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Thomas Frank - Head Coach

Benny_Lad said:
That is true to a degree. But we sat in against City and won 4-0. We had players capable of getting us out. Solanke and Deki to hold the ball. Madders to pass. Son and Johnson with pace. They still played deep but were dangerous on the break. (Relates to my above post).

On the flip side, the current attacking crop would be much more effective playing most of their football around the opponents box - like the 2nd half of the Man U game.
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That city 4 nil also had a make shift defence again don’t forget. The key was there was a plan of attack which meant the defenders could defend
When your plan is to have everyone defend you can’t suddenly flick a switch and change things
 
Legohamster said:
So let's say we sack him, who is likely to come in after 14 games and change us into a great attacking force with the current squad?
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Sacking him would be the worst decision and would make the “leadership” look even more stupid
He has to be given the season to show that he understands what’s needed
My worry is, as always, if there are doubts how much do they back him
But a good player is a good player right….
 
Legohamster said:
So let's say we sack him, who is likely to come in after 14 games and change us into a great attacking force with the current squad?
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Don't think anyone is expecting us to play magical football, I don't know why people keep suggesting fans are expecting the moon from him.

If I list all the players he has had available it is more than fair to expect better football than what has served up, no one is asking for miracles just evidence of an attacking plan beyond hoofing it. The same people criticising Ange and telling us it wasn't the players are now saying after we have improv d the squad with Kudus, Simons and Muani that what we are seeing is to be expected it's simply hypocritical.

FWIW I have said for 2/3 years people on here over rate our squad, but it fell on deaf ears until Frank arrived. That doesn't mean a team full of internationals should be resorting to the painful football we are seeing, that's on Frank and he needs to do better....
 
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glasgowspur said:
Just a thought, last season when we went to parking the bus in the EL there was a theory postulated that as there was no way ange would ever countenance such tactics that the senior players had taken it on themselves to ignore Angeball.
I've seen a couple of people say that either Frank's tactics are not working or the players aren't following them.
Do we have a player issue?
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If he's playing mostly players that have a defensive mindset we're going to see this sort of football.
If there is a player issue it's up to Frank to side line the players causing the issue and play the kids that will follow his instructions.
 
DubSpur said:
If he's playing mostly players that have a defensive mindset we're going to see this sort of football.
If there is a player issue it's up to Frank to side line the players causing the issue and play the kids that will follow his instructions.
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The issue is he seem to favour picking the most defensive option in every position. That’s a choice

I’m sure he will learn but I’d like it to be sooner rather than later
 
Benny_Lad said:
That is true to a degree. But we sat in against City and won 4-0. We had players capable of getting us out. Solanke and Deki to hold the ball. Madders to pass. Son and Johnson with pace. They still played deep but were dangerous on the break. (Relates to my above post).

On the flip side, the current attacking crop would be much more effective playing most of their football around the opponents box - like the 2nd half of the Man U game.
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Those players are really good, agreed. That result was also achieved under a different manager who carried a different intent and philosophy, so everything we did (whether people agreed with it or not) was purposeful.

I agree that the deep-set thing TF is doing does not suit the players we have. To get the most out of Xavi, Kudus, Muani and the like, we need to play a more possession-based game. I don't believe we will consistently, only when it is considered 'pragmatically correct' to do so.
 
thfcsteff said:
Those players are really good, agreed. That result was also achieved under a different manager who carried a different intent and philosophy, so everything we did (whether people agreed with it or not) was purposeful.

I agree that the deep-set thing TF is doing does not suit the players we have. To get the most out of Xavi, Kudus, Muani and the like, we need to play a more possession-based game. I don't believe we will consistently, only when it is considered 'pragmatically correct' to do so.
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I agree
But then you have to say… why did we spend £110m on Xavi and kudus to play hoof ball
Daft
But worryingly typical
 
Bedfordspurs said:
The issue is he seem to favour picking the most defensive option in every position. That’s a choice

I’m sure he will learn but I’d like it to be sooner rather than later
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This is only really true of CM as we're settling atm on Bentancur partnering Palinha, this allows 4 attackers on the pitch - however that's creating issues with losing the midfield battle.

