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***Spurs vs West Ham Untd***, PL, 13th September 2025 at The London Stadium

harr1984 said:
This is something that will be underplayed and barely get mentioned whilst winning and in the honeymoon stage of Frank. But when we go through a bad patch this will get mentioned more.

Frank has always been about being solid and has a big focus on gaining advantages from set pieces. Nothing wrong with that, but if you're expecting to see great football I think people are going to be disappointed. Yes we have superior players to Brentford but his style is not going to change just because of having better players. And yes we can all sit here and say 'It doesn't matter, after the last manager I just want to see my team being sold' etc etc but I've seen/ heard it all before when the likes of Conte was in charge.

All seems great until results don't come, which will happen at some point and then let's see how great our super non fickle patient fanbase is. Season two is always the test for our mangers, we've had several false dawns. But credit to Frank for all the work he's done to date....
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Some fair and valid points here. I don’t think it’s a secret that we don’t create a lorry load of chances from open play as Paul Merson would say. Hopefully that should improve with the new additions when they settle in and when we get the likes of Kulu and Maddison back.
 
billyiddo said:
I think it's fair to say we've struggled to create from open play these past couple of games - far too early to be concerned about it though imv and it will be interesting to see how things develop there over the course of the season. New signings will help, as will returning players from injury. Carrying a genuine threat at set pieces will help in the meantime as will being solid at the back.
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Hmmm, not sure I understand. As far as my memory goes, all three goals against Burnley were open play goals. Both against City were as well. 2 out of 3 today. 7 out of 8 goals from open play in our first 4 games. Is there some chances created from open play stat that isnt good?
 
harr1984 said:
This is something that will be underplayed and barely get mentioned whilst winning and in the honeymoon stage of Frank. But when we go through a bad patch this will get mentioned more.

Frank has always been about being solid and has a big focus on gaining advantages from set pieces. Nothing wrong with that, but if you're expecting to see great football I think people are going to be disappointed. Yes we have superior players to Brentford but his style is not going to change just because of having better players. And yes we can all sit here and say 'It doesn't matter, after the last manager I just want to see my team being sold' etc etc but I've seen/ heard it all before when the likes of Conte was in charge.

All seems great until results don't come, which will happen at some point and then let's see how great our super non fickle patient fanbase is. Season two is always the test for our mangers, we've had several false dawns. But credit to Frank for all the work he's done to date....
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He's pragmatic and will adjust the team to get a result. Over time and as the team beds in we'll see more football being played against the lower teams. Brentford were more attacking in the championship as they were the better team in a large amount of games.
 
harr1984 said:
This is something that will be underplayed and barely get mentioned whilst winning and in the honeymoon stage of Frank. But when we go through a bad patch this will get mentioned more.

Frank has always been about being solid and has a big focus on gaining advantages from set pieces. Nothing wrong with that, but if you're expecting to see great football I think people are going to be disappointed. Yes we have superior players to Brentford but his style is not going to change just because of having better players. And yes we can all sit here and say 'It doesn't matter, after the last manager I just want to see my team being sold' etc etc but I've seen/ heard it all before when the likes of Conte was in charge.

All seems great until results don't come, which will happen at some point and then let's see how great our super non fickle patient fanbase is. Season two is always the test for our mangers, we've had several false dawns. But credit to Frank for all the work he's done to date....
Click to expand...

Not sure i agree with the conclusion on Frank in the second paragraph - Frank's teams have seemingly always carried a threat from open play and his various front lines have always been effective despite there being quite a lot of turnover in that area (showing he can adapt rather than rely on certain players) - yes he focuses on being solid and set pieces but I don't think that's the extent of it, more that you can see results in those areas quicker (or he is choosing to focus on those areas first as a foundation to build on)
 
Daisuk said:
Hmmm, not sure I understand. As far as my memory goes, all three goals against Burnley were open play goals. Both against City were as well. 2 out of 3 today. 7 out of 8 goals from open play in our first 4 games. Is there some chances created from open play stat that isnt good?
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Well Burnley are a recently promoted team and City is the type of game Frank will have a counter-plan in place for - I'm more interested in the games where we should be seen as the favourites for (but the opponents are more PL tested than the likes of Burnley)
 
billyiddo said:
Not sure i agree with the conclusion on Frank in the second paragraph - Frank's teams have seemingly always carried a threat from open play and his various front lines have always been effective despite there being quite a lot of turnover in that area (showing he can adapt rather than rely on certain players) - yes he focuses on being solid and set pieces but I don't think that's the extent of it, more that you can see results in those areas quicker (or he is choosing to focus on those areas first as a foundation to build on)
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Sure, I probably sold him short there and the accurate word you used there is effective, that's exactly what it is. I'm not fussed either way tbh especially this season, next season is where the real challenges will lie.

But our squad depth looks far better this season, to think we still have Kulu (and Maddison at some point) to come back is great. Despite the Bournemouth blip Frank has made a very encouraging start, now the CL kicks off will be interesting to see how he copes with his first European adventure....
 
billyiddo said:
Well Burnley are a recently promoted team and City is the type of game Frank will have a counter-plan in place for - I'm more interested in the games where we should be seen as the favourites for (but the opponents are more PL tested than the likes of Burnley)
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Burnley were a defensive powerhouse in the Championship last season though, but I get your point. We were really poor against Bournemouth. I thought we created quite a bit yesterday - we just shut down shop after we got that third goal and cruised in to rest legs for Tuesday. But yes, I agree, it will be interesting to see.
 
harr1984 said:
Sure, I probably sold him short there and the accurate word you used there is effective, that's exactly what it is. I'm not fussed either way tbh especially this season, next season is where the real challenges will lie.

But our squad depth looks far better this season, to think we still have Kulu (and Maddison at some point) to come back is great. Despite the Bournemouth blip Frank has made a very encouraging start, now the CL kicks off will be interesting to see how he copes with his first European adventure....
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Next weekend is a much bigger test for sure on his squad management.

Brighton are several steps up from this lot.
 
thfcsteff said:
It's yet another front three we've started who've never played together with each other, let alone that midfield. I think improvement would be impossible not to occur, and this was a great performance.
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Depends how good/bad West Ham are for me.

For where we are it's a fine, good, decent performance in that first half for me. Nothing spectacular, but good and solid. That's not a bad thing.
 
billyiddo said:
Not sure i agree with the conclusion on Frank in the second paragraph - Frank's teams have seemingly always carried a threat from open play and his various front lines have always been effective despite there being quite a lot of turnover in that area (showing he can adapt rather than rely on certain players) - yes he focuses on being solid and set pieces but I don't think that's the extent of it, more that you can see results in those areas quicker (or he is choosing to focus on those areas first as a foundation to build on)
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Agreed. Will be interesting to see what happens with that over a bit of time.

At this point arguably more of an unknown than anything. But I think it's fair to expect improvement over time from here, but not sure about the time frame. He's gotten some really good fundamentals in place. More to come.
billyiddo said:
Well Burnley are a recently promoted team and City is the type of game Frank will have a counter-plan in place for - I'm more interested in the games where we should be seen as the favourites for (but the opponents are more PL tested than the likes of Burnley)
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Agree with this too. City was more counter attacking, high turnovers IIRC. Great when we can do that, but won't always be an option.

Consistently creating enough chances against those solid, but not great PL teams is something that will typically take time (if it happens), but also really important.
 
Cba with a full summary but main points -

Bergvall's will be one of my favourite goals of the season.

Watching Spurs with Palhinha in the side makes the process a lot less stressful.

It helps when the opposition self destructs but you can only beat who is in front of you.

So nice to have a strong bench long may it continue.
 
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