I think he has put on more BBQs!
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Manager Thomas Frank
- Thread starter The Fighting Cock
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sometimes I think this board can’t get any dumber… then I read the comments in this thread
think the reality is that our attackers are pony, we have some good players, a lot of average, and some pony. until that changes we wont be competing for anything.
kudus looks to be our best forward, if hes the best, then the reality is you aint going to compete with the very best sides, thats the cold hard truth.
kudus looks to be our best forward, if hes the best, then the reality is you aint going to compete with the very best sides, thats the cold hard truth.
This! Tel was invisible and when Richie came on he was even worse.
We need solanke back and a fit Muani on the flank. That should give us atleast some physicality up top as tel & odovert just get bullied.
He also needs to settle on a midfield which supports the attack. Xavi spent more time tackling on the edge of his box rather than dictating play in the middle and in attacking areas. That double pivot of bent and palinha just doesn’t give enough against the lesser sides who give us more of the ball.
But it’s a process, baring the scum every team is dropping points this season so it’s not desperate. The good thing is that we should hopefully have some creativity coming back with muani, solanke and kulu towards Xmas
Spurs went from Son / Kane / Kulusevski to Odobert / Tel / Kudus
And everyone wants to blame the coach. It was actually a miracle that Ange was able to turn Johnson, Son and Solanke into the top scoring team in the Prem for the first half of last season.
Not replacing Moura, Son and Kane is the issue. Kane should never have been allowed to leave - Spurs should have backed the coach with the elite players he needed to progress.
And everyone wants to blame the coach. It was actually a miracle that Ange was able to turn Johnson, Son and Solanke into the top scoring team in the Prem for the first half of last season.
Not replacing Moura, Son and Kane is the issue. Kane should never have been allowed to leave - Spurs should have backed the coach with the elite players he needed to progress.
View: https://youtu.be/7E3_tO4nr5E
His presser is boring AF, just like our play. The transcript of his presser sounds inspiring at times, but he sounds totally nothing like that.
His first sentence, 'I think the way the game end out was exactly how we expected it to be'. Wtf? He expected a loss straight away?
Not impressed with Frank so far but for now at least he gets a free pass from me given he has walked into a club that for the most part has been catastrophically mismanaged at all levels for at least five years. While not impossible it's hard to turn that thing around in just one summer especially after another typical headless chicken transfer window.
Having said that, it's getting incredibly boring watching this team capitulate every other game and at home, which is unforgivable. It says everything that even when we go 1-0 up now, I'm defaulting into thinking 'so, how do we lose from here?' Pattern recognition is a bitch.
A huge issue is that this to me is a very unlikeable team. I would estimate 75% of the players at least are plodders just going through the motions. It's so rare to see us control a game and win easily these days. Even 90s Spurs did that, they were just wildly inconsistent.
Sadly, it really is a case of we have to be patient (again). Hopefully the post-Levy management really do mean it when they say want more success and that Frank will get his ideas across as the season goes on because right now I can't see where the next win is except maybe Copenhagen at home, and even that's only going to come after a turgid affair where we win after scraping a 1-0 victory.
Having said that, it's getting incredibly boring watching this team capitulate every other game and at home, which is unforgivable. It says everything that even when we go 1-0 up now, I'm defaulting into thinking 'so, how do we lose from here?' Pattern recognition is a bitch.
A huge issue is that this to me is a very unlikeable team. I would estimate 75% of the players at least are plodders just going through the motions. It's so rare to see us control a game and win easily these days. Even 90s Spurs did that, they were just wildly inconsistent.
Sadly, it really is a case of we have to be patient (again). Hopefully the post-Levy management really do mean it when they say want more success and that Frank will get his ideas across as the season goes on because right now I can't see where the next win is except maybe Copenhagen at home, and even that's only going to come after a turgid affair where we win after scraping a 1-0 victory.
Yeah Tel also got bullied here for us to concede possesion in the first place then Simons at first was in the wrong position initialy to win the 2nd ball they waltz pass our first line of defence Simons twice after fails to regain the ball then Bentancur doesnt close down and Vicario is in a mess.
The whole thing was avoidable and really poor play from us
Hes a nice guy etc. But if the game panned out as he expected then surely he could have managed a win for us.
