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Manager Thomas Frank

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Are you Frank Out or In?

  • Total voters
    623
GDG said:
Tactically Frank is getting it wrong, very wrong.

There are many flaws within this squad but I think the biggest one is the limited ball players we have in MF. Because of that we:-

- Cannot play through a press
- Cannot dominate a game in MF
- Therefore, should not be setting the team up to play SOOO deep when we know, due to the limitations of our players, that we cannot get out
- Palhinha and Sarr can press very effectively, Bentancur can press, Kudus can press, Richy is poor but works hard - why are we not doing it?
- We were pragmatic against both PSG and City but still pressed with real aggression and made it tough for them. We showed none of that ambition against Chelsea or Woolwich?
- If you look at the Woolwich side yesterday, the keeper is great with his feet and I quite like timber as a player, but I wouldn’t say their back 4 are incredible ball players. Why didn’t we try to make it hard for them?
- And if we did press high, they didn’t have a lot of threat in behind did they? Saka is quick but Merino, Trossard and Eze aren’t exactly electric compared to our back 4.

I was hoping he’d have learned something from Chelsea but there was no evidence of that yesterday.

I like Frank as a bloke and really want him to succeed, but as a fan we’re not asking a new manager to have all the answers, just to have a plan and a vision we can see evidence of on the pitch. That’s completely missing right now.

You play this way and don’t get good results, you only get one outcome.

Must do better, and quickly.
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Good post. I see it the same.

Right now, Frank's the Kier Starmer of football management. Nice enough bloke standing in a bleached field with a grey sky, no horizon, with nothing of interest to entertain the eye. Bland. And he has some really mediocre performers to direct. And too many fans are being fleeced for the honour.

Managers, players, coaching staff ... we expect much more. And the Lewis kids? You two had better be ready to get in some quality pronto otherwise we'll be doing this dance till the end of time. There's no Harry Kane in the youth ranks to save our arses.
 
McCOYS said:
Before Frank was employed I wrote on the forum somewhere, don't remember where exactly, when he was being connected with the job, that if I was in his position I'd stay at Brentford, he had quite a cushy number there relatively speaking, he was liked by the supporters, the board seemed pleased with him, he had no great pressure and I suspect finishing mid-table was acceptable to all involved with the club.

I think our club has overspent on average players, Frank has to turn that expenditure into success.

It's arguably a near impossible task, but as the season continues the performances aren't improving, the team doesn't appear to be completely fighting to win the ball, and some of the forward passing seems half hearted.

I've convinced myself through speculation that Venkatesham, Lange, and whoever else have been in meetings, and raising concerns with one another about how things are going on the field of play, in training, dressing room etc.
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Agreed but I would go one step further and argue that any manager thinking of coming here should say no. The players we have are a mixture of toxic, intept or simply too young. There is barely a testicle between them when it comes on top.
Our fans expectation goes something like this.
We want to play attractive football > play attractive football and lose > He is too gung ho there are no tactics we need more pragmatism > Get a more pragmatic manager > the football is fucking dull > Get a proven winner and when he lays out that the lack of ambition with the club comes from the top down call him a cunt > sack another manager on the eve of a cup final.

We are a fucking basket case of a club with a toxic deluded fanbase.

I'd steer well clear
 
McCOYS said:
Before Frank was employed I wrote on the forum somewhere, don't remember where exactly, when he was being connected with the job, that if I was in his position I'd stay at Brentford, he had quite a cushy number there relatively speaking, he was liked by the supporters, the board seemed pleased with him, he had no great pressure and I suspect finishing mid-table was acceptable to all involved with the club.

I think our club has overspent on average players, Frank has to turn that expenditure into success.

It's arguably a near impossible task, but as the season continues the performances aren't improving, the team doesn't appear to be completely fighting to win the ball, and some of the forward passing seems half hearted.

I've convinced myself through speculation that Venkatesham, Lange, and whoever else have been in meetings, and raising concerns with one another about how things are going on the field of play, in training, dressing room etc.
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He had to leave Brentford eventually and take his chance at a top team. He interviewed for Chelsea and United last Summer but didn't get either job. Spurs this summer probably felt like the right time for him. No other top English team were looking for a manager.

Its a very tough job. Near impossible as the expectations are we should be competing for titles when we are years away from that being a reality. So in the meantime you have to bridge that gap while also keeping supporters onside. Winning derby games would be the best way to do that! That's how Arteta bought time. He won an FA cup early on but he always made sure his teams performed against Spurs and Chelsea. They were a mess for years, losing many poor games at home where they looked clueless on the ball. But they nearly always showed up against spurs and chelsea and that keeps supporters onside.

