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Thomas Frank - Head Coach

Bishop said:
Any manager who comes in and is satisfied with this squad is not a manager I want.

We need someone who looks at this group, hates what he sees, and demands improvement. This is not an exciting squad. It’s middling and filled with hopium.

Hope that Bergvall continues to evolve and develops a real passing game to complement his energy and running. Hope that Gray improves his positional awareness, adds more depth to his passing, and eventually develops some sort of controlling aspect. Hope that Tel becomes more consistent at beating his man and starts getting shots on target. Hope that Odobert gains confidence, takes defenders on directly, and actually produces end product. Hope that Romero cuts out the brain farts and rash decisions. Hope that VDV improves his box defending. Hope that Udogie returns to the form he showed when he first arrived and can actually stay fit. And hope that the injured players come back and perform at their level we’ve occasionally seen, rather than reverting to their average output.

It’s all hope. And while some people are happy to take a glass-half-full view, not every one of these players will develop in the way so many on here hope they will. A degree of hope is fine, but we need something tangible to go along with it.
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Not hope mate, hope is Frank may fudging figure it out after 30 games ..

Players like Gray, Bergvall, Odobert, Tel, Udogie need a development plan with manager and coaching staff, while at the same time building a recruitment strategy that will cover for the inevitable 2-3 that won't make the step up.

Similarly Vuscovic, Moore, Williams-Barnett need a loan strategy that improves their chance of success, e.g. we should already know if we intend to use Vuscovic next season or loan him again.

And the club needs a strategy that is, we will add minimum 2 quality players (1st team challengers/upgrades) every window (so x million set aside).

So find a manager that is willing to work within that, and to your point, pushes the club to the point of uncomfortable but not self destruction.
 
Mabspurs said:
Sorry mate, but if you think having the players who were responsible fpr 78% of our goal involvements last season - that's 78% -



unavailable for the whole of this season - is not "much of an injury problem", then I guess there is little to discuss rationally...
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We knew Kulu was out long term, we knew Son was sold, many of those now moaning about our players with goal involvements last season being out seem to be the same people that think it was a good idea for us to sell Johnson. Lots of people that want to have their cake and eat it.

If you think having an average of about 5 players out injured is a big injury problem then you and I have different perspectives of what a big injury problem is. I think if you looked across the whole PL - 5 players out would be about average (Bournemouth had 7 out injured to our 5 in our game earlier this week for example).

This 'squad is awful and nowhere near good enough' is absolutely something that has come about recently. Last season it was that the manager was terrible and the team should be top 6 (and the votes on here at the start of the season merely back that up). Only 8 sensible souls on here had us down for a 'bad' season (though even then quite a bit better than where we are now).
 
Mabspurs said:
Who? The loser that was and remains.... Ramon Vega???!!! Who else? List them please.

And then list those - like Daws, who knows the club better than you, me and most others - who are pointing the finger at the quality he has to work with....
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You do know that Vega is one of the few players who can claim to have been part of a cup winning side? I mean, denigrate him if you like, but he is not a ‘loser’…
 
Finney Is Back said:
Reading this and other threads on here I couldn't help but think there seems to be a whole bunch of revisionism coming from a lot of people on here regarding the quality of our squad and what they expected from us this year.

I wondered how I could try to show that without having to trawl through every message in every thread back in June/July/August and then remembered that we always have a poll at the start of the season asking what peoples expectations are. I went and found it and here are the results:

Qualify for CL: 20 votes (LutonSpurs, thfcsteff, Baleforce, Trixster, indospurs, GutterBoy, Lakey, spurrrr, Robspur12, NLS, Junior19, JerusalemMan, Surfless, IulianSteaua, OleBoot, alekaras, afsoc4life, spanishspur, veryoldspur, parj)

Qualify for Europa League: 51 votes (tw12yid, monkeybarry, Yiddo, spurspinter1, ledley's knee injections, Jordinho, metalgear, Bedfordspurs, lurker of old, El Dante, Dave T316, RunTMC, Raziel, The Fatman, P.D., Bullet, billyiddo, tommysvr, Aldo, Outrance, Juicebox, K.D.D.D.D.Soc, FatBloke, parklane1, nelto, stinkfoot, Daisuk, dingdongo, Gazza Dazzla SpurMeUp, demotw, Bishop, kb 1984, richie_spur, IulianSteaua, Transylvanian, glasgowspur, Kandi1977, alekaras, Tristan Barnett, DubSpur, NoLimits01, Mikey10, Hotspur75, Chutz, kendoddsdadsdog, Push and run, fido 1982, Somerset Spurs, parj, BrentwoodSpur)