Top post. If he thinks that yesterday's performance was good and the result acceptable then he has turned us into Brentford far quicker than I thought he would. These players are not as bad as what we witnessed yesterday. His job is to win football games but his approach is to setup not to lose. That should not be acceptable for any club let alone us. Never thought Frank was good enough for us and he's done nothing to change my view. If anything he's strengthened it. Just look at the crowd yesterday. Flat, no energy, bored... its not likely to happen, but I would be sounding out Iraola before he joins a big club. Instead, Frank will get this season and we will finish 10th. And no, that is not okay. That is severe underperformance.
We ain't Forest mate!
Frank needs time, in what I think will be an up and down season, but where we have no idea what the expectation of him is.
I think he has s rocky few weeks ahead after yesterday's loss, as all poor runs start with home defeats.
He/we need a run of 3 or 4 wins on the bounce but I don't sense that in us one bit at the present time.
It's very much 50:50 whether Frank is here next season, for a lot of reasons, including club ownership.
Frank isn't an Eddie Howe,but needs 2 or 3 of the kind of signings that have carried Newcastle to this point, although like us they will have an up and down season in my opinion.
I think he has s rocky few weeks ahead after yesterday's loss, as all poor runs start with home defeats.
He/we need a run of 3 or 4 wins on the bounce but I don't sense that in us one bit at the present time.
It's very much 50:50 whether Frank is here next season, for a lot of reasons, including club ownership.
Frank isn't an Eddie Howe,but needs 2 or 3 of the kind of signings that have carried Newcastle to this point, although like us they will have an up and down season in my opinion.
Tottenham embody this season’s Premier League: Set pieces, long throws, and no cohesion
Tottenham's performance against Aston Villa summed up not only where they are at but also where the league overall finds itself
www.nytimes.com
Tottenham embody this season’s Premier League: Set pieces, long throws, and no cohesion
Tottenham embody this season’s Premier League: Set pieces, long throws, and no cohesion
Ultimately, Tottenham Hotspur lost 2-1 to Aston Villa because of two fantastic strikes from outside the box, courtesy of Morgan Rogers and Emi Buendia. No one could have anticipated the quality of those efforts, but the game overall was entirely predictable. It was, as Thomas Frank said afterwards, “everything I expected it to be”.
The 2025-26 Premier League campaign has started with the most concerns about the league’s entertainment value since way back in 2004-05, when football seemed to have taken a particularly defensive turn.
It was Tottenham who accidentally found themselves at the centre of the debate back then, when Jose Mourinho introduced the ‘parking the bus’ phrase to English football when complaining about Tottenham’s successful defensive approach against his Chelsea side in a goalless draw.
Twenty-one years on, Tottenham again feel like the best representation of the sudden shift in this season’s football style.
Those who would accuse Pep Guardiola of sucking the fun and creativity out of the game should be careful what they wish for
After two years of Spurs being coached by Ange Postecoglou, with all the obvious strengths and weaknesses of his front-foot philosophy, Frank is a coach renowned for his pragmatism. Under his leadership, his previous side, Brentford, were known for their direct play and emphasis on set pieces.
While it would be unreasonable to expect his Tottenham side to have figured everything out by mid-October, this was a performance that summed everything up: not just where Tottenham are at, but also where the division overall finds itself.
This was a contest between — in the context of European football — two good sides. Tottenham are the Europa League holders, Aston Villa briefly caused European champions Paris Saint-Germain a real scare in the Champions League last season. Both are going well this season in Europe, too. On that basis alone, we should have expected a reasonable amount of quality football.
But, instead, it was overwhelmingly based around set pieces. Tottenham’s opening goal featured two powerful midfielders combining in the box, in the aftermath of a set-piece situation, with Rodrigo Bentancur slamming home Joao Palhinha’s knockdown. That in itself was typical of the season in a different way: deep midfielders have contributed more than their fair share of goals this season, and of Spurs’ starting XI here, Palhinha is Tottenham’s top scorer this campaign.
It’s not just about corners and free kicks, either. The long throw is ultra-fashionable again, and while this is clearly a useful part of any side’s armoury, Kevin Danso’s deliveries constituted Spurs’ main weapon against Villa, which felt particularly odd considering he wasn’t even due to start, only stepping up late on when Cristian Romero pulled out in the warm-up.
