Manager Thomas Frank

[Papafeels]

So he decided to play a left side with two players who can't use their left foot.
He tinkers too much, all this changing for every different opponent is stupid.

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Tommy Tinker II.

He obviously shit himself about Mbuemo, thought if he put two weaker foot players on that side it would nullify the majority of his threat. Sacrificed our left side offensively, and then they put him central or left and took us out of the game.

The subs into their natural positions, low and behold, we have two functioning areas of the pitch and put them on the back foot. Gambled, backfired spectacularly.

Really yet to see this tactical genius, that has so many different ways to play, and improves players. Almost every game it's the wrong players picked, the wrong/too late subs and we have to chase games.

Despite the cries of "have you seen the squad he has, what other way is he supposed to play?", those players have played football before, at seldom times, this season. When we don't play with the human hand break in Pal, we can actually play half competent football, but apparently you need to try 50 times before deciding it doesn't work.

His decisions, the state of the dross we have to sit through every week.... Not for me.

 

[thinktank]

I'm nearly positive we'd of won the game had he started with that 11.

What worries me is why he thought Spence and Richarlison were a good threatening combination for the left.

That's a big worry for me as it indicates he's still more worried about losing than actually setting up to be aggressive at home and win.

This is not Brentford and a big part of his transition to a bigger club will be down to shifting his managerial mind set he's had at Brentford and adapting to what's expected at Tottenham.

Players coming back from injury should help with this but that was a worrying selection for me today.

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Yeah, was too cautious.

Manure are shit.

 

[bk_spur]

Hopefully in a few weeks we'll see:

Vicario

Spence
Romero
VDV
Udogie

Palhinha
Bergvall
Xavi

Kudus
RKM/Solanke
Odobert

I think that could end up being our strongest 11.

Genuinely think Spence could be a more physical option for the right as Udogie will push higher on the left.

Porro just lacks that physical dynamism. On his day he has some great interplay and crossing ability but those two might bring the best

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Porro can really rip apart weaker teams, as his performance against Copenhagen shows. I would love to see Spence played out right more and worry by playing out of position so much he's at risk of becoming a misshapen player offensively. Definitely against the highest quality opposition, where we are not expecting to be on the ball as much of the time, I would rather see Spence played for his defensive qualities and ability on the break vs Porro at RB. Against weaker teams where we dominate possession, that's when you want Porro to be on the ball with deliveries and striking from deep.

Agree with you that your lineup could end up being our best- I certainly feel like Bergvall has a higher potential ceiling than Sarr, but of course we need both. Hopefully the injury mist can clear, and Richarlison and some other hangers-on can be moved on, and then Frank can focus his efforts on growing the long-term squad and not wasting time handing loose-ends and lost-cases.

 

[Dr Rocktopus]

Thick as pig shit you are.

If you can't see the obvious limitations Frank is working with then you're an absolute helmet. We have injuries galore and still 3rd and doing well in the champions league. Numerous injuries and the geezer just gets on with it and never makes it an excuse.

Our deluded gormless fanbase will never get it though. Maybe after manager number 37746363627273637382726262728282737389393837282839393939293939933763839392172626293030404040404 something will register but I doubt it.

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Thanks. Fuck you very much

 

[Bubs]

God our fanbase is filled with some absolute weapons.

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Are you including yourself or are you the only one who isn't?

 

[bk_spur]

Frank seems to be trying really hard to rehabilitate Richarlison, which has come at the cost of less game time for Tel, Odobert, and Scarlett. Richarlison at LW can be ok if you are defending deep, pressing, and playing on the counter, and don't expect to be on the ball much, but vs Man Utd was not that kind of game.

I hope Frank rotates more with an eye towards optimal tactics and fitness considerations, rather than trying to play Richarlison back into form. At this point our future lies more with Odobert, Tel and Scarlett than with Richarlison.

 

[Papafeels]

Are you including yourself or are you the only one who isn't?

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Did you not know, that unless you agree with him, you're an absolute weapon? Apparently demanding more than this clueless, coward ball makes you into a weapon, or an idiot etc etc.

