Thomas Frank - Head Coach

[thfcsteff]

I wouldn't shift all the blame to attack. There are times we are slow to support, or when they do support they run right into the opposition defensive line instead of moving into spaces.

...indeed.
There it is. 'The Zone of Emptiness', which is a regular occurrence when we break.

 

[harr1984]

But he also scored the goal that got us back in it. So VDV and Romero’s contribution are neutral at worst. I completely give up with our totally useless forwards. The fact that the CB’s have to bail them out every fudging game is bordering on embarrassing. I agree they should do better defensively, but if they don’t play then who scores the goals for us?

I know you don't like him but Richi for all his faults scores goals. His minutes per goals stacks up with a lot of decent forwards. Not having him as an option is a miss.

 

[parj]

View attachment 21437

...indeed.
There it is. 'The Zone of Emptiness', which is a regular occurrence when we break.

Great shot that. Our midfield are almost in a straight line... Nobody breaking to get into the pockets. It seems a very rigid system at times

 

[billyiddo]

View attachment 21437

...indeed.
There it is. 'The Zone of Emptiness', which is a regular occurrence when we break.

That's a pocket you'd expect to see your ACM in, no? Picking up the space central to whichever side the play is in at any given time

 

[Mikey10]

I thought we controlled that game. Obviously the goals conceded were poor, but we were fully in control. Romero looks up and doesn’t trap the ball. Then we don’t defend properly to stop the cross and let their attacker have a free run at the cross!!! Terrible. We dominated the first half and should have been out of sight on chances created.

We played through the middle at times. In the first half it resulted in us losing possession. Second half Romero played some passes through the centre as the game opened.

That’s your glass half empty thing again. Stats don’t back this viewpoint up. 2.5 XG vs 1.5 and what those stats don’t tel you is we handed them chances on a plate and didn’t convert lots of promising breaks into shots.


I agree here. Franks job is to turn these players into a success. Odobert and Spence he has helped them develop. But tucking the ball away isn’t something any of our attackers are good at - including Solanke. Still, Odobert had a lovely curling shot saved well, Simons struck the underside of the bar, Spence was through a couple of times. Frank is getting them playing. But they aren’t finishing. And it has been like this since the first game of the season. We are missing Son, Kulu and Madders. No doubt.

For the rest of the season, can these promising players step and start to deliver goals? Or do we actually consider playing Romer or VDV upfront!

#nodeviationfromthenarrativeallowed

 

[Yiddo]

Its an obvious fix, stick our defenders up top as they know how to score and stick our attack in defence because they are good at keeping the ball out of the goal. Problem solved.

 

[Jurgen the German]

It’s not neutral, goals you concede are more influential than goals you score.

In the modern game, clean sheets are everything.

Sorry what? You realise you actually need goals to win games right? If you drew 38 games 0-0 you’d probably go down.

 

[Muttley]

That's a pocket you'd expect to see your ACM in, no? Picking up the space central to whichever side the play is in at any given time

I agree. We have a number 10 and he should be where Eriksen would have been.

I reckon if that had been the 25th min then Solanke would have had the energy levels to make that photo slightly different. I don't mean fix it obviously.

 

[parj]

That's a pocket you'd expect to see your ACM in, no? Picking up the space central to whichever side the play is in at any given time

It shouldn't be just the ACMs responsibility. It's a green space so nearest marked player to the space needs to go into it.

 

[Baleforce]

Sorry what? You realise you actually need goals to win games right? If you drew 38 games 0-0 you’d probably go down.

But you don’t have to “create” goals, it’s very possible to grind and frustrate the opponents into giving them to you.

Which is pretty much what we do, teams don’t create against us, we gift.

Football isn’t about scoring goals, it’s about not conceding them, goal are by products of effective defence.

 

[WillWeEverBeGoodAgain]

So for the second game in a row, our goalie being brick and our defence not being able to defend has cost us 5 points, add to our strikers/midfield not being able to score and this on Frank, not for me it's not

 

[thfcsteff]

That's a pocket you'd expect to see your ACM in, no? Picking up the space central to whichever side the play is in at any given time

Xavi is most certainly the man I expect to be making a move inside. In the image, it's almost as though he's hiding behind the defender. One thing no-one can level at Xavi is lack of effort, so I have to wonder why he's there and why he's not dropping into those pockets. My conclusion? Lack of coherent strategy? I'd love to think his instinct would kick in and he'd just go there anyway, however I suspect confidence all around is fragile.