Danso gets great distance on his throws, and one caused Villa serious problems, but by the time he’d hurled the ball into the box for the sixth time, usually after an inevitably long wait while the centre-back jogged over to the touchline and had located the nearest towel, you couldn’t help feeling that this approach was wasting too much time and giving the opposition a breather.
In open play, it’s clear that Tottenham’s attackers don’t offer any cohesive combinations, which you can say about half the league at the moment. That is understandable considering Mohammed Kudus and Xavi Simons are new arrivals, while Wilson Odobert and Mathys Tel arrived last summer and in January respectively. But here they were operating on four different wavelengths, with Tel spending most of the first half making a run, not getting the pass, then gesturing to where he had wanted it.
Of the front four, it is Kudus who has been brightest this season by showing good understanding with his team-mates, most obviously in the opening game of the season when he twice assisted Richarlison in a 3-0 win over Burnley.
Simons, as the No 10, is tasked with connecting everyone around him: two midfielders who rarely pass forward, two wingers who tend to stay wide, and a centre-forward who isn’t involved much in build-up play. That’s a tough task for a 22-year-old who has recently moved to a new league.
Afterwards, Frank acknowledged the limitations of his side’s attack, but indicated that his initial focus was on improving “the four to five good transitional moments, where we could have done more”.
The understanding required to break down deeper defences, you suspect, will take even longer, which is fair enough, but it is also grating considering Tottenham could, until fairly recently, depend on Harry Kane and Son Heung-min, statistically the best partnership the Premier League has seen at creating goals for each other. The man who completed the trio in latter years, Dejan Kulusevski, is missed as much for his club as he is for his country.
Like most Premier League clubs, Tottenham have decent depth. The division’s financial dominance over other leagues isn’t necessarily reflected in the quality of the top players, but in the backups.
Tottenham are able to bring on players such as Richarlison and Randal Kolo Muani. The former scored the best goal at the last World Cup, the latter nearly played a decisive role in the final. Another sub, Brennan Johnson, scored the Europa League winner. Perhaps the most exciting reserve is Lucas Bergvall, who offers badly needed ability to knit things together; without a player in that mould, things were too easy for Aston Villa.
Indeed, Unai Emery’s analysis was succinct and telling. “We adapted to everything tactically,” he said when asked to explain why his side came out on top. “In duels, set pieces, throw-ins.” And they, slightly depressingly, are the main qualities needed to win a Premier League game at the moment.
Ultimately, Tottenham Hotspur lost 2-1 to Aston Villa because of two fantastic strikes from outside the box, courtesy of Morgan Rogers and Emi Buendia. No one could have anticipated the quality of those efforts, but the game overall was entirely predictable. It was, as Thomas Frank said afterwards, “everything I expected it to be”.
The 2025-26 Premier League campaign has started with the most concerns about the league’s entertainment value since way back in 2004-05, when football seemed to have taken a particularly defensive turn.
It was Tottenham who accidentally found themselves at the centre of the debate back then, when Jose Mourinho introduced the ‘parking the bus’ phrase to English football when complaining about Tottenham’s successful defensive approach against his Chelsea side in a goalless draw.
Twenty-one years on, Tottenham again feel like the best representation of the sudden shift in this season’s football style.
Those who would accuse Pep Guardiola of sucking the fun and creativity out of the game should be careful what they wish for
After two years of Spurs being coached by Ange Postecoglou, with all the obvious strengths and weaknesses of his front-foot philosophy, Frank is a coach renowned for his pragmatism. Under his leadership, his previous side, Brentford, were known for their direct play and emphasis on set pieces.
While it would be unreasonable to expect his Tottenham side to have figured everything out by mid-October, this was a performance that summed everything up: not just where Tottenham are at, but also where the division overall finds itself.
This was a contest between — in the context of European football — two good sides. Tottenham are the Europa League holders, Aston Villa briefly caused European champions Paris Saint-Germain a real scare in the Champions League last season. Both are going well this season in Europe, too. On that basis alone, we should have expected a reasonable amount of quality football.
