Thomas Frank - Head Coach

[paxtonwolf]

My big problem here is that I’m going into games here at the moment assuming we’ll lose. I assumed we would lose against Burnley, West Ham and Bournemouth. That shows where the level of expectation has dropped to.

We’ve been on a massive decline for years now and it’s really hard to accept just how we’ve fallen, and it’s on the entire club, we’ve let world class players leave and replaced them with mediocre dross. We’ve tried to play football according to the accountants bottom line.

It’s simply not good enough across the board. I don’t know what the answer is manager wise, because I couldn’t tell you someone at the moment that I would bring in (Alonso not realistic for me) but we have to change something (a lot in fact), because we’re on a trajectory where we find ourselves in the championship within the next few seasons here.

Same here too, it feels like we have regressed to the pre-Jol era

 

[MartyFunkhouser]

You couldn’t make this brick up.
We’ve won 2 games in the last 14. 3 points from a run against Forest, Brentford, Sunderland, Bournemouth, West Ham and Burnley. Our football is dire. But it’s all ok because Frank is doing a great job and nobody else could do better. He’s a great manager because blah blah blah Brentford and something about Mbueno.

Yet sit 5th in the CL table with one loss in 7

Yesterday was nowhere near the disastrous performance and people are making out, wonder why that is

 

[Rafa87]

Yet sit 5th in the CL table with one loss in 7

Yesterday was nowhere near the disastrous performance and people are making out, wonder why that is

I didn’t see the game but just watched the highlights, even from that I can see we could have won the game yesterday 5-3. My concern is just that we can’t keep having these games where we ‘should’ have won… we’re in trouble near the bottom and if we go down at some point it won’t be any better to say “we should have stayed up” or “well had we have just beat..” and I know you get that, and I completely get that Frank isn’t the problem in isolation here.

I’m really at a loss as to what this club is doing at the moment.

 

[Jurgen the German]

Same here too, it feels like we have regressed to the pre-Jol era

I’ve said a few times it feels very late 90s-early 2000s Spurs at the moment. Don’t have a single standout attacking player. FFS we may have been rubbish in the 90s and 2000s but we had standouts like Ginola, Sheringham, Keane etc.

 

[paxtonwolf]

I’ve said a few times it feels very late 90s-early 2000s Spurs at the moment. Don’t have a single standout attacking player. FFS we may have been rubbish in the 90s and 2000s but we had standouts like Ginola, Sheringham, Keane etc.

And Gary Doherty...

 

[Muttley]

I didn’t see the game but just watched the highlights, even from that I can see we could have won the game yesterday 5-3. My concern is just that we can’t keep having these games where we ‘should’ have won… we’re in trouble near the bottom and if we go down at some point it won’t be any better to say “we should have stayed up” or “well had we have just beat..” and I know you get that, and I completely get that Frank isn’t the problem in isolation here.

I’m really at a loss as to what this club is doing at the moment.

I think you summarise how we all feel. We can't catch a break e.g. hitting the cross bar yesterday. We are also getting a raw deal from the officials across many, many games. They have no doubt cost us points with their incompetence. As you say we're sort of in that shoulda, woulda, coulda mode as we slip closer to the relegation zone.

It drags you down.

I'm also at a loss what we can do about it. What I do know is that Frank will be assessing who are his dogs of war and which other players haven't got the fortitude for the big fight ahead.

 

[Robspur12]

So in the last 2 games we have lost points through shambolic defending. And worse still, this is happening when our supposed best defence is available (bar Udogie). I wonder if TF is, like Ange, overcommitting to attack to compensate for it's bluntness. If only we could pull other defences around like our was yesterday. Imho this is what TF needs to sort first. We will achieve nothing without that solid base.

 

[Mcfee]

Yet sit 5th in the CL table with one loss in 7

Yesterday was nowhere near the disastrous performance and people are making out, wonder why that is

Not a disastrous performance but still needed a 90th minute goal to rescue a draw against relegation fodder, one of the worst 2 teams in the division. Yes I suppose we should celebrate that to be fair. Carry on Thomas, you’re doing a great job.

 

[Muttley]

So in the last 2 games we have lost points through shambolic defending. And worse still, this is happening when our supposed best defence is available (bar Udogie). I wonder if TF is, like Ange, overcommitting to attack to compensate for it's bluntness. If only we could pull other defences around like our was yesterday. Imho this is what TF needs to sort first. We will achieve nothing without that solid base.

