It’s been the theme since the first game of the season: our play in the final third isn’t at the required level. Some of that may be on Frank, but there are also clear confidence and quality issues with the attacking players.
Over the long term, I think Frank is excellent at developing players. How many top attackers has Brentford sold after he turned them into dynamite? In the short term, though, he doesn’t seem able to transform players overnight. Managers like Redknapp or Pochettino are probably better at injecting immediate confidence and belief. Frank, on the other hand, tends to deliver more permanent skill development, but it takes time.
It is a very tough ask to turn the tanker around without senior players and a fan base who aren't on your side. We'll be in the game tonight, but will probably lack that bit of quality again. If the fans get behind the side, anything is possible.
I really wish it was just that, go watch some of the youtube analysis stuff on Frank's Spurs, some by licensed coaches
- There is no play out pattern from defense
- There is no patterns of play/triangles to either move the ball, or retain possession
- There is no movement or expected runs ahead of player in possession, you see this when players are looking up and there literally is no pass on
- Our mid/low block is fudging useless, e.g. our standard 4-4-2 midblock against Villa was done by 2 passes through the middle (that fudging block is designed to block the middle and force the pass out wide), our low block allows opposition players to take shots from outside box (zone 14)
- Porro & Kudus have the highest and 2nd highest amount of crosses in the PL, when we typically only have 1 player in the box
And I could literally go on and on, we could talk about the horrendous subs, the freezing out of players, the fact that Bissouma who has been away from Frank's training actually looked better than our other players. Our players literally looked uncoached.
Why? will probably be speculation, nothing about Frank's system at Brentford should require top PL level players 6 months to grasp/understand, and even if it did, we should have had a good game or two where it clicked by now. The simplest answer is probably the most likely, i.e. our players where underwhelmed by his appointment, his concepts and coaching and don't want to play this brick "don't lose" football, that combined with the PL this season is even more about physicality and running, Frank's passive approach gets overrun every time (not a coincidence that when we do chase 2-0 down and up the tempo, we look significantly better).
All to say, the club should have seen this 2 months ago and made a call, and if they didn't make the call, be damn sure they had alternatives (interim/long term) lined up.
