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OMT Mighty Spurs vs Hungry Wolves

That was so fudging grim. Only thing worse than the performance from the players was that of the fans. Leaving at fudging 77 mins?

Why are we starting Palhinha and Bentancur at home to the team that is 5 losses from 5??

Agree with this.

I really liked the selection in the Burnley game. Gray, Bergval, Sarr. It was like we knew we were going to have the ball so emphasised energy, high pressing, youthful exuberance and progressive passing.

The Bentancur / Pahlinha pivot didn’t work against Bournemouth and it didn’t work against Wolves. We could have gotten Xavi central, we had other options, but it was all a bit paint by numbers.

The reason that I liked the Burnley selection is that j thought it was a pretty bold selection from Frank, rotating in young players that early in the season. It showed what I understood to be his big strength, flexibility and adaptability in front of the task at hand.

I don’t really see see the plan so far, especially with that pivot. It all seems a bit basic. We’ll be fine, I just don’t see what we’re building towards as yet. A really great performance against Brighton, but that pivot I would expect to be more suited to a game like that.
 
Really missed Maddison last night. A bit more guile and experience in the middle.

Bentancur can pull the strings and he was able to receive the ball, turn and get his head up first half. Romero was also able to stride forward through the middle. But we didn’t have someone like Maddison to play a through ball into the box or shoot from the number 10 area.

That allowed Wolves to pack the flanks second half. By the end there were 3 defenders for the wingers to beat out wide - which was never happening. And Richi isn’t the tallest for a hopeful crosses. Need Kolo M and Solanke fit.
 
I didn’t think they were that bad personally. They were very solid and well organised. Helped that we were fudging dreadful second half.

Really frustrated with the performance and result but relieved to get a point in the end.

Thought the players tried but we were massively short on quality.

On the crowd, thought they were decent through the game. But people fudging off 10 minutes from time in their droves and others booing at full time? Really disappointed with that.

People don't go to watch football they go to see their team win. Playing at 8pm on a Saturday night doesn't help either for travelling fans from both clubs.
 
Thought the first half was good/alright. Unlucky not to be ahead at half time, good control defensively. Creating a decent amount of chances.

Scrappy goal against and we seemed to panic a bit. To me a couple of strange decisions on subs. A lot of our play looked rushed and a bit panicked.
 
Thomas Frank isn’t keen on his team taking shots from distance due to the low conversion rate. I’m sure that stats bear this out, in addition to him having said as much previously. And yet, sometimes when opponents sit deep, you need to be taking shots, you need to just have a go. You need the chance of a deflection or a wonder strike. Yes many don’t go in but then you get those like Palhinha strike from edge of the box, or you’ll get a deflected effort that falls to one of our other players, or the shot deflects off of a defender and wrong foots the keeper etc.

The following is from an article dated 27 March 2025



‘Using Opta data, we can work out the average distance from which each Premier League team have taken their shots this season, and we start by heading back to the Gtech Community Stadium.

Thomas Frank’s Brentford are averaging the shortest distance by almost a full metre, with their shots being just 13.6m from goal on average.’


So if teams come to us and try to sit back and make it difficult for us, what do we have? We try to get the ball wide and cross it repeatedly or rely on set pieces. And we have no true left winger that we appear to trust, so we lack real threat coming from the left winger. Instead yesterday, we pushed Xavi onto the left wing and he doesn’t play the way that appears required for Thomas Frank tactics. So we’re already half as effective as we could be.

Xavi needs to stay central and we need to find an answer to this. We need to be more open to taking long shots. And we need to take chances. Yes football can be a percentages game but if we don’t even take a chance then there is no chance for us.
 
Haha - fair play mate, not really something I'm good at just yet. ;)

Genuinely though, I'm very serene about things at the moment. I was the same in Poch's first season as well - if you see the fundamentals falling into place, then the actual results don't matter too much because they'll inevitably come.

I see what Frank's trying to do. I don't disagree with his caution, and I think he has the right coaching staff, approach to games and tactical flexibility to get results. Right now we're playing with the handbrake on because of Frank's unfamiliarity with coaching at this level, plus our ridiculously poor record last season. But as we (and Frank) grow more comfortable in our skins, we'll take more risks and get better.

The fundamentals are there - patterns are there. Just needs a few tweaks at the coaching/personnel end, and more chemistry from the players' perspectives.
Good post and I'm rather serene too.

I agree that a lot of the fundamentals are there. I think the "patterns" on the ball are still lacking. But with the focus being on defensive solidity and set pieces so far that's not surprising.

Hopefully we see our attacking play click more into gear over time.
 
Good post and I'm rather serene too.

I agree that a lot of the fundamentals are there. I think the "patterns" on the ball are still lacking. But with the focus being on defensive solidity and set pieces so far that's not surprising.

Hopefully we see our attacking play click more into gear over time.

What time do we have? We have already dropped 7 points. And 5 of them at home. And we have games coming which will be a lot tougher than the fixtures we’ve had so far.
 
People don't go to watch football they go to see their team win. Playing at 8pm on a Saturday night doesn't help either for travelling fans from both clubs.
8pm on Saturday is brick alright and it’s an easy jibe for me to make. But I’ve never understood why you’d go to a game knowing you’ll likely leave 10 mins from the end even if the game is on a knife edge (which despite our poor performance, it was).

I think your first point may be correct. For some, they go to a game to see their team win and be entertained, not to help them do it. Happens everywhere though. Have a mate who rarely sees the last 20 mins of Ireland games when he goes.
 