Sad how low we've sunk that some actively support this nonsense. But oh well.

 

[AlabamaSpur]

Lots of new additions to the ignore list

 

[Hoddle2Waddle]

Frank seems to be trying really hard to rehabilitate Richarlison, which has come at the cost of less game time for Tel, Odobert, and Scarlett. Richarlison at LW can be ok if you are defending deep, pressing, and playing on the counter, and don't expect to be on the ball much, but vs Man Utd was not that kind of game.

I hope Frank rotates more with an eye towards optimal tactics and fitness considerations, rather than trying to play Richarlison back into form. At this point our future lies more with Odobert, Tel and Scarlett than with Richarlison.

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Richarlison can NOT be ok with anything. He should not get near first team again. Sell and if not sold by end of January try to loan him. Otherwise, admit the mistake and make some deal to part ways.

 

[Teach]

Deserves to be sacked for his sartorial criminality yesterday - that jacket needs to be burnt

 

[kingdawson]

Do people realise that he has to play a certain type of way because of the personnel available to him? Do people realise that if he attempted to play a gung-ho game we'd probably lose every game so it's a more sensible bet to start from our most reliable area which is the defence?

People think I'm in love with players like Richie and Johnson because I don't jump in with the relentless abuse and absolute over exaggerations with performance. They're both mid table premier league standard players that can offer something but ideally would be improved on. Richie has been ravaged with injury so that's not helped but yesterday he offered more than Muani first half and attempted to get involved yet the reaction when Muani got subbed....you would have thought he was on a hat trick and not the reality that he has the least amount of touches of the ball on the whole pitch. I don't like fake rage based on nothing.

Anyway Frank is obviously doing well and is balancing both competitions well but our squad is average plus we have the most injuries in the league. It's as simple as that.

 

[Spanish Spur]

I'm feeling quite positive about Frank and this team today.
- For starters, it's obviously much better than last season and it's going to take time to organize a team that played kamikaze football for 2 years.
- Our defense is good. We're short a left back but I imagine we'll get a quality one in
- We have a lot of exciting young players to play the two central midfield positions, some combination has to click at some point
- Xavi is looking better and better and I'm sure will be the top 4 standard playmaker we've needed. And when Maddison gets back, even better.
- When Solanke and Kulusevski coming back and Muani getting up to speed, we will hopefully have seen the beginning of the end of Johnson and Richarlison at Spurs, to everyone's relief.
- I want Tel and Odobert to be understudies at this stage in their careers, but both of them are getting better with this game time

 

[Jaynola]

I think he thought Mbuemo would play on the right so he wanted to lock him down with Djed but Amorim switched him to the other side and caught him by surprise. Also Udogie is only recently back from injury and is made of glass.

I have some sympathy with Frank because he is working with a very mediocre set of players in attack, but he has to work much harder to give the team more courage at home. Right now all the terrible defeats at home in the last 18 months are weighing on the players and they are afraid of the crowd, they are afraid to take risks and hesitate constantly which just gets the crowd even more wound up.

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That's what happens when you buy fragile, selfish, gutless prima donnas. And a ton of them.

 

[Tomo]

I'm feeling quite positive about Frank and this team today.
- For starters, it's obviously much better than last season and it's going to take time to organize a team that played kamikaze football for 2 years.
- Our defense is good. We're short a left back but I imagine we'll get a quality one in
- We have a lot of exciting young players to play the two central midfield positions, some combination has to click at some point
- Xavi is looking better and better and I'm sure will be the top 4 standard playmaker we've needed. And when Maddison gets back, even better.
- When Solanke and Kulusevski coming back and Muani getting up to speed, we will hopefully have seen the beginning of the end of Johnson and Richarlison at Spurs, to everyone's relief.
- I want Tel and Odobert to be understudies at this stage in their careers, but both of them are getting better with this game time

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Said in other post this is a very Un-Spurs team.

- good depth
- good defenders
- no world class players (Bale/Modric/Kane/Son)

We need to find a gem or two in midfield and up top to compete at the very top end.

