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Manager Thomas Frank

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Are you Frank Out or In?


  • Total voters
    623
I really don't think there is any fatique issues here. Its got nothing to do with all the games unlike last year where players were visibly fatigued and pulling up injured.

This year I think we need the games. Its just not working and he needs to find a solution. The more games the better. The players aren't exactly breaking a sweat and we could have everyone back bar Maddison next month
Not sure I agree. Sure, we aren’t pulling up with a hammy every 60 minutes but that’s because we aren’t sprinting back all game.

Our press is nonexistent. We walk around until they enter our final third in every match. Thats a sign of fatigue to me.

But at any rate, I was moreso pointing out that our squad is actually shit. It’s not a top 5 squad in the PL and it’s even less so when we’re trying to contend in the CL midweek. If Newcastle, who the poster admits has a better squad than us, is struggling, then clearly we will too.
 



Unfortunately this is backing up what the eye test is telling us too.

The underlying stats are really concerning and have been all season. I said at the beginning of the season that what we need to see is improvement. We can start slow, but you need to see some sort of plan, style of play and identity being implemented and I am not seeing that at all.

If that stat doesn't improve really soon, we will drop down the table like a stone.

In the PL you can't get away with delivering the performances Frank is delivering, definitely not at a club like Spurs.

Man City is the only game where we've actually played well against a decent team. Oh and an unfit PSG side which tells us nothing.

Wednesday will be a much better indicator and they will batter us.

In all the other games against teams who are better than us or similar in level, the results and performances have been shit.
 
Nope. He didn't even start Simons so what makes you think he'd have started Maddison or Kulu. Kudus played btw and was just shit in this system

Now to be fair, Maddison and Kulusevski are proven in this league....they know the physical side of i lt and have delivered.

Xavi is a kid just in through the door who hasn't adapted yet.

I'm sure Maddison and Kulusevski would of started yesterday.

Theyre senior players and Frank generally goes with the senior, experienced choices.

And Kulu is physical, he definitely starts and Maddison for his guile
 
I just think hes an underdog manager. Likes causing an upset against the odds. Is that what we want at Tottenham though? I just cant see this guy taking us to next level. Hope I'm wrong but I cant see it.
That's a great description tbf 👏

And your're right. In the vast majority of matches it's the team we're playing against that should be the underdog. We are Spurs ffs.

We deserve so much better than Thomas Frank
 
Quick and honest question to follow sufferers here - can anyone describe to me - what is Thomas Frank main plan of progressing the ball from goalkeeper to attacking third?

It was already shown at some point that we rank dead-last in through-balls, having had 1 in 11 games (we can now say 1 in 12 I think). And it does go along with what I have seen. Is it really that Mickey and Romero should be booting the ball upfield and expect Richie to take it down? Or is it pattern of : Vicario -> VDV- > Romero -> VDV-> Bentancur -> VDV-> Udogie -> Bentancur -> Udogie -> Odobert ?

Both of those options seem madly off the mark to me. We need to get ball upfield QUICKLY and PRECISELY. As things stand I don't really see the plan for it. Anyone willing to explain (and again - it is honest question, I have my questionmarks but I am far from "Frank Out" gang).
I think the plan was to bait in there press and then find ourselves with Kudus Richarlison and Odobert in 3v3 situations. But our two fullbacks stayed too deep and both our midfielders sat so we never got bodies forward to help our 3 forward players (who were poor and usually lost out in their 1v1 duals anyway) whenever we did beat their press. so Woolwich would just win it back immediately and have us pinned back straight away.

If playing a back 5 like we did yesterday then you really needed Udogie and Spence to be up and down the pitch making lung bursting runs but it looked to me like Frank just had them playing like normal full backs and not wing backs. Our 4-3-3 is already very disjointed in attack as our midfielders sit too deep, so leaving out our most attacking midfielder for another centre back just absolutely killed us. We basically played a rigid 5-2-3 and any time we beat their press, we didn't back ourselves to get bodies forward to support our front 3 and our front 3 wasn't good enough to take on their back 4 without support.