But, instead, it was overwhelmingly based around set pieces. Tottenham’s opening goal featured two powerful midfielders combining in the box, in the aftermath of a set-piece situation, with Rodrigo Bentancur slamming home Joao Palhinha’s knockdown. That in itself was typical of the season in a different way: deep midfielders have contributed more than their fair share of goals this season, and of Spurs’ starting XI here, Palhinha is Tottenham’s top scorer this campaign.
It’s not just about corners and free kicks, either. The long throw is ultra-fashionable again, and while this is clearly a useful part of any side’s armoury, Kevin Danso’s deliveries constituted Spurs’ main weapon against Villa, which felt particularly odd considering he wasn’t even due to start, only stepping up late on when Cristian Romero pulled out in the warm-up.
Danso gets great distance on his throws, and one caused Villa serious problems, but by the time he’d hurled the ball into the box for the sixth time, usually after an inevitably long wait while the centre-back jogged over to the touchline and had located the nearest towel, you couldn’t help feeling that this approach was wasting too much time and giving the opposition a breather.
In open play, it’s clear that Tottenham’s attackers don’t offer any cohesive combinations, which you can say about half the league at the moment. That is understandable considering Mohammed Kudus and Xavi Simons are new arrivals, while Wilson Odobert and Mathys Tel arrived last summer and in January respectively. But here they were operating on four different wavelengths, with Tel spending most of the first half making a run, not getting the pass, then gesturing to where he had wanted it.
Of the front four, it is Kudus who has been brightest this season by showing good understanding with his team-mates, most obviously in the opening game of the season when he twice assisted Richarlison in a 3-0 win over Burnley.
Simons, as the No 10, is tasked with connecting everyone around him: two midfielders who rarely pass forward, two wingers who tend to stay wide, and a centre-forward who isn’t involved much in build-up play. That’s a tough task for a 22-year-old who has recently moved to a new league.
Afterwards, Frank acknowledged the limitations of his side’s attack, but indicated that his initial focus was on improving “the four to five good transitional moments, where we could have done more”.
The understanding required to break down deeper defences, you suspect, will take even longer, which is fair enough, but it is also grating considering Tottenham could, until fairly recently, depend on Harry Kane and Son Heung-min, statistically the best partnership the Premier League has seen at creating goals for each other. The man who completed the trio in latter years, Dejan Kulusevski, is missed as much for his club as he is for his country.
Like most Premier League clubs, Tottenham have decent depth. The division’s financial dominance over other leagues isn’t necessarily reflected in the quality of the top players, but in the backups.
Tottenham are able to bring on players such as Richarlison and Randal Kolo Muani. The former scored the best goal at the last World Cup, the latter nearly played a decisive role in the final. Another sub, Brennan Johnson, scored the Europa League winner. Perhaps the most exciting reserve is Lucas Bergvall, who offers badly needed ability to knit things together; without a player in that mould, things were too easy for Aston Villa.
Indeed, Unai Emery’s analysis was succinct and telling. “We adapted to everything tactically,” he said when asked to explain why his side came out on top. “In duels, set pieces, throw-ins.” And they, slightly depressingly, are the main qualities needed to win a Premier League game at the moment.
WTAF!
Capitulate? We have lost just two games this season...
And come back, 3/4 times already...
I agree with lots of parts of your post, but capitulate every other game... Fecking seriously...
That doesn't fit with Levynomics
Seems to be a lot of pressure from the board to keep OPEX costs down; so, Spurs could never pull the trigger on increasing the wage bill ceiling.
Meanwhile, happy to sign off 40m on Gray, 35m on Tel and 55m on Johnson - safe in the knowledge that they are young players, on a low salary who can be sold later of written off as deprecated assets.
Unfortunately, Football is a game that is won by those who have no regard for money and use the sport as a plaything and ego trip. I don't think any club has had meaningful sustained success whilst also running as a successful business.
Levy.
They just stumped up £100 million to deal with shit, through the shares thing.
It's not even a transfer window.
And new board is being put in place.
The only thing you we can do, is see what they get up too... See who they target etc etc.
It's a waiting game. There has been a monumental change at spurs.
Only time will tell what the result is.
You are providing nothing constructive and dismissing any evidence being sent your way. If Frank finishes midtable (assuming we don't win any cups too), then its been a shit season by all metrics.
Our standards should be higher than Brentford!