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Tactics TFC's Tactical Autopsy Thread
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That's correct. But there are also incompetent coaches. They dictate how we play. Lie ours, as a good case study.
On Thomas Frank and adaptations: by @NathanAClark(Nathan) | Twitter Thread Reader
On Thomas Frank and adaptations:
The Alternative Premier League Table: No 23 – Ball-in-play time
The Alternative Premier League Table: No 23 – Ball-in-play time
Tottenham manager Thomas Frank Eamonn Dalton / The Athletic; Ryan Crockett/DeFodi Images/DeFodi via Getty Images
Anantaajith Raghuraman
Jan. 22, 2026 6:09 am GMT+1
Welcome to the latest edition of The Alternative Premier League Table, where each week, The Athleticanalyses the entire division through a specific lens.
After looking at dribbling in last week’s edition, this week we will be looking at the amount of time each team has the ball in play.
As usual, the article that follows is long but detailed, so please settle down and enjoy it all — or use the index at the bottom of the page to jump to a specific club.
The league-wide emphasis on maximising set pieces and winning second balls has meant teams now go through detailed routines that often eat time off the clock. The increase in stoppage time also means time-wasting remains a key part of the game.
All of this has resulted in teams spending a sizeable chunk of matches with the ball out of play.
This week’s Alternative Table is ordered on average ball-in-play time for each team, along with the percentage change in that figure from 2024-25.
Key takeaways include:
- Bournemouth (52:56) and Tottenham Hotspur (53:21) rank bottom for ball-in-play time.
- Manchester City (58:39),Liverpool (57:09) and Woolwich(56:42) rank as the top three.
- City have, however, undergone the biggest change from 2024-25 to 2025-26, with their ball-in-play time dropping by nearly five per cent.
- Nottingham Forest are the only team to record a positive change, with their ball-in-play time rising by more than one per cent.
Nottingham Forest
The difference in Forest’s ball-in-play time can be explained by a few factors.In 2024-25, Nuno Espirito Santo’s side took the lead 27 times, a total only bettered by Liverpool, Woolwich and Manchester City. They lost just two of those games, defending resolutely with 90 clearances going out of play, the most by any team and second most by a team in the last five completed seasons (behind Woolwich’s 96 in 2022-23).
This season, however, Forest rank 18th of 20 in games led, only ahead of Burnley (five) and Wolverhampton Wanderers (four). They have trailed in 16 games, which means they have had long spells of possession with the ball in play as part of their attempts to break teams down.
Tottenham Hotspur
Moving from Ange Postecoglou’s possession-dominant style to Thomas Frank’s more pragmatic approach has been reflected in many of Tottenham's numbers this season, including this metric. Their drop in ball-in-play time of nearly three per cent from 2024-25 to 2025-26 is the fourth most in the league.Arguably the biggest change has been their choreographed long throw-ins in the attacking third, with time required for their defenders to push up the pitch. Of the throws they have taken in the final third, 38 per cent have gone into the box; a significant increase on the three per cent from 2024-25.
Postecoglou’s Spurs often tried to play out of danger, averaging just 18.6 long balls per 90 in the defensive third, compared to 30.1 under Frank this season.
Made a post about this in another thread recently, but I'm not sure this is really true tbh.
Obviously players and internal structures are really important, but I think in most cases the manager is absolutely critical.
I actually think these mid-sized, uber well run, clubs like Brentford, Brighton, Bournemouth, are the exception rather than the rule. They have such strong systems of recruitment and internal organisation in place that the manager is less important. Very inexperienced managers like Hurzeler and Andrews were able to slot in and pick up where their predecessor left off without a significant impact on league position.
I think for the majority of clubs, though, the manager is still massively important. Villa were utterly transformed within weeks by Unai Emre with the same group of players Gerrard had on the brink of the relegation zone. Carrick has got United playing better football in one week of training than Amorim managed in a year. Glasner managed to win Palace their first ever trophy and has had them punching well above their weight with a squad some managers would get nowhere near as much out of.
And at the very top clubs, the managers define the culture and mould clubs into their own image over time. Arteta at Woolwich, Pep and City and Klopp at Liverpool were instrumental in the respective success of each of those teams, and gained more and more control over time. Those clubs are all well run too, but without Klopp zero chance that Liverpool team achieves anywhere near the level of success it did, even with top recruitment. Same for Pep at City completely dominating the league. An average manager can't do that, even with an elite squad.