Win a trophy: 23 votes (monkeybarry, Yiddo, fernadez, markysimmo, The Fatman, GutterBoy, superspurs, Juicebox, Modrical, SteveAWOL, NLS, spuringh, Junior19, kb 1984, totalspurs, Gazza, Surfless, Tristan Barnett, afsoc4life, spanishspur, Lilbaz, SpiderSpurs, BrentwoodSpur)

Top 8: 36 votes (tw12yid, mudshark, Lost Mango, lurker of old, El Dante, RunTMC, Sandman, P.D., Notmegov, tommysvr, Aldo, superspurs, jamonserrano, parklane1, stinkfoot, Jurgen the German, Modrical, SteveAWOL, Finney Is Back, Gazza Dazzla, yiddo37, Roland Beurre, Lemonade Money, Craig_J, Bishop, Mr Gogolak, totalspurs, DeanoAustin, Transylvanian, OleBoot, Kandi1977, Mikey10, Hotspur75, Spoonman, SpiderSpur, splisskenthecat)

Top 10: 8 votes (fernadez, Spur of the moment, djp82, johnola, Gazza, Mcfee, FolkestoneSpur, Silly McSilly Face)

You can clearly see from that that a majoritry of people expected us to do pretty well this season and, in fact, only a very small number expected us not to finish in the top 8 (well done to you 8 folk with good judgement!).

You can also see that there is clearly a whole bunch of revisionism from some people on here saying that they've always said we had a rubbish squad with some of those same people having us down for qualifying for Europe before the season started.
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They showed a table today on SSN that shows that without Maddison, Kulu, Solanke and Son, we have lost (I think the figure was) contributors to 114 goal actions (actual goals and assists) from last season. No one can have foreseen that would be the case when that poll was taken.

Also, it would be interesting to know if it was taken before the transfer window shut. I honestly can’t remember and can’t be arsed looking.

It also wasn’t clear at that time that even when these players were given a system which didn’t involve the last line of defence often being the edge of the opponents’ penalty area they would still be incapable of footballing basics.
 
Raziel said:
Not hope mate, hope is Frank may fudging figure it out after 30 games ..

Players like Gray, Bergvall, Odobert, Tel, Udogie need a development plan with manager and coaching staff, while at the same time building a recruitment strategy that will cover for the inevitable 2-3 that won't make the step up.

Similarly Vuscovic, Moore, Williams-Barnett need a loan strategy that improves their chance of success, e.g. we should already know if we intend to use Vuscovic next season or loan him again.

And the club needs a strategy that is, we will add minimum 2 quality players (1st team challengers/upgrades) every window (so x million set aside).

So find a manager that is willing to work within that, and to your point, pushes the club to the point of uncomfortable but not self destruction.
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Everything you said there was hope that it works. Its not based on anything actually tangible.
 
SpurMeUp said:
I actually think we’re in a perilous position now, and it’s quite possible things will get worse for Frank and us now. We are so underpowered in midfield and attack. Richarlison and Bentancur Havnt had any rotation. So much will depend on how Tel, Odobert, Gray and Bergvall step up.

So despite the training work ethic that Frank is instilling and the pragmatic approach to winning matches, we are in real danger of losing a very decent coach.

Frank is probably on a par with someone like Emery. He would rebuild somewhere else and with the right players and time - everyone would be proclaiming him as one of best. So personally I think it would be a shame to play snakes and ladders with managers again because some fans undermine Frank, because they wanted to be right about Postecoglou.
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So frustrating when you know what’s coming and can do nothing about it! Posted the above about a week ago - Richi and Bentancur were stretched.

We lack so many players in midfield and attack. Not because Xavi, Tel, Muani, Pahulinha, Gray aren’t talented - it’s great to see them developing and showing promise - it’s because there is no backup. No subs or rotation now. Which then creates more injuries.
 
As much as he has my backing and my thoughts on this squad, I think thats him now done. He looks shell shocked, this feels like end of days. More players injured, people just look like everyone's had enough, including Frank.
 
Gazza Dazzla said:
I can get behind that 2nd half performance, it can’t just be a one off though, it should be the norm especially at home. Subs didn’t help, looked worse after them.
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But why has it taken 30 games to show 45 minutes of energy and some attacking intent? We should have been like that from August. The players showed they actually have quality when they are unleashed
 
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