I think we'll see Frank switch tactics back to being more conservative for the big 4 Feb games. We won't be over-committing and will happily take draws.

I'm expecting him to last 2 or 3 of those games. I have a feeling he won't be in situ for the NLD.

 

[DeanoAustin]

I didn’t see the game or the highlights yesterday. By all accounts, we should have won but didn’t. So it seems the performance and late equaliser might be enough to keep Frank in a job.

When does it become untenable?

Maybe yesterday, in itself, was acceptable but our league position and run of form aren’t. We are stumbling into a relegation fight here similar to Saudi Sportswashing Machine in 2009 or whenever they went down.

Problem is, I don’t see anyone wanting to join us right now with February’s fixture list. The job is hard enough at Tottenham without kicking off your reign against City, United, Saudi Sportswashing Machine and Woolwich.

If those games go as I fear, we have a massive, massive problem. Frank will not turn it around from here. It’s over for him IMO but I think we’re stuck for a few weeks by which time, we could be in deep, deep trouble.

 

[braineclipse]

I think you summarise how we all feel. We can't catch a break e.g. hitting the cross bar yesterday. We are also getting a raw deal from the officials across many, many games. They have no doubt cost us points with their incompetence. As you say we're sort of in that shoulda, woulda, coulda mode as we slip closer to the relegation zone.

It drags you down.

I'm also at a loss what we can do about it. What I do know is that Frank will be assessing who are his dogs of war and which other players haven't got the fortitude for the big fight ahead.

I think we have been somewhat unlucky recently. But we've also caught breaks. Burnley's several failed clearances before the VdV goal yesterday. Red card for Dortmund. Romero scoring repeatedly when we get desperate. Scoring first against Burnley, Bournemouth and Sunderland.

It seems Muani is not seen as a dog of war... Maybe we hope Robertson will be one. Gallagher probably is one.

 

[MartyFunkhouser]

Not a disastrous performance but still needed a 90th minute goal to rescue a draw against relegation fodder, one of the worst 2 teams in the division. Yes I suppose we should celebrate that to be fair. Carry on Thomas, you’re doing a great job.

I couldn't care when we score, especially as the goal was deserved given we dominated the game. In fact we should have won it by a couple of clear goals.

So no not excited, but it certainly wasn't the disaster performance people are making out, far from it

 

[Gutter Boy]

I think we'll see Frank switch tactics back to being more conservative for the big 4 Feb games. We won't be over-committing and will happily take draws.

I'm expecting him to last 2 or 3 of those games. I have a feeling he won't be in situ for the NLD.

How can we be more conservative than yesterday? We played 3 CBs against the 2nd worst team in the league? Im not sure there'another gear down. Dragusin in at RB?

 

[Mcfee]

I didn’t see the game or the highlights yesterday. By all accounts, we should have won but didn’t. So it seems the performance and late equaliser might be enough to keep Frank in a job.

When does it become untenable?

Maybe yesterday, in itself, was acceptable but our league position and run of form aren’t. We are stumbling into a relegation fight here similar to Saudi Sportswashing Machine in 2009 or whenever they went down.

Problem is, I don’t see anyone wanting to join us right now with February’s fixture list. The job is hard enough at Tottenham without kicking off your reign against City, United, Saudi Sportswashing Machine and Woolwich.

If those games go as I fear, we have a massive, massive problem. Frank will not turn it around from here. It’s over for him IMO but I think we’re stuck for a few weeks by which time, we could be in deep, deep trouble.

yep it appears we’re stuck with him for the rest of the season for no other reasons than to be seen to have given him a fair chance plus a reluctance to undermine their own judgement in hiring him. But 2 or 3 weeks ago few really thought we might be dragged into a relegation battle. That’s not the case now given the last couple of results as well as West Ham’s improvement - which was always very likely under Nuno imo. So unless we get a surprise result over the next 4 games the board might be left with no choice.

 

[harr1984]

I couldn't care when we score, especially as the goal was deserved given we dominated the game. In fact we should have won it by a couple of clear goals.

So no not excited, but it certainly wasn't the disaster performance people are making out, far from it

I haven't seen many be critical of the performance itself, more critical of the fact we have gained one point against two of the bottom three teams. And Frank has dug a hole for himself in That respect, because if you play the football he does and then the only way you're going to get away with it at a club like Spurs is with results. And he's not getting results and hasn't sometime.

