• The Fighting Cock is a forum for fans of Tottenham Hotspur Football Club. Here you can discuss Spurs latest matches, our squad, tactics and any transfer news surrounding the club. Registration gives you access to all our forums (including 'Off Topic' discussion) and removes most of the adverts (you can remove them all via an account upgrade). You're here now, you might as well...

    Get involved!

Manager Thomas Frank

Latest Spurs videos from Sky Sports

Are you Frank Out or In?


  • Total voters
    623
I think we are overstating some aspects of how bad the squad is, we are decent at the back with the exception of our bipolar keeper, Berg is a great asset, Kudus is a good one.

We've 6 or 7 who could play on a team that will contend for big things. It's just that the rest can't kick snow off a rope and they are all clustered at the front

We have an incredibly mediocre attack. Kudus is really good but doesn’t possess elite end product and nobody else even has reasonable end product. No threats up front = you’re in trouble in this league.

Midfield is a lot of plodding. Bergvall is a talent but that’s all - he’s not well rounded. Our rivals have Rice, Caicedo, Rodri, Gravenberch, Fernandes.. guys like Wharton are well beyond us as well. Maddison was our real gem midfield asset but he’s not been available to Frank. Simons was meant to be it but he’s clearly having acclimatisation issues.

Without that Bentancur, Palhinha is just so plodding and Sarr, Bergvall need lots of developing.

Behind that the centre backs are very good but the fullbacks are hugely overrated and the goalkeeper is a flawed shot stopper. This is not a recipe overall for a top team.

Realistically this team needs a striker, at least one top wide player, at least one top midfielder, an actual left back to compete with Udogie and probably another 10 if Maddison comes back a shadow and Simons doesn’t adapt. And that’s at a minimum - that’s hundreds of millions of pounds of investment.
 
I dread to think where we would be this season with Ange given the strong start the promoted sides have made and the shift in the game towards the importance of set pieces that Ange seemed to give fuck all thought to.

Yes he won the Europa and I’m very grateful, but what we saw at Forest is what we would have seen here - he is and was hopelessly out of his depth in the Prem.

He is too stubborn, arrogant and unadaptable.

Having said that Forest had 60 shots on goal and scored one goal! but with Frank we seem to be too far the other way far too cautious.
 
Totally agree. 17th last season scared Levy and Frank is his legacy. Sacrificial lamb season Frank is. Will be better managers available next summer in poch and Tuchel. Interesting earlier in the year Levy having that cafe meeting with poch. Might have asked him back but might have said committed to USA until after world cup. Tbh I hope Frank does well though. Next two home games will be interesting though.

I'm not convinced about Poch anymore. His USA side are unimpressive, barely scraping through an Aussie squad which is full of young inexperinced players.
 
We have an incredibly mediocre attack. Kudus is really good but doesn’t possess elite end product and nobody else even has reasonable end product. No threats up front = you’re in trouble in this league.

Midfield is a lot of plodding. Bergvall is a talent but that’s all - he’s not well rounded. Our rivals have Rice, Caicedo, Rodri, Gravenberch, Fernandes.. guys like Wharton are well beyond us as well. Maddison was our real gem midfield asset but he’s not been available to Frank. Simons was meant to be it but he’s clearly having acclimatisation issues.

Without that Bentancur, Palhinha is just so plodding and Sarr, Bergvall need lots of developing.

Behind that the centre backs are very good but the fullbacks are hugely overrated and the goalkeeper is a flawed shot stopper. This is not a recipe overall for a top team.

Realistically this team needs a striker, at least one top wide player, at least one top midfielder, an actual left back to compete with Udogie and probably another 10 if Maddison comes back a shadow and Simons doesn’t adapt. And that’s at a minimum - that’s hundreds of millions of pounds of investment.
I think our current attack is a level below mediocre.

Johnson, Richarlison, Odobert, Tel should really be at bottom 5 PL clubs.
Solanke is solidly mid-table.
Jury out on Muani and Simons but would be amazed if either get anything close to 20 goal contributions this season.
Kudus is an asset but not an end product machine so he needs much better players around him.
Kulu and Maddison can be top drawer on their day but are also inconsistent (and currently unavailable)

We were promised the world with the stadium move and instead we've gone from Kane and Son to this sorry bunch.
 
If we have good attacking players I think we’ll be a good attacking team. Currently we don’t have that. Many of our best are hurt. Xavi the jury is out but he’s certainly not playing at Madders level right now. LW is a real issue. The good thing is we have a coach who will adjust and try different things. But it doesn’t happen overnight. EPL is insanely competitive. I think 4th-8th is a reasonable season. We’ve had some questionable signings the last few years particularly in attack. Can’t blame Levy now though.
 

