Obviously knew it was bad but the entire midfield having less progressive passes than a 35 year old Jordan Fucking Henderson. Yikes...
-
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...
Manager Thomas Frank
- Thread starter The Fighting Cock
- Start date
Latest Spurs videos from Sky Sports
You, CJJ, Thinky, a few others. You know the craic.
It’s pointless if the coach misprofiles everyone because he prioritises long throws, corners set pieces and only wants to do long balls and crosses in open play.
You can’t expect an anti-football coach to actually value footballers.
So the questions you should be asking is - 1) do you fancy the club spending a load on players who will suit Frank’s style of play, and 2) what do you think the ceiling of committing to Frank in such a manner is?
For me the answers are a a flat out No, and I reckon Frank makes us a borderline Europa team at his peak, which means that the juice isn’t worth the squeeze.
Yeah I’m not against Iraola at all. Probably could get him out of Bournemouth now as I’m sure his contract ends at the end of the season. I’d prefer Poch in the summer but would be willing to give Iriola this season to bed in. Can’t judge him on Bournemouth this season as they had their defence completely taken from them.
Sounds like fun tbf
It'll be the usual case of: pointing out we have shit players who have been playing shit for nearly 2 seasons now = 'obsessive defending frank'. Pointing out our best attacking players have been out all season is seen as 'defending frank
All of it seems to be some kind of "emperor's new clothes" style basis of ignoring how shit most of these players are, and the denial of that being "defending frank"
It's just absurdly toxic on here with people saying shitty things about the appearance of a guy, trolling other members for not getting pitchforks out.
It would be extremely interesting if Iraola and Frank swapped clubs.
It also says something about the squad depth that he had to choose between keeping his CBs fit for the EL and the depth outside those main guys wasn’t enough to win PL games.
Also completely agree, sacking it off whilst people were paying good money to follow the team is exactly one of the reasons he deserved to go!!
The record is woeful. In a managers first season, you can swallow some poor form. But it's not like, in the games we're winning, we're in complete control, showing signs of how he wants the team to look.. Or in the losing games, it's because of fine margins but with some positives.
When we lose it's more than deserved. And most of the time when we do get a win, you think, if we play that game 9 times, we win 3, draw 3, lose 3. That's before you mention the draws like today where we manage to get ahead and just prayed for full time to come as quickly as possible.. Or games like Thursday where the keeper gets booked for time wasting at 0-0. No conviction in any performances
Yes, this form goes back really to November 2024. So it is beyond the manager.. However, the previous manager won a major trophy.. And he still got the sack.. Thats how absurdly bad and unacceptable this level of league performance is. So the manager can't be saying "let's not forget we finished 17th last season"..
No fella, because the only reason you have this job, is because this level of performance is supposed to be an absolute aberration. You don't have the luxury of using it as a bar that you just need to barely clear.
When we lose it's more than deserved. And most of the time when we do get a win, you think, if we play that game 9 times, we win 3, draw 3, lose 3. That's before you mention the draws like today where we manage to get ahead and just prayed for full time to come as quickly as possible.. Or games like Thursday where the keeper gets booked for time wasting at 0-0. No conviction in any performances
Yes, this form goes back really to November 2024. So it is beyond the manager.. However, the previous manager won a major trophy.. And he still got the sack.. Thats how absurdly bad and unacceptable this level of league performance is. So the manager can't be saying "let's not forget we finished 17th last season"..
No fella, because the only reason you have this job, is because this level of performance is supposed to be an absolute aberration. You don't have the luxury of using it as a bar that you just need to barely clear.
Last edited:
All that "Thomas the Frank engine" cringe seems a long time ago now, doesn't it
And, I hate to say it but it's true... even when Bournemouth pegged them back to 2-3 with 10 minutes remaining, Woolwich went all out for the 4th, something you just know Frank would almost certainly never do.
Agree, it's not the sort of goal we'd score right now, but that had as much to do with Le Fee as Brobbey... not sure who pulls of an assist like that for us other than, perhaps, Simmons.
Top end talent is top end talent regardless of the manager's particular "style of play".
Tel, Simons, even RKM if coached properly
Frank hasn’t done miracles but before shouting about a new manager think about this:
How many of our starting 11 tonight fit into that Sunderland squad?
Our mids? Nope, maybe Gray cause he’s young.
Striker? Nope.
Forwards? Maybe.
Back 4? VDV probably, I wouldn’t pick Romero over anyone, Porro probably.
Keeper? Nope.
That’s compared to a newly promoted club. That’s the quality that we have on the field.
A new manager will inherit an absolutely dreadful squad and nothing will change unless we get a whole oil change of a squad. I’m not 100% sold on Frank and I’m losing heart but my God he has slim pickings to work with.
How many of our starting 11 tonight fit into that Sunderland squad?
