• Dear Guest, Please note that adult content is not permitted on this forum. We have had our Google ads disabled at times due to some posts that were found from some time ago. Please do not post adult content and if you see any already on the forum, please report the post so that we can deal with it. Adult content is allowed in the glory hole - you will have to request permission to access it. Thanks, scara

Thomas Frank - Head Coach

As long as the players follow what this man wants them to do, we're in for a good time. To hell with "the Tottenham way" and all that crap!
We now have a proper manager that knows what he's doing. He wants to play on the front foot, but he does not care one bit about how we win. He just tries to prepare the team in a way to have the best possible chance of winning. For him it doesn't matter one iota if we score by going route one, scoring from set piece or from 317 passes. It's about winning, and I fuxking love it!
If the players do what he says, we'll win more often than not, and won't lose many. That will go a long way to be competitive and challenge for the top.
 
As long as the players follow what this man wants them to do, we're in for a good time. To hell with "the Tottenham way" and all that crap!
We now have a proper manager that knows what he's doing. He wants to play on the front foot, but he does not care one bit about how we win. He just tries to prepare the team in a way to have the best possible chance of winning. For him it doesn't matter one iota if we score by going route one, scoring from set piece or from 317 passes. It's about winning, and I fuxking love it!
If the players do what he says, we'll win more often than not, and won't lose many. That will go a long way to be competitive and challenge for the top.

What's interesting is that 5 years ago all the teams playing the most attractive football would have been the ones winning the trophies. Now we've seen the shifts in City, Pool etc to a more direct style.

I have a feeling that they had to change because the officiating wasn't protecting the teams trying to play the football the right way. The dark arts were prevailing and the yellows and reds weren't appearing. So these teams just decided to ignore the strategy to play around teams with nice football and just get the ball forward. At the same time Howard Webb in his infinite wisdom let the PL become more physical. So the issue heightened.

I was massively critical of Ange trying to play 5-a-side from our goal to theirs. He neither had the players to do it or the understanding of the PL to know how to do it. Even he went to men behind the ball and counter attack to win the EL. He never got to the level of attention to detail on things like set pieces though. The irony of that was that he'd managed in the SPL.

My way of saying, I think you're spot on with your observation on how Frank is tackling the new challenge.
 
Find it interesting how little our more creative/attacking midfielders drop deeper (or deeper and centrally) when we struggle to progress the ball.

Kudus, Bergvall and Simons yesterday, all to me seem very much capable of doing that a bit more and I think it would help us retain and progress the ball in those phases of play were we struggle with those things.

Guessing Frank thinks we'll get more out of them being higher up when we progress the ball and having them further up to compete for second balls when we go long? Any other guesses/understandings?

Will be an interesting thing to follow tactically, particularly as Simons settles in further. Those phases remain one of our bigger issues imo, so hopefully some improvement/solutions can be found.
 
Find it interesting how little our more creative/attacking midfielders drop deeper (or deeper and centrally) when we struggle to progress the ball.

Kudus, Bergvall and Simons yesterday, all to me seem very much capable of doing that a bit more and I think it would help us retain and progress the ball in those phases of play were we struggle with those things.

Guessing Frank thinks we'll get more out of them being higher up when we progress the ball and having them further up to compete for second balls when we go long? Any other guesses/understandings?

Will be an interesting thing to follow tactically, particularly as Simons settles in further. Those phases remain one of our bigger issues imo, so hopefully some improvement/solutions can be found.

I guess I would get into the partnerships on the pitch. For me, I didn't see a partnership amongst Bents, Bergval and Sarr. I saw 3 individuals doing their jobs but not really working together in the way that we see Romero and VDV. That is a massive miss at the moment through the midfield.

It's the same as not having lefties on the left. Spence and Xavi didn't really work as a partnership in the same way we see with Porro and Kudus. If fit enough, I think there is an argument forming to re-instate Destiny to LB.

It's early season with new players and it definitely feels like all these understandings haven't emerged yet.
 
I guess I would get into the partnerships on the pitch. For me, I didn't see a partnership amongst Bents, Bergval and Sarr. I saw 3 individuals doing their jobs but not really working together in the way that we see Romero and VDV. That is a massive miss at the moment through the midfield.

It's the same as not having lefties on the left. Spence and Xavi didn't really work as a partnership in the same way we see with Porro and Kudus. If fit enough, I think there is an argument forming to re-instate Destiny to LB.

It's early season with new players and it definitely feels like all these understandings haven't emerged yet.
Probably a bit early season and needing time to develop an understanding. Simons in particularly who arrived late in the window.

Also think it's partly a lack of complimentary skills. Romero and VdV have that. Porro and Kudus have that. Most of our deep midfield combinations are a bit short on that.

Think similarly to you on the left side, I'm guessing Udogie is being eased in and we'll see him getting starts soon enough.
 
With the way we constantly gave the ball away last night, last season we would have been 3 or 4 down in those situations and although villareal came close a couple of times we still minimised shots on target to 0. That would have never happened last season. 4 clean sheets in 5 games.
 
With the way we constantly gave the ball away last night, last season we would have been 3 or 4 down in those situations and although villareal came close a couple of times we still minimised shots on target to 0. That would have never happened last season. 4 clean sheets in 5 games.
Part of that was us defending better, but a significant part of that was that they just didn't get their shots on target.
 