But the reaility is, Frank is failing and showing himself to be out of his depth. Managing lower table teams and making them hard to beat seems to be his speciality and unfortunately he is beginning to look like a one trick pony. Nearly 4 months into the season now and I don't think we've properly dominated any game of football or looked like a top team on the ball.
 
Nuts said:
Good post. I see it the same.

Right now, Frank's the Kier Starmer of football management. Nice enough bloke standing in a bleached field with a grey sky, no horizon, with nothing of interest to entertain the eye. Bland. And he has some really mediocre performers to direct. And too many fans are being fleeced for the honour.

Managers, players, coaching staff ... we expect much more. And the Lewis kids? You two had better be ready to get in some quality pronto otherwise we'll be doing this dance till the end of time. There's no Harry Kane in the youth ranks to save our arses.
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Are You Sure About That John Cena GIF by MOODMAN
 
TheSpurEst said:
I mean quite a lot has been told and discussed about our forward line so far. Which I get - Richie just cannot keep the ball in dangerous areas to save his life. Not his game at all. And wingers level. Oh well, let's not get the moods even lower than they are.

And other thing that has been discussed a lot is duo of Palhinha-Bentancur. Most said about this pair is also true - this cannot go on in similar fashion.

But regarding one thing I have not seen enough honest reflection. NO REAL TOP LEVEL PASSING CM IN THE SQUAD. I was screaming in the end of transfer window that we have huge freaking gap in our squad but people did not listen. And I bet even now some are shutting their eyes and putting fingers to ears to scream "I cant hear you. I cant hear you". This does not solve the problem though.

Bentancur has his days where he fights a lot and helps to pass the ball around. But most of the evenings he just is not even close to needed level in terms of distribution.
Sarr is awesome player in his own right. Really good without the ball. Good running, covers ground. But he is not an elite passer or physical monster to keep the ball all on his own.
Bergvall is top level talent that seems to have courage and footballing brain. But he is not really consistently on that level yet to pull the strings in middle of the pitch.
Gray seems to have a really good footballing brain and I like the kid, but Frank rather keeps failing with Bentancur than ever trying him out there.

So let's stop pretending like we have loads of midfield options. Or I mean - we have the numbers but we don't have required quality. We need TWO players so extremely badly in start of January window- top level passing CM (someone similar in skillset to Tonali) and top level LW (someone similar or straight up Semenyo who can score and assist on his own).

Both are equally needed. But just LW alone does not solve too much. Cause just look back at our recent games and tell me - who and how is supposed to find the attacking players in promising positions? Or are we seriously just putting all hope to Romero and VdV to pass it out from defense to Xavi upfield ?!?! That is absolute madness, nothing less.
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agreed. We have lots of MFers, but not the one we need. Bent tbh we should be moving on. We need a top no8 that can pass.
 
Our best approach in my opinion is a 4-3-3 which in sorts turns to a sort of 2-1-4-3 when we have the ball.

Out of Possession

Vicario
Porro - Romero - Van de Ven - Udogie
Palhinha
Sarr/Bergvall - Xavi
Kudus - Muani - Odebert/Tel

In Possession

Vicario
Romero - Van de Ven
Palhinha
Porro - Bergvall - Xavi - Udogie
Kudus - Muani - Odebert
​
Both offer defensive support and attacking intent.



​
 
Yiddy said:
I'm talking about performance which was absolutely atrocious even though we may not have conceded for 34 minutes. We're missing maddison kulusevski and Solanke right now which would of been 3 of our highest output players from last season I would guess. So if we're going to give the excuse of the defence we played with that conceded so many can we use the same excuse at the other end and say what do you expect when you are missing 3 of your starting first 11 attacking players?
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We went to play defensively at Anfield just like we did yesterday.

However it made sense in the semi final cup game after already being a goal ahead in a two legged tie but not in a league game against your biggest rivals. The whole mindset was wrong, no attacking intentions or ideas whatsoever, yes we were missing 3 attackers but still Frank could have picked a different formation, he didn't need so many defensive minded players, the whole balance was wrong. 3 centre backs plus Palhina and Bentancur?? The irony is that we were so defensive but we're so easily opened up time and time again.

Its up to Frank, if he doesn't change his ways he won't be in this job beyond this season.
 
Listening to View From The Lane podcast and they are absolutely hammering Frank with them agreeing it isn't working and he should go. Really surprised they have gone so hard, usually lads like Jack Pitt Brooke are a lot more even so this has taken me a bit by surprise.
If the main stream media / journos are as concerned as fans about the manager then writings on the wall.
 
