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Igor the Interim

thfcsteff said:
Interested in your source?

Here are some from squawka:


<<Tottenham have attempted just 11 through balls in 21 league games in 2025/26, the fewest of any side in the Premier League this season.

Nine players have attempted more through balls than Tottenham in the Premier League so far this campaign:

◉ 18 - Bruno Fernandes
◉ 16 - Bruno Guimarães
◉ 15 - Rayan Cherki
◉ 15 - Martin Ødegaard
◉ 14 - Morgan Rogers
◉ 13 - Jérémy Doku
◉ 12 - Bryan Mbeumo
◉ 12 - Adam Wharton
◉ 12 - Yéremy Pino

While here's how many through balls the Big Six have attempted in the league this season:

◎ 77 - Emirates Marketing Project
◎ 76 - Arsenal
◎ 62 - Man Utd
◎ 52 - Chelsea
◎ 50 - Liverpool
◉ 11 - Tottenham>>

The same source said that during Frank's tenure, the average through balls attempted was 0.52.
Postecoglu's was 1.9

Frank's total addiction to caution meant we went sideways and up either wing for crosses. He was absolutely not interested in risking anything through the middle.
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I'll have to try find it

At the time or just before he was sacked we had attempted the same amount as we had last season. If that 1.9 takes into account Ange's whole stay at the club then it'll be skewed.

Quick look shows we attempted 18 last season and if we're on 11 this year, then it tracks.
 
Baleforce said:
Our problems were never going to be fixed in a fortnight, they were never going to be fixed in 6 months.

We have to stop blaming the managers for lack of fight from players.
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Even just one thing on Frank... (I think there are many, but this is one of the bigger one's).

We had one available player in midfield and up front who could hold the ball up really well and progress the ball really well in Kudus. He was absolutely key to us looking semi competent in the first part of the season.

So Frank overplayed him until he imo probably suffered a drop in form because of fatigue and then suffered a lengthy injury spell. That's not on the players or a lack of fight. It would have been easier to rotate him if we had better options of course. But that's also very much on Frank.
 
The stats as a whole show that there has a been a massive transition from midfielders spending the most time on the ball to centre backs.

We seemed to have suffered more then most with this, partly due to us buying sub standard players in other positions. For seasons we have been unable to move the ball through the middle third and now it's killing us completely. I really believe that if we could find someone to play there for the rest of the games there would be an uptick in our results. We can#t play through balls, attack cause we don't build up attacks that allow us to initiate those phases of play.

The Kudus one is interesting cause he was he was the only player we had that could retain and progress the ball. The manager had a choice between flogging him in the hope of getting results or resting him and having no out ball. REgardless of what people thought about his end product he would routinely get us up the pitch through the thirds.
 
thfcsteff said:
The Saudi Sportswashing Machine game was one of the worst performances I have seen in many, many years. Shocking!!!
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We've had many of them over the recent years I've lost count. I don't even bother with the "it's the worst I've seen since xxx" because it's usually just recency bias. I ont k ow if we have more than 5 good performances in the last 2 years in the league. Weirdly in Europe both this and last season we've had a few more creditable performances but the league has been dirt.
 
thfcsteff said:
Interested in your source?

Here are some from squawka:


<<Tottenham have attempted just 11 through balls in 21 league games in 2025/26, the fewest of any side in the Premier League this season.