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Re: "The Big Problem TF Can't Fix"
1:00
While making a valid point that some of Frank's eccentricities are guilty of bringing out the worst in someone like Vicario, and others who are in the same boat in terms of their limited ball playing ability, he's letting the latter off the hook quite a bit I feel.
That's the kind of tightrope that your average keeper walks smoothly these days.
A slightly different example: Roefs, not satisfied with the token pressure that Richarlison&Odobert are applying to him and also not interested in simply rolling it to one of the centre backs flanking him, waits for a good 8-10 seconds before releasing the ball ; not out of panic but because he has actually spotted an opening.
The two common features uniting all these examples are:
Why is he so keen on releasing the ball so soon?
More importantly, why is he looking at the ground while doing so?
For any keeper that actually knows how to bait&navigate the press, that's the simplest of passes to Romero after drawing one of the opponents to himself and the other to VDV.
Not if you have no idea of what's unfolding right in front of you because you're too busy looking at the ground though.
Looking at the ground again..
1:00
While making a valid point that some of Frank's eccentricities are guilty of bringing out the worst in someone like Vicario, and others who are in the same boat in terms of their limited ball playing ability, he's letting the latter off the hook quite a bit I feel.
That's the kind of tightrope that your average keeper walks smoothly these days.
A slightly different example: Roefs, not satisfied with the token pressure that Richarlison&Odobert are applying to him and also not interested in simply rolling it to one of the centre backs flanking him, waits for a good 8-10 seconds before releasing the ball ; not out of panic but because he has actually spotted an opening.
The two common features uniting all these examples are:
- the keeper in question always keeps his head up, scanning the whole pitch for passing options that might pop out at any given point.
- the keeper in question waits, or is willing to, until the very last moment before releasing the ball.
----------
Conversely, that's Vicario for you:
Why is he so keen on releasing the ball so soon?
More importantly, why is he looking at the ground while doing so?
For any keeper that actually knows how to bait&navigate the press, that's the simplest of passes to Romero after drawing one of the opponents to himself and the other to VDV.
Not if you have no idea of what's unfolding right in front of you because you're too busy looking at the ground though.
--------
Looking at the ground again..
-------
Haven't watched the rest of the video yet, and the post has gotten way too long already. I'll stop here.
Re: "The Big Problem TF Can't Fix"
1:00
While making a valid point that some of Frank's eccentricities are guilty of bringing out the worst in someone like Vicario, and others who are in the same boat in terms of their limited ball playing ability, he's letting the latter off the hook quite a bit I feel.
That's the kind of tightrope that your average keeper walks smoothly these days.
A slightly different example: Roefs, not satisfied with the token pressure that Richarlison&Odobert are applying to him and also not interested in simply rolling it to one of the centre backs flanking him, waits for a good 8-10 seconds before releasing the ball ; not out of panic but because he has actually spotted an opening.
The two common features uniting all these examples are:
- the keeper in question always keeps his head up, scanning the whole pitch for passing options that might pop out at any given point.
- the keeper in question waits, or is willing to, until the very last moment before releasing the ball.
----------Conversely, that's Vicario for you:
Why is he so keen on releasing the ball so soon?
More importantly, why is he looking at the ground while doing so?
For any keeper that actually knows how to bait&navigate the press, that's the simplest of passes to Romero after drawing one of the opponents to himself and the other to VDV.
Not if you have no idea of what's unfolding right in front of you because you're too busy looking at the ground though.
--------
Looking at the ground again..
-------Haven't watched the rest of the video yet, and the post has gotten way too long already. I'll stop here.
Can we sign Roefs please
Frank surely isn't scolding Vicario for spotting&delivering these on the rare occasions that he does; and as I've made abundantly clear through numerous posts filled with many examples, those opportunities are more often than not present.
Man bites dog: This is wonderful.
Without necessarily advocating for a Ball Playing Keeper™ that gives the impression of an outfield player being placed in goal, I'll say that upgrading on Vicario with someone who is in command of such basics of ball distribution by itself would make a noticeable difference in our possession play.
If they're going to eventually replace Frank with someone with modern inclinations, much less an unapologetic extremist, I can't see how he wouldn't make such an upgrade one of his biggest priorities also.
Man bites dog: This is wonderful.
Without necessarily advocating for a Ball Playing Keeper™ that gives the impression of an outfield player being placed in goal, I'll say that upgrading on Vicario with someone who is in command of such basics of ball distribution by itself would make a noticeable difference in our possession play.
If they're going to eventually replace Frank with someone with modern inclinations, much less an unapologetic extremist, I can't see how he wouldn't make such an upgrade one of his biggest priorities also.
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