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Thomas Frank - Head Coach

Mcfee said:
Kolo Muani - I don’t trust players who appear to show up only when they feel like it. His best games by far have been against 2 of his former clubs. Maybe we should hope for Juve in the last 16.
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Think this (dominant narrative) that he shows up when he wants, is lazy etc is overstated. It could well be that he feels at home from playing these teams, knowing the ground, or being familiar with the players that lends confidence. If you watch Muani play he works. He tracks back, he has moments where he carrys the ball well - setup the dissallowed goal last night - and he should finish and score more. Rather than him being lazy, I'd say the analysis is lazy. His lolloping jogging style doesn't view well, but watch him in games, and he applies himself just fine. Is there more to come from him? Absolutely. It is mainly a confidence thing. Just becuase he's big doesn't mean he can't be low on confidence.
 
He never really looks fully engaged to me, but perhaps that's just how he is. I'd say I need to see more from him before I'd be overjoyed with our acquiring his services on a permanent basis, though.

Well done to all concerned for finishing in the top 8, but that doesn't really tell us anything we didn't already know, which is that the quality of opposition in any European competition, outside of a notable handful of clubs, is below that of most of the Premier League (in many cases, it appears, quite a way below).
 
SpurMeUp said:
The tempo in our games has been steadily improving. We're moving the ball around faster.

To a man, I don't think anyone thought Manui had any future with us. Almost setup a goal in the opening minute, and scored. Worked hard. Personally could see it was in him. Frank stood by him and got him performing.

Playing 3 at the back also gives us more experience, which is what the side has been lacking imo. Our defenders are more settled, experienced, and with 3 can contribute in attack. What we've seen in the PL and again last night, is we are not always ready to transition into defending however. The team gets used to dominating possession, and then after 40 mins has to defend. The positioning is off, the players look hesitent. We saw after our goal us drop too deep. But part of that is just adjusting and getting settled in a defensive formation. Then we pushed out more and regained control of the game.

We still need reinforcements in attack. Tel can come back in which should add something. But we are light in attack. An injury to Odobert and we'd slide backwards. Can the Spurs team sign a player for the left who could add trickery and goals? Or is Tel as good as anyone we could sign now? And we'll use the money better in the summer.
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Good positive take.

For me I want to see how we do against better teams than Burnley and Frankfurt. Dortmund are quite good, but it was only 20ish minutes against 11 men. There have been signs of improvement, and imo some earlier this season too. But so far inconsistent and more us looking good in games where we have a pretty clear quality of players advantage. And that 20ish minutes against Dortmund.

Would love some reinforcement that would bring real quality on the ball, in the front line or in midfield.
 
billyiddo said:
No, i maintain that it's just a case of our opposition in Europe just not being as tough as what we see in the PL week to week - we need to effectively implement our gameplan in the league before we can start to talk of a resurrection.
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I think there's just plenty of football teams in Europe still playing 'football', as opposed to Rollerball in the Prem.
 
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harr1984 said:
There have already been some green shoots within the last few games, it just needs to convert into showing a more dominant performance over the course of a match.

As for our rough month of fixtures, I'd wager that we win at least one of our games against City, Saudi Sportswashing Machine, Man U and the Goons. Not going to guess where/how or number of points, but we will achieve more than expected - it's always the way.....
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I can tell you now....if he beats the Goons he can definitely stay to the end of the season :)
 
ricky2tricky4city said:
I think there's just plenty of football teams in Europe still playing 'football', as opposed to Rollerball in the Prem.
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While there's definitely some questions that can be asked about the current focus on physicality in the PL some of the games we've had in Europe, including the Dortmund game seems to tell a story about how valuable that can be, and how costly it can be to be on the wrong side of that.

Tricky situation in some ways for the club. We imo need more technical and creative players, but probably also need to maintain high physical levels. Those players already doing really well in the PL with the mix of those qualities do get snapped up rather quickly by teams high up the table.

On a positive note some of our younger really talented players do have that mix. And Odobert for example who isn't the strongest is really quick and seems to be finding good ways to play despite not being as strong as some others.
 
braineclipse said:
While there's definitely some questions that can be asked about the current focus on physicality in the PL some of the games we've had in Europe, including the Dortmund game seems to tell a story about how valuable that can be, and how costly it can be to be on the wrong side of that.

Tricky situation in some ways for the club. We imo need more technical and creative players, but probably also need to maintain high physical levels. Those players already doing really well in the PL with the mix of those qualities do get snapped up rather quickly by teams high up the table.

On a positive note some of our younger really talented players do have that mix. And Odobert for example who isn't the strongest is really quick and seems to be finding good ways to play despite not being as strong as some others.
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Or we could just sack Howard Webb and get the PL back.
 
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