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Thomas Frank - Head Coach

Unfortunately, 3 of that Top 5 are also still in the Champions League. If we manage to get to the Last 16 or 1/4 final, you can guarantee we are pulling one of them, and I doubt we are beating any of them over 3 legs
yep can hope we don't meet them til the semis

if i were TF, I would try to emulate Ange and prioritise the CL
 
I just think that most great players transcend different tactical systems. Romero has played well in Conte's 3-4-3. He then transitioned into Ange's high back line / offside trap based defence and then finally into Frank's more orthodox approach. I've not really see him struggle but have made the statement that he is best suited to Frank's system. That isn't dissimilar to the one he won the world cup in. I guess my point is that if you buy the quality of player in the first place then it's just so much easier to transition. Perhaps you find your diversity of player in that last 10-20% of player choice.

As for Vic, I don't think he kicks the ball well in any system. Even in Frank's system where he is allowed to put his foot through it he keeps slicing it and even misses the entire pitch at times. He's definitely not intricate enough to play in a Pep system either. Most of all he is just not good with a moving ball. I think there will be GK's out there that can command their box, use their feet and have the shot stopping and aerial abilities. Not sure it's our first priority though and I would always prioritise quality over quantity when developing a squad. I'd happily just see us buy one or two great 1st team players each window. Buying 5 or 6 has never worked.
I agree and if we can sign great players who are well rounded and can do well in multiple systems do that. I think it opens up more options in the transfer market if we can know in broad terms at least how we're likely to play in the next 5 years.

I think that also makes it easier to prioritise well. Right now, if we're going to keep playing a similar style to now I think the easiest "fix" would be a really good target man/holdup player up front. That nay not be the priority of another manager if Frank is replaced. Should we then prioritise that? (assuming of course that Frank and the club see that fix the way I see it, but even if that's not the case there will imo be other situations like that)

I also think that's useful with regards to signing and developing younger players. We have some really technically gifted young players now, the way to develop them imo is with a style that's set up to get the best out of players like that.
 
If we had won all the games you suggested we'd be 2nd and you think you're expectations are not too high? You're delusional. 🤣

Literally the next paragraph in the same post after the stuff you bolded:

"You will never get perfect results but convert 2-3 of those results (still brick the bed on 4) and we would be in a position aligned with your "unrealistic" expectations."
 
Here's a truth.
When it was put to TF post-Villa that our 'last chance of silverware' had gone, he reacted with grudging agreement.
We are still in the Champions League, and as it sits, our potential play-off game would be quite winnable over 2 legs (Quarabag is currently one of them I was told by someone who had put the work in to figure it out).

I am not an idiot, and honestly have to say we would need a shock in excess of Greece winning the Euros to win the CL.
But we ARE still in it.
And as such, the first thing I want the manager to say is that we are still in it!
Of course, he does not actually see us as a Champions League club.
Philosophically he might be right, however we factually are one, and also factually hold a decent record in this season's competition.
Personally, I think getting to QF would be something else (it would also improve us in co-efficiency I think as well as income, etc), but we must never forget that we got to a CL Final with Winks and Sissoko in midfield and our star striker injured for several key matches.
Again, I want our manager to believe we can do anything in a competition until we are actually knocked out of it.
 
Not sure if you saw my other post or not but I just think saying ‘reality is we finished 17th last season’ just doesn’t cut it. You have to mention the Europa win, because it’s inextricably linked. We were supposedly favourites and should have walked that competition due to the quality of our squad. So let’s take the trophy out of it. Let’s average out last season and say that a 17th league finish and a Europa trophy equals a 10th place league finish and no trophy. Is that fair?

In that instance, Frank is then taking over a team that routinely qualifies for Europe through the league but slipped the season before due to an unprecedented injury crisis. I wouldn’t think getting us from 10th into genuinely competing for the European spots again would be that hard, or that much progress. It’s just getting us back to by and large where we always have been.