Nine players have attempted more through balls than Tottenham in the Premier League so far this campaign:

◉ 18 - Bruno Fernandes
◉ 16 - Bruno Guimarães
◉ 15 - Rayan Cherki
◉ 15 - Martin Ødegaard
◉ 14 - Morgan Rogers
◉ 13 - Jérémy Doku
◉ 12 - Bryan Mbeumo
◉ 12 - Adam Wharton
◉ 12 - Yéremy Pino

While here's how many through balls the Big Six have attempted in the league this season:

◎ 77 - Emirates Marketing Project
◎ 76 - Arsenal
◎ 62 - Man Utd
◎ 52 - Chelsea
◎ 50 - Liverpool
◉ 11 - Tottenham>>

The same source said that during Frank's tenure, the average through balls attempted was 0.52.
Postecoglu's was 1.9

Frank's total addiction to caution meant we went sideways and up either wing for crosses. He was absolutely not interested in risking anything through the middle.
Click to expand...
Because we don't have players capable of passing through the middle well. If we had Nordgaard or Damsgasrd then I think we would have seen a different approach. He decided not to try something he didn't think would work. Whether he was correct in that assessment is up for debate, obviously as you know I agree with him in that I don't believe we were capable of doing this and likewise I know you believe they were despite the evidence showing otherwise.
 
Best Igor can hope for this Sunday is a draw even Bill Nick could never win a game at Anfield, expect it will all rest on the Forest game , fail against them and I expect we will be looking for another caretaker until the end of the season..
 
Bishop said:
Because we don't have players capable of passing through the middle well. If we had Nordgaard or Damsgasrd then I think we would have seen a different approach. He decided not to try something he didn't think would work. Whether he was correct in that assessment is up for debate, obviously as you know I agree with him in that I don't believe we were capable of doing this and likewise I know you believe they were despite the evidence showing otherwise.
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Why where they capable of it under Ange but not under Frank? (I'd expect some drop off with Madders and Kulu out, but not to the extent there has been).
 
SirPercyHotspur said:
Best Igor can hope for this Sunday is a draw even Bill Nick could never win a game at Anfield, expect it will all rest on the Forest game , fail against them and I expect we will be looking for another caretaker until the end of the season..
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Waiting until after the Forest game is too late. That would mean we would have lost to a relegation rival, and just can't afford to lose that and then start again. He is obviously in charge for the Liverpool game, once we've lost that Tudor should be out and the new man should be in straight away.

Anymore dithering beyond that point and that's the final nail in the coffin IMO.....
 
DubSpur said:
Why where they capable of it under Ange but not under Frank? (I'd expect some drop off with Madders and Kulu out, but not to the extent there has been).
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They wasn't though. We put up comparable numbers last season, and that's with Kulu and Madders in the team.
 
DubSpur said:
Why where they capable of it under Ange but not under Frank? (I'd expect some drop off with Madders and Kulu out, but not to the extent there has been).
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We weren't capable of it under Ange that's the point. You've actually forgotten what the football was like under Ange last season. At times we were basically the 'Kulu team' if he wants rampaging around we had nothing.

You've even forgotten one of Ange's primary tactics was also playing with width and throwing blind crosses in. There were whole debates here where I said it was a bad tactic and people tried telling me it was the players faults for not being where these blind crosses were going.

I get it you didn't like Frank or the football he played but let's not mythologise and create false narratives. The football under Ange last season was just as awful but just represented slightly differently. This is why I complained about the quality of the players last season, it's why I'm complained about the quality of the players this season.

You need to go back and actually watch the football we played last season, it's not what you're remembering it to be.
 
Bishop said:
We weren't capable of it under Ange that's the point. You've actually forgotten what the football was like under Ange last season. At times we were basically the 'Kulu team' if he wants rampaging around we had nothing.

You've even forgotten one of Ange's primary tactics was also playing with width and throwing blind crosses in. There were whole debates here where I said it was a bad tactic and people tried telling me it was the players faults for not being where these blind crosses were going.

I get it you didn't like Frank or the football he played but let's not mythologise and create false narratives. The football under Ange last season was just as awful but just represented slightly differently. This is why I complained about the quality of the players last season, it's why I'm complained about the quality of the players this season.

You need to go back and actually watch the football we played last season, it's not what you're remembering it to be.
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The discussion isn't if the football was good or not. The number of through balls under Frank is about 25% of what it was under Frank. That's a clear lack of intent and removing any creativity from the team.
 
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