feeling. That point can be the difference in a long season.”
Pochettino had his squad train at the stadium before playing their first game inside it against Crystal Palace, which Spurs won 2-0, but insiders struggle to recall a manager holding a meaningful training session inside it since.
Tottenham have invited fans to watch open training sessions at the stadium on a couple of occasions, but otherwise managers have exclusively used the club’s equally impressive training campus to prepare for matches.
Frank has not held a training session at Tottenham’s home stadium yet and that might be something for the 52-year-old to consider. It is a tactic Enzo Maresca has employed at Chelsea on occasion with some success.
Tottenham’s patchy home form pre-dates Frank, but there remains a sense that he has not entirely helped himself in trying to fix it so far.
Xavi Simons form a concern
While Frank quickly seems to have found a formula that has proved effective on their travels, he has not found a way of balancing greater pragmatism against a need to go on the front foot at home.
He is the first Tottenham manager to have to construct an attacking line-up without either Harry Kane or Son Heung-min since Villas-Boas, which has been as difficult as most people might have predicted.
Of the new attacking signings, only Mohammed Kudus has offered much encouragement with one goal and five assists. Injury has contributed to on-loan forward Randal Kolo Muani failing to register a goal involvement so far, but the form of £52m arrival Xavi Simons is a concern.
Simons is yet to score and has managed just one assist in 746 minutes, while Brennan Johnson has scored three goals in 629 minutes. Johnson is not always easy on the eye, but his numbers are often good.
He was the club’s top scorer with 18 goals last season, one of which was the winner in the Europa League final, and he also managed seven assists. Johnson netted in each of Tottenham’s two victories at the start of this season, against Burnley and Manchester City, but has often been the first forward to be dropped by Frank.
Given Son scored 11 goals and managed 12 assists last season, a Tottenham team without both him and Johnson is short of 48 goal involvements. Frank is without the injured trio of Dejan Kulsevski, Dominic Solanke and James Maddison, who contributed to a combined total of 68 goals last term.
Nuno had both Kane and Son at his disposal, so early comparisons between Frank and the Portuguese, who was sacked after only four months in charge, are unfair. The Dane has changed his front four on 13 occasions already this season but remains confident he will find the right combination.
“It’s fair to say every team I’ve managed, we’ve been able to score a lot of goals,” said Frank. “Also a Brentford team with let’s say on paper, lesser players, creating a lot of top goalscorers. I’m convinced we will do the same here.”
That whole sentance could be replaced with two words.
Can anyone guess what they are?
# , I know it’s # something but I forget the restThat whole sentance could be replaced with two words.
Can anyone guess what they are?
Matt Law enjoyed writing that!
I can't disagree, but I also can't allow myself (blinkered ?) to go down the motivational/mentality route just at the moment coz that's a road that will potentially lead to an on and off field collapse!
Levy failed to freshen it up so it was inevitable. Every team has a cycle.
The first few games of the season we had some real rotation in the midfield options. Gray and Bergvall were the double pivot against Burnley, a game we were expected to dominate posession. They were very good in that game.. And Palhinha came back in for the City game when we perhaps we needed something more combative and he was fantastic as well.. I thought it was going to be a case of horses for courses this season.. But we seem to have settled into a similar looking midfield, regardless of whether we're playing Wolves at home, Leeds away or Chelsea at home..
take bentancur out the team and I'm telling you things improve. maybe not massively, but i'd bet steak dinners you'd see less static dead football.
The guy is a coward, he moves....walks into positions were he can't possibly do anything with the football because he has man on him. Makes no attempt to get into space where he can receive turn and progress it forward and or run forward into space to receive a ball off palhinha. I really can't bare watching him waddle about the pitch anymore, suppose you could only have him in if palhinha is off the pitch. Then he's free to hide inbetween the 2 centre backs as much as he likes
to defend frank, sarr isnt much better at that, more of an off the ball runner, and obviously not palhinha. But for all these games he could've firmly established a more movement orientated midfield of palhinha/bergval/xavi, palhinha/gray/bergvall
a bad player who should've been ejected with hojberg.
Maddison papered alot of cracks with his dynamic passing and movement during ange's first season. no wonder it fell apart after chelsea when he again became consistently injured and in and out of the team. having these cowardly guys like bentancur, bissouma, hojberg right in the heart of your engine only works for desperate low blocks
only hope is xavi comes of age extremely quickly and does the work Maddison was capable of
The guy is a coward, he moves....walks into positions were he can't possibly do anything with the football because he has man on him. Makes no attempt to get into space where he can receive turn and progress it forward and or run forward into space to receive a ball off palhinha. I really can't bare watching him waddle about the pitch anymore, suppose you could only have him in if palhinha is off the pitch. Then he's free to hide inbetween the 2 centre backs as much as he likes
to defend frank, sarr isnt much better at that, more of an off the ball runner, and obviously not palhinha. But for all these games he could've firmly established a more movement orientated midfield of palhinha/bergval/xavi, palhinha/gray/bergvall
a bad player who should've been ejected with hojberg.
Maddison papered alot of cracks with his dynamic passing and movement during ange's first season. no wonder it fell apart after chelsea when he again became consistently injured and in and out of the team. having these cowardly guys like bentancur, bissouma, hojberg right in the heart of your engine only works for desperate low blocks
only hope is xavi comes of age extremely quickly and does the work Maddison was capable of
Poch is so much worse than Frank.
This is the biggest issue I have with Frank. I wasn’t a fan of the hire but I’m always willing to give a new manager time. Preseason, he showed his tactical flexibility playing several different formations and combinations of players.
Fast forward a couple months and all he’s done is play the same exact formation as Ange with the same players starting and subbing.
Frank will figure it out I think. His teams at Brentford have had ups and downs. But they usually work through them. Good thing is we have a coach who will try different things tactically not continue to slam pegs into holes. That said, we clearly have a lack of attacking quality. Xavi hasn’t been anywhere near Madders. Massive hole at LW. Strikers out injured. Kudus is where everything comes from. We have 6-10th attacking ability right now. EPL is brutally competitive. Grinding out some results why we sort through this is fine.
Yeah but Palhinha isn't the only issue here, I think to pin the blame solely on him is a little unfair tbh, you partner him with a progressive partner in the pivot for example then you have a totally different outlook to the way our midfield functions, not to mention the instructions of the team is seemingly to not take risks.
If Pal didn't play on Saturday don't think you would be seeing much difference.
Any one of them, maybe with the exception of Palinha, cam and have done it before. This is being coached into them not to play centrally.
Do we? Chelsea dominated us physically all over the pitch and with the exception of Romero and palhinha
I don't know about that, but if we keep playing like this, and the results don't follow, I fucking pray the club won't be that stupid.
I also think it's impossible until the world cup. It would be such a stupid move, that it just might happen.
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Carragher is a moron. He shows us that with every utterance. He’s just a cloud of revolting scouse spittle. Nothing more
Carragher is a moron. He shows us that with every utterance. He’s just a cloud of revolting scouse spittle. Nothing more