We were beaten up all over the field (Palhinha on Zubimendi and Udogie on Saka the only 2 players who probably won their duals), but the biggest beaten we took was on the sideline where Frank's tactics were absolutely clueless and Arteta didn't have a moments worry.
 
Even if you are right about the quality of these squads, if Newcastle (who you say has a better squad than us) is struggling with the midweek grind, why do you think we would not? We just went all the way in Europa, playing two comps into May.
Newcastle have a decent 1-11 but now I come to think if it, depth wise I think we probably edge it.. also, I don't think I would take any of their defenders over ours... there might be a couple of push's in their (i.e. no clear advantage) but Romero, VDV levels better than Burn, Botman, Schar. In the last 20 years they've played in Europe 4 times so the squad is not as deep as a team like us who expect to play in Europe every year. It also take a while for management to get use to not having a whole week to prepare for the opposition. We did struggle last year due to an insane injury list and in the end we decided not to compete in the PL. The likes of Romero and VDV might have been fit in March but they were rested every weekend. But generally, we handle it quite well because as a club, we are use to it. Trust me, the grind isn't just player fitness. It's coaching, preparation, travel the lot. Chelsea had the right idea in the conference league. They literally had two squads. Not sure I've answered your question but hey ho...
 
Not sure I agree. Sure, we aren’t pulling up with a hammy every 60 minutes but that’s because we aren’t sprinting back all game.

Our press is nonexistent. We walk around until they enter our final third in every match. Thats a sign of fatigue to me.

But at any rate, I was moreso pointing out that our squad is actually shit. It’s not a top 5 squad in the PL and it’s even less so when we’re trying to contend in the CL midweek. If Newcastle, who the poster admits has a better squad than us, is struggling, then clearly we will too.
I've a different opinion on that. We've normalised sitting back and being passive that the players don't know when to press and when not to press. There was occassions yesterday where Richarlison was pressing by himself and none of our players jumped up to support his press. So what happens next time? He didn't bother pressing.

I don't think thats physical fatigue at all. I think we just look tactically lost out there with no specific style of play or patterns
 
Pep would beg to differ.

Had we not conceded in injury time to United, we would be in fourth place this morning.

But let's get rid of another manger?

Interesting you talk of Arteta, who really struggled at Woolwich for two plus seasons, but their directors shared his vision.

Something i believe the Spurs main board will do. Frank won't be fired anytime soon so we all better get used to going through the pain of a rebuild.
Yeah I've no issues with us keeping Frank and finally doing the painful rebuild.

I do have a problem with him being way too defensive and he needs to show us something. We can't just be talking about other managers and giving him a total free roll like your suggesting. We need to see 20 shots on the Fulham goal on Saturday night. He needs to show us he can attack
 
Yeah I've no issues with us keeping Frank and finally doing the painful rebuild.

I do have a problem with him being way too defensive and he needs to show us something. We can't just be talking about other managers and giving him a total free roll like your suggesting. We need to see 20 shots on the Fulham goal on Saturday night. He needs to show us he can attack
Yeah, with attackers who haven't got a clue how to play football.
 
Lamela and Moura were players that the fans seemed to either love or found infuriating (I loved both especially my boy Lamela). but what was certain, was that they were a couple of levels or more below the other attackers we had.. They were useful squad players but the drop off to them from Kane, Son, Peak Dele was stark.

If you could magically make them 25 again. They'd walk into our front three and we'd think our attack had gone up levels. The speed at which we have gone from having one of the deadliest attack around to having bottom three attacking options in the league is frightening.

That's not excusing the approach. It's the opposite. You can afford to sit back and rely on over performing your xg when you have two killers up front. That was the Jose approach. When your attack is this poor, you can't plan for them to have one or two moments in a game because they wont make the most of them.
 