Sidford said:
Listening to View From The Lane podcast and they are absolutely hammering Frank with them agreeing it isn't working and he should go. Really surprised they have gone so hard, usually lads like Jack Pitt Brooke are a lot more even so this has taken me a bit by surprise.
If the main stream media / journos are as concerned as fans about the manager then writings on the wall.
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I think it's just stung so bad yesterday. Not losing, but how we lost.

Especially after Chelsea and the all round lack of attacking intent so far under him is hugely concerning.

No sign of changing, and to lose so pathetically yesterday is of huge embarrassment to everyone connected with the Club.

His credit in the bank took an absolute hammering yesterday.
 
What is this culture now that we are ready to sack manager 10 games in, despite having the same shit squad we had last season? We need to rebuild the squad and it takes time. Sacking a guy every 10 games and expecting different results with the same squad is madness.
 
Sidford said:
Listening to View From The Lane podcast and they are absolutely hammering Frank with them agreeing it isn't working and he should go. Really surprised they have gone so hard, usually lads like Jack Pitt Brooke are a lot more even so this has taken me a bit by surprise.
If the main stream media / journos are as concerned as fans about the manager then writings on the wall.
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Two weeks ago, I would have said the prospect of sacking him is madness, but the lack of ideas and fight suggest he doesn't have long. Once you've lost the faith of the players, it only ends one way. And what I'm seeing suggests he's lost the faith of his players (e.g. Vicario saying they didn't fight).
 
AlabamaSpur said:
What is this culture now that we are ready to sack manager 10 games in, despite having the same shit squad we had last season? We need to rebuild the squad and it takes time. Sacking a guy every 10 games and expecting different results with the same squad is madness.
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We're not expecting results, we're expecting performances. We've had 5 good performances (PSG, Burnley, City, Brighton, West Ham) while at the same time having had at least 6 terrifying ones (Bournemouth, Wolves, Bodo, Chelsea, Scum, Villa, Monaco) and we can also add Villarreal to that list, despite the fact we won. The problem is that the bad performances are more recent than the good ones which shows a side in decline. If he keeps going like this, he'll most likely get sacked after Newcastle.
 
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KingstonSpur said:
Two weeks ago, I would have said the prospect of sacking him is madness, but the lack of ideas and fight suggest he doesn't have long. Once you've lost the faith of the players, it only ends one way. And what I'm seeing suggests he's lost the faith of his players (e.g. Vicario saying they didn't fight).
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As another poster above said the Chelsea performance took away whatever good will/credit he had and 2 games later to put in that performance just completely leaves us having nothing at all positive.
We have been outplayed by Woolwich, villa, man u, Chelsea, bodo, Monaco, Newcastle, Brighton and Bournemouth already this season. There are no positives to take apart from 70 mins against PSG (yea 70 fucking mins against a team who were only back training for 10 days) and a win against city. That's it, we have nothing else.
Might as well open a new manager thread, it's only a matter of time
 
Sidford said:
As another poster above said the Chelsea performance took away whatever good will/credit he had and 2 games later to put in that performance just completely leaves us having nothing at all positive.
We have been outplayed by Woolwich, villa, man u, Chelsea, bodo, Monaco, Newcastle, Brighton and Bournemouth already this season. There are no positives to take apart from 70 mins against PSG (yea 70 fucking mins against a team who were only back training for 10 days) and a win against city. That's it, we have nothing else.
Might as well open a new manager thread, it's only a matter of time
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Disagree on Vila, Man U, and Brighton. Correct on the others.
 
Normally I am willing to give a manager time, but I just do not see it with Frank. Too many issues, ridiculously poor home form, not turning up for games against our two biggest rivals, being outplayed in most games,struggling badly against teams we should be dominant against, his negative setup of play, and probably what will do him in in the end having a style of football that might temporarily soothe spurs fans if it is getting results, but watching his football and getting beat will not be tolerated.
We are probably above where we should be in the league, with our goals scored being greater than our xg, our top scorer is a centre half, one of our top players from last yr in Bergvail is arguably regressing under him, players openly disrespecting him on the field after a game, the list is just too big.
It can all change very quickly in football, we have Psg away on Wed(highly unlikely to get pts, might do well to escape a drubbing), followed by games in the league against Fulham at home, Newcastle away and home to Brentford. Arguably if results go well he could turn a corner, but if they do not go well it could easily go the other way and it ain't an easy run of fixtures the way we are performing.
 
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