 

[thfcsteff]

#nodeviationfromthenarrativeallowed

I tried to click the link?!

Seriously though, I personally think discussions are great, as are differing opinions. I'd say the opinions are pretty set right now in fairness.
I also think in terms of Frank's pressers, we can safely say that he wants not much more than a slightly tweaked/more end-product successful version of what we are seeing. Personally, I don't think that's good enough.

 

[Jurgen the German]

It’s not neutral, goals you concede are more influential than goals you score.

In the modern game, clean sheets are everything.

Sorry what? You realise you actually need goals to

But you don’t have to “create” goals, it’s very possible to grind and frustrate the opponents into giving them to you.

Which is pretty much what we do, teams don’t create against us, we gift.

Football isn’t about scoring goals, it’s about not conceding them, goal are by products of effective defence.

you’re not going to get many goals by grinding, unless your goal is simply to avoid relegation. Even mid table teams have ways of scoring other than from set pieces like us. Pretty much every top team in Europe play on the front foot and have creative players who score goals. If the height of your ambition is 17th then good luck hoping we’re only going to get goals by forcing other teams into making mistakes.

 

[thfcsteff]

I agree. We have a number 10 and he should be where Eriksen would have been.

I reckon if that had been the 25th min then Solanke would have had the energy levels to make that photo slightly different. I don't mean fix it obviously.

My point for the whole season has been that in order for the 10 to be there, you need a manager who wants to instruct/coach a system which encourages that.
I've said for sometime that I do not believe Thomas Frank is particularly interested in that sort of player. To your point, he'd rather a CF drops in, holds it up, feeds it off, turns, goes and prepares for a cross (so it seems).

 

[Baleforce]

Sorry what? You realise you actually need goals to


you’re not going to get many goals by grinding, unless your goal is simply to avoid relegation. Even mid table teams have ways of scoring other than from set pieces like us. Pretty much every top team in Europe play on the front foot and have creative players who score goals. If the height of your ambition is 17th then good luck hoping we’re only going to get goals by forcing other teams into making mistakes.

Arsenal haven’t scored a goal this season that didn’t come from an initial defensive play.

 

[Muttley]

Xavi is most certainly the man I expect to be making a move inside. In the image, it's almost as though he's hiding behind the defender. One thing no-one can level at Xavi is lack of effort, so I have to wonder why he's there and why he's not dropping into those pockets. My conclusion? Lack of coherent strategy? I'd love to think his instinct would kick in and he'd just go there anyway, however I suspect confidence all around is fragile.

I actually don't think Xavi is "all in" all of the time. I think he easily drifts out of full intensity mode very easily. So does Spence.

Think about Romero and Porro. You'd never see either of them give anything less than 100% in every moment of the game.

With Xavi and Soence there is the little bluffs where they're pretending they're all in but they actually aren't.

I await that game when Xavi single handedly grabs it by the scruff of the neck and wins it for us. At the moment I'd settle for him just having a second half where he becomes almost talismanic.

By the way, this is not me saying I don't like these players. I actually do, but Frank needs to work on their psychology in my opinion.

 

[Jurgen the German]

Arsenal haven’t scored a goal this season that didn’t come from an initial defensive play.

An where has it gotten us? We are 14th and sliding down the table every week. Arsenal have world class forwards and creative midfielders if they happen to not score from a set piece. We have relegation standard forwards. Stop with this nonsense.

 

[Robbo]

We're practically (un)comfortably mid table at the moment. Eight points below fourth place and eight points above relegation.

If we made half as many stupid errors and was 10% more clinical in front of goal, we'd be in the top four.

There's our issue.

 

[Jurgen the German]

We're practically (un)comfortably mid table at the moment. Eight points below fourth place and eight points above relegation.

If we made half as many stupid errors and was 10% more clinical in front of goal, we'd be in the top four.

There's our issue.

Almost every team can say that. Our issue is we have no one who is clinical or creative. And yes we also have make way too many mistakes and have a nervous goalkeeper.