View: https://youtu.be/Gg6VF_dJbKc?si=M3nZcl28BVSUWQZ0

When he's not spitting at kids in cars he's spitting facts about spurs

the fact bentancur passes back to spence says all you need to know! a good midfielder takes that on with spence and creates a 2 v 1 on caicedo. bentancur is a huge problem!

if bentancur had any bollox he can actually drive on a bit and he has kudus in acres of space too. no wonder we cant get the fucking ball forward! so it would have actually been a 3 on 1 vs caicedo.... instead hes put spence in with him alone with a ball that isnt great too....dog shit midfield play. 3 on 1 vs their midfielder should mean we are on a dangerous attack...

yea palhinha might not have the quality on the ball but hes literally one of the best in the world at tackling and winning the ball back, so you take the pay off. danso isnt good enough.

that little chart says it all, it proves what any one with a brain cell can see, palhinha excels at something, bentancur does not!
 
Last edited:
I don’t agree with plenty of Nathan’s takes, but he fucking nails this one:


View: https://bsky.app/profile/nathanaclark.bsky.social/post/3m4r4fvv4oc2r

People were saying Frank’s championship team were more proactive, but only sometimes and then reluctantly because there were much weaker, shitter sides in the championship.

I also don't agree that you sack a coach in those two circumstances. If we plod along as we are, against who we're playing against, we're completely out of European places. We spent £200m in the summer, we'll need £100-150m in January, for a coach that we wait and see what happens. This is why the squad is the way it is. These system managers want specific players, who on paper should be good, but they don't suit Thier philosophy, so likely even more deadwood.

Agree with the hiring process. If what we're seeing ticks all those boxes, then that's absolutely absurd. Although lots of folk here are adament that Brentford played great attacking football.

I think you look at these decisions through a flow process, if there were qualities that you could see were improving, then fine, give him time. But we've been bad. There's really not much to suggest it'll get better, and look at it long term. Is he going to be the guy that delivers us trophies and can catapult us up the table? Based on what we've seen thus far, absolutely not. If be shocked if contingency plans haven't started already.
 
Yeah of course they were .. because we were on a serious dry spell. It’s like when you’ve not got any for a while and pull a fat bird mate. You don’t then go around to your mates bragging about pulling a worldie if they’ve seen her in person.

The EL was a great little win to get over the trophy hump, but glorious is the stretchiest of stretches.
Love that analogy!
 
Yeah of course they were .. because we were on a serious dry spell. It’s like when you’ve not got any for a while and pull a fat bird mate. You don’t then go around to your mates bragging about pulling a worldie if they’ve seen her in person.

The EL was a great little win to get over the trophy hump, but glorious is the stretchiest of stretches.

Nah. After our Div 1 wins in 51 and 61, the Europa league (or previous incarnations thereof) is the best thing we've won.

It's not banging a beautiful continental (CL) model, but it's definitely not a fat English (FA Cup or League cup) munter.
 
Nah. After our Div 1 wins in 51 and 61, the Europa league (or previous incarnations thereof) is the best thing we've won.

It's not banging a beautiful continental (CL) model, but it's definitely not a fat English (FA Cup or League cup) munter.

Yeah probably mate, but that’s not saying much.

The Europa league is weak. When Sevilla, a club who can’t get out a CL group stage, have won it that many times it says a fucking lot. It’s a competition made so Europe’s second or third tier can have a go at something mid week.

AZ Alkmaar, Frankfurt, Bodo & United is a list of teams in which half get relegated from the prem, one finishes about 12th and the other did finish 15th.

It was lovely to win it but it doesn’t say much about Ange’s coaching ability other than we got very lucky with a draw and threw everything at it.

The FA cup is legitimately significantly harder to win. Palace-City is a far superior final in terms of team quality than United-Spurs last season. To win an FA cup you probably have to beat one of England’s best. To win a Europa league you have to worm your way through Europe’s mid tier.
 
Good teams go deep in/win cups and stay near the top of the league.

Frank would also piss the EL if we were in it this year and we'd finish top 10.

Good teams also don't have to use Emerson, Gray, Davies as makeshift center backs.

What makes you think Frank would win the Europa League? - something that Poch, Mourinho, Conte couldn't do with Spurs? (And they had prime Harry Kane). Or does it just help your argument if you make stuff up?

The fact of the matter is that the club often leaves the squad woefully short in key positions.
 
There are many mitigating factors for Frank. He deserves time to sort things out.
Injuries, he never had constant 2 games a week meaning less training time before, and a very average midfield / attack.

