• Dear Guest, Please note that adult content is not permitted on this forum. We have had our Google ads disabled at times due to some posts that were found from some time ago. Please do not post adult content and if you see any already on the forum, please report the post so that we can deal with it. Adult content is allowed in the glory hole - you will have to request permission to access it. Thanks, scara

Thomas Frank - Head Coach

Finney Is Back said:
I've not seen any real pressing from us yet under Frank, well certainly not a coherent press anyway. When I was watching the Chelsea v Aston Villa game a few days ago I couldn't help but admire Chelsea's press, it was really high, intense and well drilled. The way that Aston Villa were able to play through it in the second half was even more impressive, some really brilliant stuff. Must say that I really enjoyed the second half of that game, really high quality football played.
Click to expand...

We were pressing Palace 😀🤪😂

It wasn’t the most fierce and intense. We only use it when there is a point to it so we don’t run players into the ground for nothing. More to come on these details no doubt. We can improve our pressing, how and when it’s deployed and team coordination.
 
thfcsteff said:
Seeing as we’re back at Ange v Frank again (LOL), I think it is worth pointing out that Ange came into a bigger mess with bigger needs. No Kane (and not really knowing it until deadline day), undoing the Conte/Stellini mess of the previous season, moving away from mid-level bloated squad players into a new direction; that was a lot of work. Frank himself came in saying ‘we stand on the shoulders of others’ and spoke loudly about ‘building on the foundations Ange built’, yet here we are and it’s apparently now going to take a long time to and people need to know there’s no ‘quick fix’, we’re apparently ‘not really a CL club’, and so on and so forth.
It’s two messages.
The only thing I can conclude is that despite all the homework Frank will have done, he simply did not understand what he was stepping into.
Click to expand...

LOL is right.

The narrative from those who didn’t want Ange sacked is hilarious. We are moving forwards! Let it go 😂
 
Last edited:
Gazza said:
Trump is pointing his Nukes at your address at the ready
Click to expand...
I'll just tweet him that its a disgrace that south american migrants are keeping decent white MAGA americans like Bruce Arena out of jobs, and Mango Mussolini will even cover our air fares
 
Last edited:
lurker of old said:
Though I fully expect to see Frank sacked in April/May at the point it is clear that we'll finish the season trophyless and out of the European places.

I don't. I think Vinai will end the managerial merry go round and give him a chance. Why on earth not? The manager can only do so much, it's about the players...
Click to expand...
Time will tell. We don't yet know how our new CEO will operate. We know he would be gone under the old one but perhaps those in charge at the club have more patience and realism these days?
 
SpurMeUp said:
We were pressing Palace 😀🤪😂

It wasn’t the most fierce and intense. We only use it when there is a point to it so we don’t run players into the ground for nothing. More to come on these details no doubt. We can improve our pressing, how and when it’s deployed and team coordination.
Click to expand...
Sorry, I must have blinked and missed it. We only had a third of the ball in the game, either Palace are superb at playing through a press, our press is absolutely crap or we weren't really pressing at all (note that three players committing to a press isn't a press IMO).
 
Finney Is Back said:
Sorry, I must have blinked and missed it. We only had a third of the ball in the game, either Palace are superb at playing through a press, our press is absolutely crap or we weren't really pressing at all (note that three players committing to a press isn't a press IMO).
Click to expand...

Or…you love a good whinge 😂

The issue was what we did with the ball once we won it back. Until the game opened up we rarely broke well or controlled possession. That is the issue Frank is working on. Not sure what your fixation with pressing is all about - other than one Aussie manager loved it. Is that it?

A full-on press for me is a way to elevate a smaller team but it isn’t sustainable as we’ve seen before. Poch started to try to transition away from pressing all game and develop a more nuanced approach. We saw last season and still feeling the effects of Anges uncoordinated school yard sprinting press.

Isn’t it a positive that we have a manger that is trying to develop a side that doesn’t just rely on a heavy press?

s for yesterday we were closing them down and pressing when there was a reason to. And yes this like most aspects of our play needs more work, but it’s so much better than seeing Solanke leave himself shattered chasing lost causes all game.
 
SpurMeUp said:
Or…you love a good whinge 😂

The issue was what we did with the ball once we won it back. Until the game opened up we rarely broke well or controlled possession. That is the issue Frank is working on. Not sure what your fixation with pressing is all about - other than one Aussie manager loved it. Is that it?

A full-on press for me is a way to elevate a smaller team but it isn’t sustainable as we’ve seen before. Poch started to try to transition away from pressing all game and develop a more nuanced approach. We saw last season and still feeling the effects of Anges uncoordinated school yard sprinting press.

