He has had a whole pre season. It would be seriously impressive if our possession and attacking structures were halfway good as well as being defensively well structured. It's hardly genius to get a team bus parked, diving around making desperate blocks all over the place (especially against the likes of Leeds and Everton).
This time last year under "clueless" Ange we had an XGA of 9.69 and we'd played Newcastle away, Woolwich, Brighton away, ManU away, Palace away. And our XG was 19. It's currently (XGA) 10.70 and the only real tough game we've had is ManC away, we've played 6 of the bottom 8. Our XG is 11.25.
I'm not expecting miracles, or for us to become a great team suddenly, this group of personnel is individually deeply flawed. But this whole "he's worked miracles" is a bit bogus. He's doing a middling job. XPTS has us 11th, and on performances I reckon that would be about right.
Our midfield and forward play is non existent. Literally non existent. We are creating absolutely fuck all in open play. Our midfield create nothing - and fuck knows why he is constantly insisting on playing with a 10/ACM when it clearly isn't working.
As I said, I'm not expecting miracles, and I don't think we are seeing them. We are seeing compromises. We are seeing pragmatism. That's OK, especially after such a short time, but let's just call it what it is. And let's just hope he can expand it and scale it up into something more than we saw at Brentford.
Who cares what our XGA was under Ange, we lost 22 times and finished 17th. Ange's football was suicidal and shite, incapable of winning games or keeping a clean sheet. We were so open. Teams were always two passes from being in on goal.
Ange was asking our players to play a style of football they couldn't do. He also didn't know how to organise a team, or to defend properly.
Frank is asking the players to do things they are capable of. He is being adaptable and pragmatic. He knows he needs to get results whilst he slowly moulds the team in his image. It's night and day the approach he is using compared to that fraud we had the last two years.
He has been very clear that it's about building a stable foundation first. Defend properly, keep clean sheets, excel at set pieces, he knows if we do that, we will win more than we lose. Of course the attack isn't clicking, we have no decent striker, no left winger, our number 10 is young and new to the prem, and we only have Kudus.
What exactly are you expecting? It's an entire new front 4 to what we played last season. We've lost a huge amount of goals and assists from last season to injury. Our front lines the whole season has basically been our back up squad players. If Maddison didn't get his ACL, Simons would be on the bench and being eased in. As it happens, Frank is having to rely on a creator who simply isn't creating. The alternatives are two kids in Sarr and Lucas.
Just saying he has had a whole preseason so should be attacking better and not considering the context is crazy. What use is a preseason when Maddison, Kulusevski and Solanke are injured?
Even Muani has only just got fit so that was another blow to Frank.
And whilst we have had a couple of poor performances attacking wise, it's not been that bad. If it was so bad, how come we are the highest scorers in the league?