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And so the dance begins with the players already starting to leak to media.
For this to happen within months of an appointment usually leads to one thing, another new manager thread being opened.
Oh for fucks sake

I’m almost done with this club
 
I've a different opinion on that. We've normalised sitting back and being passive that the players don't know when to press and when not to press. There was occassions yesterday where Richarlison was pressing by himself and none of our players jumped up to support his press. So what happens next time? He didn't bother pressing.

I don't think thats physical fatigue at all. I think we just look tactically lost out there with no specific style of play or patterns.
If it’s tactical, we’re in real trouble. I am all for giving new managers time but if this continues, it has to be curtains for Frank.

Two of the worst performances in PL history were in our two biggest derbies. He has a mountain to climb.
 
He didn't get it right yesterday. Not the first time and he has a lot to prove. I also don't think it helps that what we clearly have in the attacking positions is completely inadequate and I'd say with atleast Maddison and Solanke you'd maybe be able to execute what he was trying to do yesterday. We were never going to outplay Woolwich and setting up to be resolute was the correct call to me as they have far better players than us,but then after that you need more than just a long punt up to a guy that has no hold up play.

But after 12 games we are there or there abouts as to where I expected us to be with this squad. I just think people need to remember these performances haven't just magically appeared here since Frank has rocked up. We've not taken a dramatic nosedive in form as 3 home wins this year plus our away form since last season shows that, but he does have to come up with a solution to our attacking play and our buildup. His midfield selection needs to start having press resistance in mind and the game intelligence to get us out of our defensive situations and turn them into attacking situations that asks the oppositions questions and gives them something to worry about.

I'm not happy with where we are as a club but you can't be sacking a manager that's done no worse in terms of results since he's been here than the last one after 12 games.
Why not? The last manager is no barometer... the club is a top five club... the previous manager got sacked because he didn't get us there... this manager should be sacked the minute it is clear we are not getting there... that minute was about 6:15ish pm yesterday.
 
i had this fear early on with his rollout here but dismissed it because it's all juju/emotions crap but looking back now i think winning the squad's respect is a big deal and it's not going well. i think managers who didn't play at the highest levels can struggle with getting a squad onboard and i think it's doubly important at a club like spurs with less recent successes. that may have been poch's biggest strength and the players would've run through walls for him and believed him when he said things. really feeling the eyes rolling when frank speaks at the moment. not good!
My eyes roll when he speaks

We finished 17th
They are in their 6th season we are in our 6th month
All excuses... he just spent £200m + 2 full internationals on loan and has £500m squad to play with.
We should be doing levels better but he's just a shite manager, with no fucking methodology other than negative, scandiball bollocks.
 
Yes, the manager picks the team, determines the tactics and is responsible for having the players ready. Frank failed all three of them responsibilities. Vic's apology is choreographed bollocks every player is taught after a hammering. Simple truth is that these players are not convinced with these non league tactics. Actually that's an unfair dig at non league football. I went to an Isthmian Premier Division game on Saturday and both teams played some great football in horrendous conditions.

You are focusing on this PSG game like it is a really strong barometer of Frank being some sort of tactical genius. Rubbish... Let me remind you that this was a PSG team who had been back in training for 3 days after the club world cup and by the way we still couldn't beat them with a full pre season behind us.

Why do you think the players weren't on it. It's a NLD... the only thing obvious yesterday was that the manager waved the white flag before a ball had been kicked. I have never seen a Spurs team use their GK to take a free kick inside our own half directly at the opponents penalty area. That is not the best tactic to beat Woolwich. You beat Woolwich by taking them out of their comfort zone. We have players who can hurt them but sadly Frank (and you) fail to see this and are happy being a poor man's Stoke.


You're right. It wasn't purely on the tactics... his team selection and inability to motivate also contributed to one of the most shameful days in our history.
So basically your entire argument is that the players sulked because they didn't like the way Frank had them set up, and as a result they downed tools before a ball was kicked weren't motivated and didn't fight in a NLD

And that's on Frank.....

Austin Powers Doctor Evil GIF


Give your head a wobble please because you are chatting so much shit I feel like I lost 20 IQ points just reading what you wrote
 
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