What time do we have? We have already dropped 7 points. And 5 of them at home. And we have games coming which will be a lot tougher than the fixtures we’ve had so far.
I'm assuming a combination of being solid defensively, good set pieces and some individual brilliance will mean that we'll get good enough results (for now) to have time. I want to see improvements in our attacking play over time and care less about how quickly that happens.

For what we're already good at the tougher fixtures should suit us. As we've seen particularly against City.
 
8pm on Saturday is brick alright and it’s an easy jibe for me to make. But I’ve never understood why you’d go to a game knowing you’ll likely leave 10 mins from the end even if the game is on a knife edge (which despite our poor performance, it was).

I think your first point may be correct. For some, they go to a game to see their team win and be entertained, not to help them do it. Happens everywhere though. Have a mate who rarely sees the last 20 mins of Ireland games when he goes.

To be fair it didn’t look like we were going to score last night. That goal came completely out of the blue.
 
People don't go to watch football they go to see their team win. Playing at 8pm on a Saturday night doesn't help either for travelling fans from both clubs.

I have a lot of sympathy for fans with games moving like they do -- this was Sunday 2pm until a few weeks ago. But I don't understand making the effort to actually go and then act like fans around me did. There was a bunch in my row who turned up after 8 mins, went to the bar at 40 mins, came back at 52 mins and then left at 80. What's the point?? You've spent £60 (and more) to watch about 60 minutes of football!

Then there was the guy who said "fudge off you little Swedish clam" when Bergvall got booked. The person on their phone behind me and the people literally booing when we had a throw-in in the second half (when Porro couldn't find someone to throw it to.)

It all made me feel like many people don't fully appreciate what they've got. That stadium is absolutely ridiculous. I kept looking around in awe. The pre-match with James Black in the square was brilliant. You're watching Premier League football...even Wolves, last at kick off, were knocking it around like peak Brazil, playing beautiful football.

Maybe it's because I came from 10,000km away to be there...but man I just kept thinking how lucky season ticket holders are to be there every other week.
 
Sarr has been injured recently so possibly not ready to start? He & Bergvall our only real progressive options in CM though

I'd prefer to see 4231 in these sorts of games - Bergvall/Sarr + Palinha/Bentancur and then an AM 3 of LW + Simons + Kudus
There's no need for 2 holding players against a bottom of the table side. Palhinha holding, then Bergval, and Xavi either side further forward. Much more creativity with that.
 
We absolutely have to be playing like that. To have two pivot midfielders that don’t get forward enough is limiting us in the final third. We need extra players forward even to the point that we should have both full backs in advanced positions regularly when we are in possession. And have either Romero or Palhinha make forward runs whilst the other covers. We should only need two back if we are playing relegation candidates at home.
 
We absolutely have to be playing like that. To have two pivot midfielders that don’t get forward enough is limiting us in the final third. We need extra players forward even to the point that we should have both full backs in advanced positions regularly when we are in possession. And have either Romero or Palhinha make forward runs whilst the other covers. We should only need two back if we are playing relegation candidates at home.
Especially against teams as poor as poor as wolves
 
8pm on Saturday is brick alright and it’s an easy jibe for me to make. But I’ve never understood why you’d go to a game knowing you’ll likely leave 10 mins from the end even if the game is on a knife edge (which despite our poor performance, it was).

I think your first point may be correct. For some, they go to a game to see their team win and be entertained, not to help them do it. Happens everywhere though. Have a mate who rarely sees the last 20 mins of Ireland games when he goes.
I got home at 2.30
Admittedly I watched the whole game
Knew I’d get a slow train home
But never ever leave early
 
Not overly concerned about last night, before the error by Vicario they had one half chance with they hit the post with.

We were much the better side for the first half and should have been leading

We need a striker/LW and a goal keeper urgently, then we can really push on

We have conceded 4 goals in the league this season and Vicario has been at fault for 2 of them
 
Agree with this.

I really liked the selection in the Burnley game. Gray, Bergval, Sarr. It was like we knew we were going to have the ball so emphasised energy, high pressing, youthful exuberance and progressive passing.

The Bentancur / Pahlinha pivot didn’t work against Bournemouth and it didn’t work against Wolves. We could have gotten Xavi central, we had other options, but it was all a bit paint by numbers.

The reason that I liked the Burnley selection is that j thought it was a pretty bold selection from Frank, rotating in young players that early in the season. It showed what I understood to be his big strength, flexibility and adaptability in front of the task at hand.

I don’t really see see the plan so far, especially with that pivot. It all seems a bit basic. We’ll be fine, I just don’t see what we’re building towards as yet. A really great performance against Brighton, but that pivot I would expect to be more suited to a game like that.
Nail on head with the word basic. We have gained 3 points from home fixtures to Burnley, Wolves and Bournemouth plus an uninspiring 1-0 victory in the CL. Why? Because we are all setup about being solid defensively, but no real patterns of play going forward. If Kudus is stopped, and our set pieces aren't up to much then we look devoid of ideas. Away from home it's different because the onus isn't on us to attack, but at home it's been pretty poor if we're honest.

All these claims about how Frank is going to turn our players into much better ones is predictably not going to happen. We simply need better attackers, no one was saying ' I really want us to go for Solanke/Johnson/Odobert' when they were playing for other PL clubs, there's just this blind hope that they will all be amazing because they are now pulling on the Spurs jersey. It was obvious under Ange and it's just as obvious if not more so now under a more pragmatic manager.....
 
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