I do wish he would try Gray instead of Bentancur, I don't think it loses too much defensiveness but could really offer more going forwards. He can pass forward and perhaps could find Xavi in those pockets. He does like to drive forward too. All this strictly passing sideways and to the wings is killing us. It's killing us the fans and it must be killing the players. It's so boring and unimaginative. You never see a player smile at the moment, they are not enjoying it.

We need a spark from somewhere, but it's unlikely if keep on with same type of selections / tactics.
 
I’m all for giving Frank time but it’s got to get better soon. I’ve never seen a more boring clueless Tottenham team in 44 years of supporting us. The Bournemouth game was the worst game I’ve ever seen us play at home. We got close to that on Saturday and Villarreal was horrific. There is something fundamentally wrong with our players because there’s no way that they don’t have the ability to create. Xavi,Muani and Kudus on paper are frighteningly good. . A year ago Tel would have been classed as the next big thing. No matter what the tactics or structure is players will always find a way to still create and look like scoring but at the moment ours can’t. The next month is massive for Frank because if things don’t change it will be toxic in that stadium.
Out of our 15 games this season I can honestly say I’ve enjoyed 3. Burnley at home in the first game. City away because it’s such a tough place to go and we won and Leeds away because I seen signs we were more of a threat. Every other game for me has bored the life out of me. I don’t expect us to be swashbuckling and be amazing every game because football is not a great watch nowadays but I want to get excited and off my seat at some point and more than just a couple of times in a game.
clueless Tottenham team…………said that with the last manager!
 
Yeah probably mate, but that’s not saying much.

The Europa league is weak. When Sevilla, a club who can’t get out a CL group stage, have won it that many times it says a fucking lot. It’s a competition made so Europe’s second or third tier can have a go at something mid week.

AZ Alkmaar, Frankfurt, Bodo & United is a list of teams in which half get relegated from the prem, one finishes about 12th and the other did finish 15th.

It was lovely to win it but it doesn’t say much about Ange’s coaching ability other than we got very lucky with a draw and threw everything at it.

The FA cup is legitimately significantly harder to win. Palace-City is a far superior final in terms of team quality than United-Spurs last season. To win an FA cup you probably have to beat one of England’s best. To win a Europa league you have to worm your way through Europe’s mid tier.
Certainly the case last year - not sure if that’s factual if you go back over the last 20 years when CL drop outs fell into it
 
I’m all for giving Frank time but it’s got to get better soon. I’ve never seen a more boring clueless Tottenham team in 44 years of supporting us. The Bournemouth game was the worst game I’ve ever seen us play at home. We got close to that on Saturday and Villarreal was horrific. There is something fundamentally wrong with our players because there’s no way that they don’t have the ability to create. Xavi,Muani and Kudus on paper are frighteningly good. . A year ago Tel would have been classed as the next big thing. No matter what the tactics or structure is players will always find a way to still create and look like scoring but at the moment ours can’t. The next month is massive for Frank because if things don’t change it will be toxic in that stadium.
Out of our 15 games this season I can honestly say I’ve enjoyed 3. Burnley at home in the first game. City away because it’s such a tough place to go and we won and Leeds away because I seen signs we were more of a threat. Every other game for me has bored the life out of me. I don’t expect us to be swashbuckling and be amazing every game because football is not a great watch nowadays but I want to get excited and off my seat at some point and more than just a couple of times in a game.

I enjoyed the fight back at Brighton, and West Ham away was alright to.

The poor/shit games:

Bournemouth
Wolves
Villa (was OKish)
Chelsea

All at home of course.

Our approach to away games is fantastic. I believe you have to slow the game down and grind it out a lot of the time on the road if you want a decent return of points. And that's what we're doing.

Problem is, obviously, we're playing the same way at home.

I keep thinking Frank will let the handbrake off next home game that comes about, but he never does.

I'm amazed he thinks the same approach will work and the fans will come round to it.

This will go one of two ways in the next few weeks.

1) more of the same with the stadium getting toxic
2) or he'll change the approach at home and performances/results will improve and so will the atmosphere which in turn continues to help our home form

Interesting few weeks ahead.
 
With how common mid season sackings are these days, clubs should put more effort in trying to have at least one more person in the staff with some kind of an experience in head coaching. Those who are/were already managing at top level obviously won't be lining up to be another manager's sidekick, but those managing on the lower levels could be tempted with an apprenticeship of this type. Little risk and possibly a very high reward in the form of being the eventual successor.

Otherwise you end up in these situations where a club doesn't see any future with the person in charge, but can't sack him before the season goes to waste either due to lack of an adequate replacement plan. Not where we're at right now, but in case we eventually got there our hands would be quite tied up.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top