Our mids? Nope, maybe Gray cause he’s young.
Striker? Nope.
Forwards? Maybe.
Back 4? VDV probably, I wouldn’t pick Romero over anyone, Porro probably.
Keeper? Nope.
That’s compared to a newly promoted club. That’s the quality that we have on the field.
A new manager will inherit an absolutely dreadful squad and nothing will change unless we get a whole oil change of a squad. I’m not 100% sold on Frank and I’m losing heart but my God he has slim pickings to work with.
I did not want Frank, and I still don't want Frank. Because I like coaches with a clear proactive ethos, and Frank has always is a reactive pragmatist. Not everyone hates that, but it doesn't appeal to me. For me, however competent Frank is, he will always be limited by his pragmatism and reactivity.
This squad is fucking dogshit. It was dogshit for Ange, it's dogshit for Frank.
We have gone from an aggressively proactive risk taking ethos - which absolutely yielded attacking dividends, but came at the cost of defensive stability, to an arch pragmatic ethos which is actually starting to yield defensive dividends but at huge offensive cost.
This is clearly demonstrated in our XG performances:
We now have the 4th best XGA (25.50 - Ange 24/25 - 34.79) - But 16th XG (21.93 - Ange 24/25 - 40.78)
Our PPDA (passes per defensive action allowed has gone from 2nd to 8th). More reactive.
Other thoughts:
I think Frank rotates the squad better than Ange did, and his in game management is marginally better.
His starting tactics and format of 4231, even when we don't have an ACM available is piss poor IMO as we have no midfielders rounded or multi faceted enough to play a double pivot and no one other than Simons remotely capable of playing as a ACM, and he's struggling to adapt to the PL.
He's been far luckier and less hampered by injuries, particularly in defence than Ange was. Maddison is the biggest miss, but Ange lost him for big chunks too.
Do we stick on 15 or twist?
As much as I dislike Frank's approach (and as well as the offensive sacrifices, I also think it's taken him too long to improve the defensive performances, despite having first choice defenders available far more than Ange, and a designated defensive midfielder in Palhinha at his disposal - but this maybe was not helped by following an aggressively offensive risk taker) I'm tempted to say we might as well stick for the season, trust his pragmatism will cost less than swapping for a more proactive gamble mid season (with no time to work with 2 games a week for at least another month or two). He is after all, used to working with dogshit players. Then see where we are at in May.
Personally, I'd move on in the summer anyway, his approach will always have limits.
This squad is fucking dogshit. It was dogshit for Ange, it's dogshit for Frank.
We have gone from an aggressively proactive risk taking ethos - which absolutely yielded attacking dividends, but came at the cost of defensive stability, to an arch pragmatic ethos which is actually starting to yield defensive dividends but at huge offensive cost.
This is clearly demonstrated in our XG performances:
We now have the 4th best XGA (25.50 - Ange 24/25 - 34.79) - But 16th XG (21.93 - Ange 24/25 - 40.78)
Our PPDA (passes per defensive action allowed has gone from 2nd to 8th). More reactive.
Other thoughts:
I think Frank rotates the squad better than Ange did, and his in game management is marginally better.
His starting tactics and format of 4231, even when we don't have an ACM available is piss poor IMO as we have no midfielders rounded or multi faceted enough to play a double pivot and no one other than Simons remotely capable of playing as a ACM, and he's struggling to adapt to the PL.
He's been far luckier and less hampered by injuries, particularly in defence than Ange was. Maddison is the biggest miss, but Ange lost him for big chunks too.
Do we stick on 15 or twist?
As much as I dislike Frank's approach (and as well as the offensive sacrifices, I also think it's taken him too long to improve the defensive performances, despite having first choice defenders available far more than Ange, and a designated defensive midfielder in Palhinha at his disposal - but this maybe was not helped by following an aggressively offensive risk taker) I'm tempted to say we might as well stick for the season, trust his pragmatism will cost less than swapping for a more proactive gamble mid season (with no time to work with 2 games a week for at least another month or two). He is after all, used to working with dogshit players. Then see where we are at in May.
Personally, I'd move on in the summer anyway, his approach will always have limits.
Last edited:
Changed my vote to out. Was quite happy with the appointment, thought Thomas , with his supposedly tactical nous, might work wonders. Massively disappointed, seen nothing to suggest that even with starters fully fit, that anything will change. Yes, our squad is full of shit, (wouldn’t miss anybody but VdV) but should be getting more out of them. Wanted (hoped) this was going to work but it’s going nowhere. Played like the away team in the second half and gave Sunderland all the momentum they needed , expected them to get the winner! Night and day compared to Fulham’s performance against the dippers, have we really sunk this low? Don’t know what the answer is but it’s not Frank unfortunately. A lot of shit, disinterested players and a manager who seems unable to take the step up. Bad times. Don’t know where we go from here.