 

[Fattynomates]

Kulu coming back is going to be a massive help for Frank

 

[LevyOutNow]

Thomas Frank is a good bloke and I really want him to do well.

But, he has got to take the handbrake of these players and stop playing so defensively. The reason our forwards are struggling is because they're not getting enough support. How many time have we seen Xavi, Johnson, Richy, Muani, Tel and Odobert in the opposition half looking for somebody to pass forward to, and there's nobody there so they end up passing backwards. The opposition then gets all it's players back in position, and you know that we aren't going to do fuck all until the ball is turned over.

It's too predictable, not to mention incredibly boring to watch.

 

[Crockett]

I'm feeling quite positive about Frank and this team today.
- For starters, it's obviously much better than last season and it's going to take time to organize a team that played kamikaze football for 2 years.
- Our defense is good. We're short a left back but I imagine we'll get a quality one in
- We have a lot of exciting young players to play the two central midfield positions, some combination has to click at some point
- Xavi is looking better and better and I'm sure will be the top 4 standard playmaker we've needed. And when Maddison gets back, even better.
- When Solanke and Kulusevski coming back and Muani getting up to speed, we will hopefully have seen the beginning of the end of Johnson and Richarlison at Spurs, to everyone's relief.
- I want Tel and Odobert to be understudies at this stage in their careers, but both of them are getting better with this game time

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Ideally Odobert would be an understudy maybe, but right now he looks head and shoulders above the other options on the left.

 

[Tomo]

Thomas Frank is a good bloke and I really want him to do well.

But, he has got to take the handbrake of these players and stop playing so defensively. The reason our forwards are struggling is because they're not getting enough support. How many time have we seen Xavi, Johnson, Richy, Muani, Tel and Odobert in the opposition half looking for somebody to pass forward to, and there's nobody there so they end up passing backwards. The opposition then gets all it's players back in position, and you know that we aren't going to do fuck all until the ball is turned over.

It's too predictable, not to mention incredibly boring to watch.

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He is more cautious than I would like but we have to be honest we have a very young team and a few big holes in the squad that the opposition will always exploit in terms of squad composition. I am more than happy to give him a few seasons to build something and if we aren’t going anywhere then make a change but we need to fix/complete the squad more than we need to look at the manager.

The goal must be to have build a City/Gooner level squad then if the manager ain’t it we move on to someone who can fight for a title.

 

[Crockett]

Do people realise that he has to play a certain type of way because of the personnel available to him? Do people realise that if he attempted to play a gung-ho game we'd probably lose every game so it's a more sensible bet to start from our most reliable area which is the defence?

People think I'm in love with players like Richie and Johnson because I don't jump in with the relentless abuse and absolute over exaggerations with performance. They're both mid table premier league standard players that can offer something but ideally would be improved on. Richie has been ravaged with injury so that's not helped but yesterday he offered more than Muani first half and attempted to get involved yet the reaction when Muani got subbed....you would have thought he was on a hat trick and not the reality that he has the least amount of touches of the ball on the whole pitch. I don't like fake rage based on nothing.

Anyway Frank is obviously doing well and is balancing both competitions well but our squad is average plus we have the most injuries in the league. It's as simple as that.

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It's true that he has been dealt a difficult hand but I think we look more solid when we are on the front foot with players in the right positions. Like yesterday, it's hard for Amad to hurt us if he pinned near his own box having to cope with Udogie.

 

[_mehstg]

He is more cautious than I would like but we have to be honest we have a very young team and a few big holes in the squad that the opposition will always exploit in terms of squad composition. I am more than happy to give him a few seasons to build something and if we aren’t going anywhere then make a change but we need to fix/complete the squad more than we need to look at the manager.

The goal must be to have build a City/Gooner level squad then if the manager ain’t it we move on to someone who can fight for a title.

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We are never going to build City/Gooner type squads... we dont pay the wages. Literally all of their main protagonists are around 250k or more. We don't have a single player on 200k, so we need a coach who can improve players and get the best out of all the squad... so that is the question you need to ask... can Frank improve our players. So far the evidence is no, he can't.