Porro Udogie (now available) + 4 attackers is not on paper picking the defensive options every time.

We have to take in to account that we have CL football and need to rotate players, so there will be times when it is true, but that is as much about available options as anything else given the players missing.
 
billyiddo said:
This is only really true of CM as we're settling atm on Bentancur partnering Palinha, this allows 4 attackers on the pitch - however that's creating issues with losing the midfield battle.

Porro Udogie (now available) + 4 attackers is not on paper picking the defensive options every time.

We have to take in to account that we have CL football and need to rotate players, so there will be times when it is true, but that is as much about available options as anything else.
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He didn’t play Porro on Sunday
He played the more defensive (and bigger) spence
Has had played 3 attackers for more than one game don’t forget
Could be argued that playing 4-3-3 has been his set up in the main
 
Bedfordspurs said:
He didn’t play Porro on Sunday
He played the more defensive (and bigger) spence
Has had played 3 attackers for more than one game don’t forget
Could be argued that playing 4-3-3 has been his set up in the main
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Yes he did but that's away to arguably the best team in Europe and otherwise Porro been almost an ever present - you have framed the point as being the case everytime when that is just not the case.
 
In actually ok playing 4-3-3 away where we spect to have less of the ball. We have seen it can work

At home where we tend to have more of the ball… the set up that should be tried and stuck with is the one that means we keep more of the ball in the attacking third. One dm, one box to box and a creative player in that ten
 
billyiddo said:
Yes he did but that's away to arguably the best team in Europe and otherwise Porro been almost an ever present - you have framed the point as being the case everytime when that is just not the case.
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Porro has been
But so has the deadly duo in the middle. The constants in the team are that we have two players capable lf decent forward passes and strangely they are the RCB and RB.
Then in front we have a midfield pair who simply don’t pass forwards. Their purpose seems to be to be a block rather than a creative force (obviously that’s opinion based)
When you look at out pass map in games you can see that the deadly duo don’t pass into the attacking third
So they are by default defensive
And if you play 5 defenders and a keeper with them your playing very defensive option you can get away with
Porro playing wouldn’t fix the set up unless we change that midfield
 
Bedfordspurs said:
Porro has been
But so has the deadly duo in the middle. The constants in the team are that we have two players capable lf decent forward passes and strangely they are the RCB and RB.
Then in front we have a midfield pair who simply don’t pass forwards. Their purpose seems to be to be a block rather than a creative force (obviously that’s opinion based)
When you look at out pass map in games you can see that the deadly duo don’t pass into the attacking third
So they are by default defensive
And if you play 5 defenders and a keeper with them your playing very defensive option you can get away with
Porro playing wouldn’t fix the set up unless we change that midfield
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We don't typically play 5 defenders and set up how we did v Arsenal though - so again it's not the most defensive option every time. It was that time but that is the exception not the rule. So let's cut out repeating that non truth
 
According to the BBC site
The first game we played a different set up to 4-3-3 was Leeds away
Then we played its vs Villa at home
Everton away on paper
Saudi Sportswashing Machine in the cup
Copenhagen in the CL and also Sarr CM
United in the league with Sarr in midfield
Those games were slaps ones where we attacked and played decent football I’d say
We also changed to 4-2-3-1 second half vs Brighton (but I didn’t see that game)
 
billyiddo said:
This is only really true of CM as we're settling atm on Bentancur partnering Palinha, this allows 4 attackers on the pitch - however that's creating issues with losing the midfield battle.

Porro Udogie (now available) + 4 attackers is not on paper picking the defensive options every time.

We have to take in to account that we have CL football and need to rotate players, so there will be times when it is true, but that is as much about available options as anything else given the players missing.
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Agreed there's a need to rotate players, but it's not being done in midfield where the problem lies. Play one of Palhinha or Bentancur and then rotate between Sarr, Bergvall, Xavi, and Gray (or play Gray instead of Palhinha and Bentancur). That gives us a DM and much more going forward.
 
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