Thomas Frank - Head Coach

[DaveT316]

I'm firmly in the camp that Frank is doing what he is doing out of necessity at the moment, so I resonate with most of your post above.

If you take the view that footballers come in broadly 4 categories, those being Elite, International, Domestic, and Prospect, the reasons for Frank's pragmatism is that the squad has:

1 Elite Player - Romero
19 International - Vicario, Dragusin, Danso, Palhinha, Simons, Bissouma, Richie, Maddison, Udogie, Solanke, Kudus, Kulusevski, Gallagher, Porro, Spence, Sarr, Bentancur, Micky, Muani.
2 Domestic - Davies and Austin
6 Prospects - Kinsky, Gray, Bergvall, Tel, Odobert, Sousa.

When you then look at the injuries it drops to 1 Elite, 8 International, 1 Domestic and 5 prospects.

So basically Frank has to pick a team from 15 players five of which are kids within the first team squad, and this is going to be the case for the next month at least in all cases bar Spence.

That requires pragmatism. Now is not a time as a fan to be crowing for our beautiful Spurs back. Now is a time to get 13 more points on the board, secure our league position and then have a long hard look at the non playing staff at senior level to understand what they are doing. Our academy, our recruitment, and our player sales are underperforming, and all need review. Lange doesn't feel like the answer to me, though I know nothing of his actual performance day to day, obviously. Vinai is too new to have any real responsibility for the situation bar the outrageous statement of intent that was his open letter to fans, which on reflection now just looks stupid, really.

Finally to the manager - I really do think he can take us to better places - he's really clever, really structured and knows what he wants. Those saying he is out of his depth are doing him a disservice - we are the very definition of a poison chalice right now, and its to his credit that he's not letting things get to him in the media. He's doing what he believes is necessary to get us out of a dog fight, and I for one back him to achieve that. Could be famous last words, but I doubt it. I absolutely don't think there's a caretaker or an out of work manager who mid season could do better.

All of this.

I find myself getting very frustrated at the narrative being pushed by some that the kind of football we've largely seen so far is the only kind of football we can expect from Frank as long as he stays. The man is v intelligent and knows it won't suffice in the long term - I, for one, really respect he's sticking to his principles as he believes they are the right things to do, the right foundations to lay, to get us where he wants us to. I also really respect how he's conducting himself in the media, in the main. Yes, there are a few statements that might be considered erroneous at best, potentially misleading, but I feel he's playing the ball, not the man here. There will obviously be some spin to maintain control of the narrative and demonstrate some fight, or he may as well go home. The press would have a field day if he kept pushing a line 'this isn't good enough, this isn't the way I want us to play', he'd be a dead man walking, more than he already has been!

As many have said, it's so very, very early in the new regime's tenure to properly judge whether it's going to be a positive change from Levy's - there's 100% been some PR missteps - the new Head of Comms coming in should help here - but I really don't think there's a lot more they could've done differently starting from 1st September until now. I genuinely don't know who's out there who would be a guaranteed improvement on Frank that would take the job mid-season, when the players are plainly still playing for him and grinding their way through.

It's tough out there, no doubt about it, but I 100% concur with the above. We're going to have to stick it out till the end of the season and then see where summer takes us. I've just done my own squad audit and I feel, depending on outgoings, we need, at the very least, a new GK (no idea who), deep-lying playmaker (Wharton), CF to challenge Solanke (Agehowa) and elite level LWF (Diomande). If we can land these, while retaining our best players and improving the ability of our players to stay fit, I think we will see plenty of green shoots next year.

Onwards!

 

[glasgowspur]

Debates about his style and suitability will continue on and on, but I think one thing perhaps we can all agree on is that he has been left in an appalling limbo by Lange and VV. For weeks this guy has been 'one game away' from the boot, has not seen any external public support save a very vanilla 'message' from VV which pointedly failed to say anything positive about him, and has now been given very little support in the transfer market; I wonder if even he would've agreed to the Johnson sale had he known no-one else was coming? As I have said several times recently, I feel very sorry for him and think what he's managed to get out of the injury stricken squad in the last 10 days or so has been great in context.

There's more than shades of what happened with poch in all this, clubs in turmoil, no to little spend, team full of prospects, big talk of ambitions and a compliant manager who at some point is going to hung out to dry.
Been there, seen it, got the replica shirt.

 

[SissokoWasGood (BoL)]

Debates about his style and suitability will continue on and on, but I think one thing perhaps we can all agree on is that he has been left in an appalling limbo by Lange and VV. For weeks this guy has been 'one game away' from the boot, has not seen any external public support save a very vanilla 'message' from VV which pointedly failed to say anything positive about him, and has now been given very little support in the transfer market; I wonder if even he would've agreed to the Johnson sale had he known no-one else was coming? As I have said several times recently, I feel very sorry for him and think what he's managed to get out of the injury stricken squad in the last 10 days or so has been great in context.

Selling Brennan without a replacement looks terrible now the window has closed. This must be what gives Romero confidence to come out and still jibe at the board because it just fundamentally leaves us short in a tough period. All well and good wanting to sell better or sell at the perceived peak of a player’s value, but could we not have waited to sell him until the Summer?

 

[Baleforce]

Selling Brennan without a replacement looks terrible now the window has closed. This must be what gives Romero confidence to come out and still jibe at the board because it just fundamentally leaves us short in a tough period. All well and good wanting to sell better or sell at the perceived peak of a player’s value, but could we not have waited to sell him until the Summer?

Even with the all injuries, I’ve not found myself thinking “I wish we had Johnson still”.

We got good money for a player that is limited.

Its a good deal viewed in the long term.

 

[Raziel]

It looks, on the face of it, like it was the correct decision to sack Amorim, only time will tell and that time is not now imho. Utd fans are going in waay too early on Carrick. He's admittedly had some brilliant wins so far. But it's been what 3 games? Come back after he has had to deal with a 2-3 game loss or injuries to key players or the new manager bounce has worn off. He has a week to prepare between games too, which affords a better perspective to managers at top clubs. He had a similar good start to life at Middlesbrough before it tailed off over the next 2 seasons. Let's wait and see.

TF is unpopular I get that and there is a reasonable case to be made as to why. But putting aside that dislike for a second, compared to Carrick, his record is more impressive. Not only did he successfully achieve promotion to the PL with an unfancied, Brentford team, he also established them there, over 3 seasons. If it had come to replacing him before, I would not have been advocating for Carrick to be that replacement.

It is already the correct decision

- Carrick has 3 wins in a row, Amorim did that once and never bettered it in 18 months and 47 league games
- Those 3 wins has put United in a place where it's very likely they will get European football (we won't)
- Carrick shouldn't be the long-term solution, he's just to get them to end of season (noise is they want Tuchel), now it is United and if he gets them top 4, they will likely do something stupid.

The point is an interim manager, if you don't wait too long, with the benefit of the new manager bounce could have saved our season, and all the arguments people give for Frank (no one better available, needs time, needs players) are exactly the same people had with Amorim (i.e. the manager/style had no real qualities to fight for, so the issue became the replacement)