So you're not going to see some mitigation for an 'unlucky' point against the team second from bottom in the league. The fact our away fans are singing songs about backwards and sidewards passing tells you where we are at with him..,,

 

[MartyFunkhouser]

So you're not going to see some mitigation for an 'unlucky' point against the team second from bottom in the league. The fact our away fans are singing songs about backwards and sidewards passing tells you where we are at with him..,,

I get that but also the fans are now in that mode of "everything we do is wrong and its all Franks fault", like you say there is no mitigation here. Now a large part of this is his doing for not picking up enough points so far this season, but nothing I saw in the week or yesterday suggests poor football, just one poor result.

With all due respect to fans, I watched yesterday and it wasn't all sideways and back, 62% 18 SHOTS AND 11 ON TARGET back that up, but we are now on the cliff and the fans have decided to jump off it, they have decided what to sing and who to aim it at before the games even kicked off.

 

[SpurMeUp]

You accused me of commenting without watching the game, so yes, that's the part I responded to.

Re-read my post, I actually didn’t. Check it.

I thought we played pretty well. Created some decent chances and should have won. But for as good as a draw against 19th placed Burnley is, that's not why I want him sacked. This form is why I want him sacked. It's only confirmed what I believed about him from before he was appointed.

So it’s about being right.

I believe Thomas Frank is a very good coach and in his next job will probably show it again. I just do not believe he is a fit for Spurs and what we want.

If he’s a good coach he’s a good coach. He’s not Ange:

It's nothing to do with the previous manager, though it does make it harder to accept that we sacked the guy who finished 5th and won a European trophy only to end up here.

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There probably isn’t a way back for Frank, because CL sides are that much stronger our chances of winning the CL are minuscule. But as you say, Frank isn’t a bad coach and is a manager who will put in decent foundations and improve players - which is what we desperately need.

Sadly, from day one a cohort were never onside with Frank it turns out. When we hit a rocky patch these fans were quick condemn him. Hard for any manager to make headway with that background noise.

 

[DeanoAustin]

Re-read my post, I actually didn’t. Check it.

So it’s about being right.

If he’s a good coach he’s a good coach. He’s not Ange:


There probably isn’t a way back for Frank, because CL sides are that much stronger our chances of winning the CL are minuscule. But as you say, Frank isn’t a bad coach and is a manager who will put in decent foundations and improve players - which is what we desperately need.

Sadly, from day one a cohort were never onside with Frank it turns out. When we hit a rocky patch these fans were quick to call him out. Hard for any manager to make headway with that background noise.

I’m not having the last part of your post. Maybe online, you have some fans who didn’t give him a fair crack (maybe). Generally, Frank was widely praised early on and fans didn’t start to turn until long after results and performances turned unacceptable.

Even now, most fans say they believe Frank is a good coach and a decent man. He’s just the wrong man for us. We’re saying that despite being 14th in the league in late January. The wider mess isn’t Frank’s fault but, even allowing for those circumstances, where we are under him is utterly unacceptable.

 

[Gutter Boy]

I get that but also the fans are now in that mode of "everything we do is wrong and its all Franks fault", like you say there is no mitigation here. Now a large part of this is his doing for not picking up enough points so far this season, but nothing I saw in the week or yesterday suggests poor football, just one poor result.

With all due respect to fans, I watched yesterday and it wasn't all sideways and back, 62% 18 SHOTS AND 11 ON TARGET back that up, but we are now on the cliff and the fans have decided to jump off it, they have decided what to sing and who to aim it at before the games even kicked off.

That's not quite true, because it didnt happen against Dortmund. The attacking intent from the start won the fans over straight away

 

[harr1984]

I get that but also the fans are now in that mode of "everything we do is wrong and its all Franks fault", like you say there is no mitigation here. Now a large part of this is his doing for not picking up enough points so far this season, but nothing I saw in the week or yesterday suggests poor football, just one poor result.

With all due respect to fans, I watched yesterday and it wasn't all sideways and back, 62% 18 SHOTS AND 11 ON TARGET back that up, but we are now on the cliff and the fans have decided to jump off it, they have decided what to sing and who to aim it at before the games even kicked off.

Yeah I agree, yesterday's performance in isolation wasn't bad at all but this is exactly why he's a dead man walking. We are at a point where the fans want him gone and are ridiculing the team based on a performance that was fine. It never ends well from here and it's going to do more harm than good the longer they prolong this IMO.....