He spoke highly of Levy in terms of how he treated him with all the unfortunate things that happened to him personally. That seems like something DL would have done, he's not an ogre and in real life a decent chap. But he let him down in the transfer market. First summer Conte wanted a left sided centre back and we brought in Lenglet on loan. Farcial
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Manager Thomas Frank
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He spoke highly of Levy in terms of how he treated him with all the unfortunate things that happened to him personally. That seems like something DL would have done, he's not an ogre and in real life a decent chap. But he let him down in the transfer market. First summer Conte wanted a left sided centre back and we brought in Lenglet on loan. Farcial
4 started, Romero, Porro, Davies, Richarlison and 2 came on as sub Kulusevski and Sarr. Bissouma Bentancur and Spence were also at the club. I'd say thats quite a lot.
There was one point difference then. We we 10th on 23 points in 24/25, and 11th with 22 points this season.
As of this point (MW20), we had 24 points having gone on a 4 game winless streak, versus 27 this season (where we've been unbeaten in the last 3)
All the original tweet shows is we were attacking without actually gaining anything from it. Note the almost double "errors leading to shots" that I'm pretty sure our 'world class' centre back and Vicario has contributed highly to
We were attcking enough to score 11 additional goals
And while I agree we were giving up chances at the back - we had only conceded 2 more
+9 goal difference
Speaks volumes, IMO
Lack of progressive passing in midfield is both a Frank and a player issue. Doesn't have to be either-or.
It's a player issue to the extent that we virtually never see any of our midfielders show the kind of urgency and enthusiasm that a 33 year old Xhaka shows in making himself available for passes from his defenders.
Compare these to this that generated a rather lengthy conversation in another thread.
Frank's part in this warrants a much longer and detailed post that I'm hoping to make at some point .
For the time being, I can repeat many people have already observed and pointed out: Players are instructed to seek mid / long range passes that bypass the midfield area altogether, in a way that Sunderland players aren't for example.
And on the relatively rare occasions that they try to pass their way out of trouble, the passes are disproportionately directed towards wide areas / players. The ball might eventually find its way to the centre, but only if the initial breakthough is achieved from a wide area. To the extent that the ball gets lost in the process, which happens quite often, midfielders won't see it.
It's a player issue to the extent that we virtually never see any of our midfielders show the kind of urgency and enthusiasm that a 33 year old Xhaka shows in making himself available for passes from his defenders.
Compare these to this that generated a rather lengthy conversation in another thread.
Frank's part in this warrants a much longer and detailed post that I'm hoping to make at some point .
For the time being, I can repeat many people have already observed and pointed out: Players are instructed to seek mid / long range passes that bypass the midfield area altogether, in a way that Sunderland players aren't for example.
And on the relatively rare occasions that they try to pass their way out of trouble, the passes are disproportionately directed towards wide areas / players. The ball might eventually find its way to the centre, but only if the initial breakthough is achieved from a wide area. To the extent that the ball gets lost in the process, which happens quite often, midfielders won't see it.
Lack of progressive passing in midfield is both a Frank and a player issue. Doesn't have to be either-or.
It's a player issue to the extent that we virtually never see any of our midfielders show the kind of urgency and enthusiasm that a 33 year old Xhaka shows in making himself available for passes from his defenders.
Compare these to this that generated a rather lengthy conversation in another thread.
Frank's part in this warrants a much longer and detailed post that I'm hoping to make at some point .
For the time being, I can repeat many people have already observed and pointed out: Players are instructed to seek mid / long range passes that bypass the midfield area altogether, in a way that Sunderland players aren't for example.
And on the relatively rare occasions that they try to pass their way out of trouble, the passes are disproportionately directed towards wide areas / players. The ball might eventually find its way to the centre, but only if the initial breakthough is achieved from a wide area. To the extent that the ball gets lost in the process, which happens quite often, midfielders won't see it.
My question would be this - did the players show for the ball any more last season? Is it a new/tactical thing, or is it just a general squad issue?
I seem to recall it being a regular theme in our midfield, and the key difference with frank seems to be that he's re-introduced a midfield where there was a hole before, but it's basically not working because the players are static.
