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Manager Thomas Frank
- Thread starter The Fighting Cock
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For three months he made me believe we had a player even better than Dembele. Press resistant; brave; driving - unstoppable.
And then it stopped
As I’ve been saying he needs to pick a team now and stick with it. We can see he doesn’t know his best team, which he should do by now.
He’s a bit too honest in his interviews. Some of the things he says are just not necessary and will be twisted this way and that.
View: https://x.com/alasdairgold/status/1997071730448146512?s=61
The Dane admits that he still doesn't know his best XI among the long-term injuries to James Maddison, Dejan Kulusevski and Dominic Solanke.
"I think that's fair [to suggest]. I’ve got an idea of quite a few positions. I also think there’s competition so not that easy all the time to say, 'OK, it’s jut those 11' because you need more than 11 players but normally you see most teams when they are finding their strongest team it will be those nine players all the time, and maybe change two. Or maybe sometimes it's 10," he said.
"It's a combination also with the amount of games and that rotation, so definitely for the rest of the season if we do well in the Champions League there will be rotations but it will be closer and closer until you see the main nine or 10 players that we go with."
Frank admits he has felt the extra weight of pressure since joining Spurs compared to what he faced at Brentford for almost nine years.
"Definitely, definitely I’ve felt that. It hasn’t surprised me because I knew that was the difference when I walked into it," he said. "But like anything else, you don’t know it before you're standing in it. Like really know it. So now I know it so 'ok, it’s like this, hmm'. Then we deal with it.
"I think the biggest difference obviously now is the amount of games, I think that’s the biggest thing. The short turnaround. Of course I experienced it during Covid, we had 21 games in a row, that was Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday, Wednesday and so on. We had two spells of 2-2-2, with a lot of travelling, that’s heavy.
"The ability also to think and nail the message, nail the team and all that bit, how you create a team that should be more and more in sync when maybe it’s not that easy because you need to rotate a bit and do those things. That's the challenge. That's the biggest difference."
He’s a bit too honest in his interviews. Some of the things he says are just not necessary and will be twisted this way and that.
View: https://x.com/alasdairgold/status/1997071730448146512?s=61
The Dane admits that he still doesn't know his best XI among the long-term injuries to James Maddison, Dejan Kulusevski and Dominic Solanke.
"I think that's fair [to suggest]. I’ve got an idea of quite a few positions. I also think there’s competition so not that easy all the time to say, 'OK, it’s jut those 11' because you need more than 11 players but normally you see most teams when they are finding their strongest team it will be those nine players all the time, and maybe change two. Or maybe sometimes it's 10," he said.
"It's a combination also with the amount of games and that rotation, so definitely for the rest of the season if we do well in the Champions League there will be rotations but it will be closer and closer until you see the main nine or 10 players that we go with."
Frank admits he has felt the extra weight of pressure since joining Spurs compared to what he faced at Brentford for almost nine years.
"Definitely, definitely I’ve felt that. It hasn’t surprised me because I knew that was the difference when I walked into it," he said. "But like anything else, you don’t know it before you're standing in it. Like really know it. So now I know it so 'ok, it’s like this, hmm'. Then we deal with it.
"I think the biggest difference obviously now is the amount of games, I think that’s the biggest thing. The short turnaround. Of course I experienced it during Covid, we had 21 games in a row, that was Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday, Wednesday and so on. We had two spells of 2-2-2, with a lot of travelling, that’s heavy.
"The ability also to think and nail the message, nail the team and all that bit, how you create a team that should be more and more in sync when maybe it’s not that easy because you need to rotate a bit and do those things. That's the challenge. That's the biggest difference."
It’s difficult coming to a team with a load more matches and also 3 probably starters out long-term. Assuming we will be eliminated from CL at the start of the year things will settle.
I feel for him.
I feel for him.
It would be easier to figure your strongest 11 of some of the fuckers started standing up in games and showing WHY they deserve to be included in that group.
Biggest game of the season today, the Brentford derby. I’m a bag of nerves.
Odobert has done enough to have continued starts on the left, why have we see him sporadically and why did Johnson start last match on the left?
Sarr was showing good form in the first 2 months of the season then he was dropped to the bench.
This manager inexplecibly chops and changes his teams far too much that the players can't build up rythtm and relationships, if you publicly admit that you don't know your best team in December that's really fucking worrying and if Xavi isn't in your team by now when you're struggling to create chances then the manager has a massive problem.
No it isn't. It's not like he's not aware of how football works plus he has a billion pound squad to work with. I don't feel sorry for him one bit. He should be doing an order of magnitude better than what he is and we should not be making excuses for his incompetence.
THIS is how Frank wants to play. I really hope people can see now that there has been no intention of playing with no creativity, relying on long punts.
Looks like Frank found his midfielders
Rest of the big 6 and Newcastle. Villa probably better resourced too and only FFP restraining them. Maybe the Lewis family will want to compete with them, we will see.
On the March to top 4.
The season starts now.
Let’s go Tommy!!
Good for Frank.
I won't mind listening to his funny voice and staring eyes tonight.
I won't mind listening to his funny voice and staring eyes tonight.
I think he is always going to play with one of Bentacaur or JP however I would like to see Bergvail in there.
Yeah much better, although you could always have a false dawn against an opponent having an extremely bad day.
Switching to an Ange-esque back 2 in possession in a setup where, instead of one fullback tucking into make it a back 3, both fullbacks stay wide to stretch the pitch seems to be allowing runners a lot of space between the lines to run into, and better passing angles to locate those runners . See Simons' run and Porro's pass before the first goal.
Back 3 with the additional congestion in the middle, with Porro's man acting as another central midfielder to cut the passing lanes:
versus
An extremely stretched back 4, in practice a back 2 plus a holding midfielder right in front, where opposing wide players have to follow our fullbacks to wide areas at the expense of opening up more room in the centre:
Very reminiscent of the Porro-Simons connection that led to first goal today.
Don't think this would be as suicidal as Ange's if he simply asked either one of Palhinha or Bentancur to sit in front of the back 2 at all times, a duty I'm sure both would gladly accept. Either way, I think we could all live with Frank being gung-ho instead of being extremely negative if the choice were to be between the two.
Switching to an Ange-esque back 2 in possession in a setup where, instead of one fullback tucking into make it a back 3, both fullbacks stay wide to stretch the pitch seems to be allowing runners a lot of space between the lines to run into, and better passing angles to locate those runners . See Simons' run and Porro's pass before the first goal.
Back 3 with the additional congestion in the middle, with Porro's man acting as another central midfielder to cut the passing lanes:
versus
An extremely stretched back 4, in practice a back 2 plus a holding midfielder right in front, where opposing wide players have to follow our fullbacks to wide areas at the expense of opening up more room in the centre:
Very reminiscent of the Porro-Simons connection that led to first goal today.
Don't think this would be as suicidal as Ange's if he simply asked either one of Palhinha or Bentancur to sit in front of the back 2 at all times, a duty I'm sure both would gladly accept. Either way, I think we could all live with Frank being gung-ho instead of being extremely negative if the choice were to be between the two.
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Got it right today 