And it’s not me saying I expect us to compete on all fronts, it’s the club! They made a change because they believed it would give them the best possible chance of competing on multiple fronts in the *coming season* and beyond. They were not expecting this to be a year of absolutely nothing but setting foundations.

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No, it's not fair to say a Europa League win and 17th in the league equals to 10th in the league. By that logic teams that won a cup and got relegated shouldn't have got relegated. The standard of team that we played in the Europa for the most part was lower than the majority of teams in the league.

Do you really give that much weight to club statements. They are always going to put in high expectations. Can you imagine the backlash if they stated that they think it will take at least a couple of seasons for us to be competing again?
 
No, it's not fair to say a Europa League win and 17th in the league equals to 10th in the league. By that logic teams that won a cup and got relegated shouldn't have got relegated. The standard of team that we played in the Europa for the most part was lower than the majority of teams in the league.

Do you really give that much weight to club statements. They are always going to put in high expectations. Can you imagine the backlash if they stated that they think it will take at least a couple of seasons for us to be competing again?
It certainly doesn’t equal 10th in the league…. It is in fact better than anything other than winning the league
 
Literally the next paragraph in the same post after the stuff you bolded:

"You will never get perfect results but convert 2-3 of those results (still brick the bed on 4) and we would be in a position aligned with your "unrealistic" expectations."
Its deluded to expect to win all of those games and thats what he said. He actually expects to win them all but accepts that you won't get perfect results. Thats different to saying I expect to win 3 out of 4 home games.
 
yep can hope we don't meet them til the semis

if i were TF, I would try to emulate Ange and prioritise the CL
If we get 4 pts or more from West Ham and Burnley I am with you on that, 1pt or 2pts and we are on the brink of the relegation battle.

Lose both and we are in it and will have to prioritise PL safety over CL Progression
 
Someone uttered a phrase at the game on Saturday that I’ve been saying for weeks “this is like watching us in the 90s”. The football is awful and I don’t think Frank is a good fit for the role and for the club. But the players are poor. Our squad is top half/top 8 level at best and that won’t change without heavy investment and good recruitment. I genuinely fear we could go down in the next 2-3 seasons if the recruitment isn’t significantly better than it has been in the last 4-5 years.
 
No, it's not fair to say a Europa League win and 17th in the league equals to 10th in the league. By that logic teams that won a cup and got relegated shouldn't have got relegated. The standard of team that we played in the Europa for the most part was lower than the majority of teams in the league.

Do you really give that much weight to club statements. They are always going to put in high expectations. Can you imagine the backlash if they stated that they think it will take at least a couple of seasons for us to be competing again?

It seems like you’re suggesting that last season we were basically Wigan. A bad team that flukes a cup win and struggles in the League, which shows their true level. And if that’s the case we can agree to disagree because I just don’t think that’s it personally. I think we were a good team, deservedly seen as one of the favourites for the Europa, who fell well below our usual station due to unprecedented injuries.

The reason I say we should be able to equal it out to roughly a 10th place performance in the league is because without the Europa, it’s probably where we would have ended up. Unless you think we would have finished 17th with no European football too? In which case I would just massively disagree again.

I’m not sure taking the club’s statement at face value is putting that much weight on it. I’m just calling it like I see it. They sacked manager who won a trophy and said it was a really hard, but right decision to do it. Not the easy decision. Because it would give us the best chance of competing this coming season. They don’t need to say this coming season. They could say we’re at the start of an exciting long term project and they’ve hired a man who’s proven over a course of years to build a culture and elevate a club.

I don’t think for one moment they’d be happy if we finish outside of the European places this year because we’ve set foundations or because we finished 17th last year. I simply don’t believe they thought they’d be punting a season away by sacking Ange and appointing Frank. I think they genuinely thought it was the right appointment to at least get us back to our average normal level, and would then think about how to over perform that level in the following seasons to come.
 
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