Isn’t it a positive that we have a manger that is trying to develop a side that doesn’t just rely on a heavy press?

s for yesterday we were closing them down and pressing when there was a reason to. And yes this like most aspects of our play needs more work, but it’s so much better than seeing Solanke leave himself shattered chasing lost causes all game.
Click to expand...
No. I’m just calling it as I saw it. I was at the Palace game and didn’t see us playing a press. We mainly switched between mid and low block. We got better near the end when Palace’s 3 games in a week caught up with them compared to our 8 day break between matches.

You say our issue against Palace was that we didn’t break well or control,possession, those are things that matter a lot less if you win the ball high up,as typically you are then only one pass from a goalscoring chance, if you have committed players to that press.

Not sure where you’re getting your idea that I have a fixation with pressing? I merely commented that I haven’t seen any real coherent pressing from us yet under Frank in response to a comment that Frank will use a press when needed. I also commented that I was really impressed with both Chelsea’s press and Villa’s ability to play through it in their recent game. Did you see that game by the way? What were your thoughts on both teams shape and football compared to ours?

Do I want us to press for an entire game? Absolutely not, it’s not sustainable. Do I want us to use a situational press? Absolutely!…. It is a great way to turn over the ball high up the pitch and create chances in the transition. Under Frank we’ve not committed more than our 3 forwards to a press and had a big gap from those 3 forwards to our defence, making it easy to play around or through our front 3, though on almost all occasions we just get into a mid block that then becomes a low block.

Our game against Forest was quite eye opening for me in the fact that Dyche was far braver than Frank, pushing his players into an initial high press, going man for man with every player was committed to it, whereas we always kept a\spare men back, thus conceding the initiative.

Is it a positive that we have a manger that is trying to develop a side that doesn’t just rely on a heavy press? It would be if said manager was trying to develop a team that can play in many different ways yes, but I just haven’t seen that at all. So far all I have seen is mid/low block football that doesn’t try to progress the ball through the centre and relies pretty much fully on set pieces for chance creation. I’m kind of seeing the opposite of what I’d like from a manager.
 
Last edited:
Finney Is Back said:
No. I’m just calling it as I saw it. I was at the Palace game and didn’t see us playing a press. We mainly switched between mid and low block. We got better near the end when Palace’s 3 games in a week caught up with them compared to our 8 day break between matches.

You say our issue against Palace was that we didn’t break well or control,possession, those are things that matter a lot less if you win the ball high up,as typically you are then only one pass from a goalscoring chance, if you have committed players to that press.

Not sure where you’re getting your idea that I have a fixation with pressing? I merely commented that I haven’t seen any real coherent pressing from us yet under Frank in response to a comment that Frank will use a press when needed. I also commented that I was really impressed with both Chelsea’s press and Villa’s ability to play through it in their recent game. Did you see that game by the way? What were your thoughts on both teams shape and football compared to ours?

Do I want us to press for an entire game? Absolutely not, it’s not sustainable. Do I want us to use a situational press? Absolutely!…. It is a great way to turn over the ball high up the pitch and create chances in the transition. Under Frank we’ve not committed more than our 3 forwards to a press and had a big gap from those 3 forwards to our defence, making it easy to play around or through our front 3, though on almost all occasions we just get into a mid block that then becomes a low block.

Our game against Forest was quite eye opening for me in the fact that Dyche was far braver than Frank, pushing his players into an initial high press, going man for man with every player was committed to it, whereas we always kept a\spare men back, thus conceding the initiative.

Is it a positive that we have a manger that is trying to develop a side that doesn’t just rely on a heavy press? It would be if said manager was trying to develop a team that can play in many different ways yes, but I just haven’t seen that at all. So far all I have seen is mid/low block football that doesn’t try to progress the ball through the centre and relies pretty much fully on set pieces for chance creation. I’m kind of seeing the opposite of what I’d like from a manager.
Click to expand...
is there a bit of a tendency just to look to at one-off games like Forest and draw sweeping conclusions? You wouldn’t want Dyche over Frank or you wouldn’t identify Dyche as a manager of quality who could lead a top club. If you agree, then it’s just about giving him enough time.
 
Finney Is Back said:
Sorry, I must have blinked and missed it. We only had a third of the ball in the game, either Palace are superb at playing through a press, our press is absolutely crap or we weren't really pressing at all (note that three players committing to a press isn't a press IMO).
Click to expand...

We didn’t press Palace other than going man to man at their goal kicks (I can’t recall what proportion of goal kicks we did this on, but it was some). Otherwise we were mid-low block in a 4-4-2 shape, with Bergval and latterly Gray playing in the 2.

It just clearly was not the plan. Palace are press baiters and clearly Frank had decided he wasn’t going to play into it.
 
SpurMeUp said:
Or…you love a good whinge 😂

The issue was what we did with the ball once we won it back. Until the game opened up we rarely broke well or controlled possession. That is the issue Frank is working on. Not sure what your fixation with pressing is all about - other than one Aussie manager loved it. Is that it?