Looking back at the Ipswich game (Nov 2024), we look just as disfunctional but it's just Son finding something from nothing that appears to be the difference. Players just jogging around and not closing down
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_if9Sx5z1Q
4/11ths is a lot. Rightio. Can't argue against that kind of basis for player power.
At Spurs, he'd come back, find he hasn't got prime Lloris, Walker, Rose, Toby, Jan, Dembele, Wanyama, Eriksen, Son, Dele and Kane.
He'd probably find how hard it is to get top half without a title contending starting 11.
He'd end up leaving.
Again.
And then fans would stop pining for his return.
Team like palace will struggle when they have to play so many games in x amount of days with a small squad. The manager can only do so much.
Who do you want?
TBH, there's probably a series of events that have been needed for people to get closure. A Poch return, with no Levy here, no one left from the OG team. That isn't me saying I'd be hoping or expecting failure, but just trying to think what would prevent people from moving on if it didn't work out. Perhaps there would be always be something regardless.
The perfect situation would be for us to sell every player over 23 and leave him with the likes of LW-B, Scarlett, Melia, Lankshear, Min Hyeuk, Vuskovic, Phillips, Bergvall etc and hope the regens work out the same.
I think this current squad has a bit of petulance in it that would cause him the same issues he had at the start last time with a fan base that would probably expect too much too soon
Same yesterday. They pressed but still not with aggression or as a unit. Better than it had been but they were still not 100% at it. The squad have an attitude problem.
He's still here then?
Spot on. Bentancur needs to look Xhaka and hang his head in shame. Its the coach and the players cowardice.Lack of progressive passing in midfield is both a Frank and a player issue. Doesn't have to be either-or.
It's a player issue to the extent that we virtually never see any of our midfielders show the kind of urgency and enthusiasm that a 33 year old Xhaka shows in making himself available for passes from his defenders.
Compare these to this that generated a rather lengthy conversation in another thread.
Frank's part in this warrants a much longer and detailed post that I'm hoping to make at some point .
For the time being, I can repeat many people have already observed and pointed out: Players are instructed to seek mid / long range passes that bypass the midfield area altogether, in a way that Sunderland players aren't for example.
And on the relatively rare occasions that they try to pass their way out of trouble, the passes are disproportionately directed towards wide areas / players. The ball might eventually find its way to the centre, but only if the initial breakthough is achieved from a wide area. To the extent that the ball gets lost in the process, which happens quite often, midfielders won't see it.
They don't look like they care, which isn't new. This time last season it was the general theme of people arguing on reddit of whether he'd lost the dressing room because they were acting like they didn't care or were fucking up on purpose. Of course we know that to not be true, but there's been a lack of effort or concentration missing.
If we were closer to 2020, people would probably be saying it's covid related.
I feel like young academy players are needed to prevent this kind of dwell, as they usually buzz about and show up the lazy senior players
After 16 games is quite a specific stopping point, seeing as we have played 20 league games now.
It was also boosted enormously by 3 goals in a 4-3 loss to Chelsea and a battering of Southampton in G/W 16.
A look at the actual matches also paints a picture worth noting. 5 Vs Southampton, 4 Vs City, 4 Vs Everton, 4 Vs West Ham, 4 Vs Villa.
Buuuut 1 Vs Leicester, 1 Vs Newcastle, 1 Vs Ipswich, 1 Vs Fulham, 0 Vs Arse, Palace or Bournemouth.
We didn't win a single game where we scored 1. We didn't even draw a game where we didn't score at all.
Under no circumstances should we be looking back fondly on last season.
We lost 7 of those 16. We've only lost 7 of 20 so far.
At M/W 20, we'd already lost 10.
Liverpool put 6 past us.
From MW 17 we lost 6 of 7 games a draw stopping it being 7 in a row. By MILES the worst run of results in the PL era.
ANGE WAS AWFUL.
I think too many people underestimate how good that squad was and the odds of us ever assembling anywhere near such a good team.
The only way it would ever happen again is for unrestricted spending in tandem with the hiring of the very best talent scouts in the world.
Neither will happen at Spurs. We're too busy rummaging around in the clearance buckets.