A full-on press for me is a way to elevate a smaller team but it isn’t sustainable as we’ve seen before. Poch started to try to transition away from pressing all game and develop a more nuanced approach. We saw last season and still feeling the effects of Anges uncoordinated school yard sprinting press.

Isn’t it a positive that we have a manger that is trying to develop a side that doesn’t just rely on a heavy press?

s for yesterday we were closing them down and pressing when there was a reason to. And yes this like most aspects of our play needs more work, but it’s so much better than seeing Solanke leave himself shattered chasing lost causes all game.
Click to expand...

I wish we could talk about Ange’s time without comments like ‘school yard sprinting press’. The man got us 5th, and won us a trophy, and up to this point last season had about an equal record as Frank. Clearly it wasn’t school yard. Clearly with the right pieces in place it worked well. Would we describe early Klopp at Liverpool as school yard too?
 
Finney Is Back said:
No. I’m just calling it as I saw it. I was at the Palace game and didn’t see us playing a press. We mainly switched between mid and low block. We got better near the end when Palace’s 3 games in a week caught up with them compared to our 8 day break between matches.

You say our issue against Palace was that we didn’t break well or control,possession, those are things that matter a lot less if you win the ball high up,as typically you are then only one pass from a goalscoring chance, if you have committed players to that press.

Not sure where you’re getting your idea that I have a fixation with pressing? I merely commented that I haven’t seen any real coherent pressing from us yet under Frank in response to a comment that Frank will use a press when needed. I also commented that I was really impressed with both Chelsea’s press and Villa’s ability to play through it in their recent game. Did you see that game by the way? What were your thoughts on both teams shape and football compared to ours?

Do I want us to press for an entire game? Absolutely not, it’s not sustainable. Do I want us to use a situational press? Absolutely!…. It is a great way to turn over the ball high up the pitch and create chances in the transition. Under Frank we’ve not committed more than our 3 forwards to a press and had a big gap from those 3 forwards to our defence, making it easy to play around or through our front 3, though on almost all occasions we just get into a mid block that then becomes a low block.

Our game against Forest was quite eye opening for me in the fact that Dyche was far braver than Frank, pushing his players into an initial high press, going man for man with every player was committed to it, whereas we always kept a\spare men back, thus conceding the initiative.

Is it a positive that we have a manger that is trying to develop a side that doesn’t just rely on a heavy press? It would be if said manager was trying to develop a team that can play in many different ways yes, but I just haven’t seen that at all. So far all I have seen is mid/low block football that doesn’t try to progress the ball through the centre and relies pretty much fully on set pieces for chance creation. I’m kind of seeing the opposite of what I’d like from a manager.
Click to expand...

In fairness to Frank. I think a development in the last month is that at home to easier sides (Brentford, Slavia) we have played handbrake off, high intensity, inverted full backs, progression through midfield etc. Same as with Copenhagen. And I imagine this would have been the case against Fulham too if we didn’t manage to concede 2 in 6 minutes.

But it very much is going to be a low-mid block containing strategy, probably for about 60-75 minutes of all but the easiest away games, and the tougher home matches. Reasonable people can disagree on whether this is what they like to watch, but I think this is where we have to give it the season to see. The bull case is that we maintain the excellent away form, continue to loosen up versus the beatable sides at home, and start executing better against the top sides. Then we’re a good proposition.
 
SissokoWasGood (BoL) said:
I wish we could talk about Ange’s time without comments like ‘school yard sprinting press’. The man got us 5th, and won us a trophy, and up to this point last season had about an equal record as Frank. Clearly it wasn’t school yard. Clearly with the right pieces in place it worked well. Would we describe early Klopp at Liverpool as school yard too?
Click to expand...

You’re suggesting there was nuance to Anges press? 😀 I mean go ahead, how did it work…

I backed him when many didn’t and I was glad we stuck by him and won a trophy as well as glad we sacked him. Strikers in Anges team were sacrificial. There to run. There wasn’t any coordination or nuance to when the press happened. Unless I missed something…
 
SpurMeUp said:
You’re suggesting there was nuance to Anges press? 😀 I mean go ahead, how did it work…

I backed him when many didn’t and I was glad we stuck by him and won a trophy as well as glad we sacked him. Strikers in Anges team were sacrificial. There to run. There wasn’t any coordination or nuance to when the press happened. Unless I missed something…
Click to expand...

Well firstly I’m not going to count / judge whatever his press was after the City away game last year because he shifted to something completely different. Before the ridiculous injuries though it was certainly a ‘we never stop’ attempt versus Frank’s picking specific moments. But I think in the period where we actually pressed high more often than not we put in many good performances against good teams. Without being in the tactical meetings ourselves we can’t know the nuances of what he asked of specific players on a game by game basis but I’m sure at the elite level there was some nuance. Not arguing it wasn’t more intense that Frank’s though, more consistently applied.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back