With the way we constantly gave the ball away last night, last season we would have been 3 or 4 down in those situations and although villareal came close a couple of times we still minimised shots on target to 0. That would have never happened last season. 4 clean sheets in 5 games.
No, Villarreal themselvesminimised their shots on target. We were fortunate in many ways, including VDVs foul at the end. If you want to bring Ange back into this if he was managing last night people on here would be going on about how poor the football was and how lucky we were.

Let's not try and dress it up differently because we have a different manager....
 
No, Villarreal themselvesminimised their shots on target. We were fortunate in many ways, including VDVs foul at the end. If you want to bring Ange back into this if he was managing last night people on here would be going on about how poor the football was and how lucky we were.

Let's not try and dress it up differently because we have a different manager....
How true
The football last night, from both sides, was incredibly poor. Substandard IMO for elite football
If you didn’t know it was CL you would guess it was a pre season game
 
No, Villarreal themselvesminimised their shots on target. We were fortunate in many ways, including VDVs foul at the end. If you want to bring Ange back into this if he was managing last night people on here would be going on about how poor the football was and how lucky we were.

Let's not try and dress it up differently because we have a different manager....

People on here are going on about how poor we were?
 
I think the outcomes/variations in our performances so far fall into 3 categories.

West Ham/Burnley. Playing teams that are genuinely poor (especially w.ham) Burnley had a plan but a containing plan... didn't come after us. Will be easy wins

Emirates Marketing Project/PSG...these are games when WE can set a very specific plan because the way these two teams play is very set. Suits us as Frank is a details man.

Bournemouth/Villarreal...these two teams have astute managers as well, who plan well, pressure us and make life uncomfortable. Their advantage over us is they are further down the development path with their manager. We may overcome this in due course as we develop relationships, partnerships, patterns, (as has been noted) and then by virtue of 'better' players, enjoy success versus these types.

Brighton on Saturday fall into this category....so another interesting (hopefully not a painful) watch.

Early days.
 
I think the outcomes/variations in our performances so far fall into 3 categories.

West Ham/Burnley. Playing teams that are genuinely poor (especially w.ham) Burnley had a plan but a containing plan... didn't come after us. Will be easy wins

Emirates Marketing Project/PSG...these are games when WE can set a very specific plan because the way these two teams play is very set. Suits us as Frank is a details man.

Bournemouth/Villarreal...these two teams have astute managers as well, who plan well, pressure us and make life uncomfortable. Their advantage over us is they are further down the development path with their manager. We may overcome this in due course as we develop relationships, partnerships, patterns, (as has been noted) and then by virtue of 'better' players, enjoy success versus these types.

Brighton on Saturday fall into this category....so another interesting (hopefully not a painful) watch.

Early days.
Good post.

For me Bournemouth are also in the "set up to contain" category. They do so differently, primarily with a high press. But more of a defensive plan rather than a plan to dominate possession and the game.

Hopefully those games against genuinely poor teams continue to be relatively comfortable. How we do against those good and very good teams (but not great/elite) teams will be the biggest difference maker most likely. We're in a good position to do well against really good teams (relatively speaking of course), as we've already shown. Quite a lot of teams will be in that category middle category, including Brighton.
 
Good post.

For me Bournemouth are also in the "set up to contain" category. They do so differently, primarily with a high press. But more of a defensive plan rather than a plan to dominate possession and the game.

Hopefully those games against genuinely poor teams continue to be relatively comfortable. How we do against those good and very good teams (but not great/elite) teams will be the biggest difference maker most likely. We're in a good position to do well against really good teams (relatively speaking of course), as we've already shown. Quite a lot of teams will be in that category middle category, including Brighton.
Villarreal really stood off is yesterday which I found odd
No pressing just shuffling
Brighton can be a real mixed bag but so can we
 
Villarreal really stood off is yesterday which I found odd
No pressing just shuffling
Brighton can be a real mixed bag but so can we
Think that suited us really well.

They pressed more from the start of the second half the way I saw it and we struggled to deal with that. Then they dropped off a bit and we imo regained a bit more control before they made another push towards the end.

How we deal with a good high press remains one of the issues Frank has to find ways of dealing with better (still very early, not a bad thing).
 
For me Bournemouth are also in the "set up to contain" category. They do so differently, primarily with a high press. But more of a defensive plan rather than a plan to dominate possession and the game.
Containing to me is pretty much playing in a low block with limited outlets, beyond set plays and stringing together 3 or 4 passes for a decent counter.

You could argue a high press is a type of containment, as you are containing your opponent in their defensive third. But the real aim of a high press is to force a mistake from your opponent nearer to their goal, and so, limiting the number of players they have to then rectify losing the ball to you. It's an offensive move by nature, due to a team commiting 3-4 players to the high press (ie further up the field), doesn't feel like containment at all.

It didn't feel or look like Bournemouth were containing us...it felt and looked like they were bearing down on us constantly and suffocating us. Flipping things to their advantage constantly. Winning possession and making good use of it.

Playing teams that do this extremely well is difficult. It's almost like you are better off NOT having the ball, and playing them at their own game.

Maybe we'll put them, Brighton, Fulham, Palace, Forest etc in a 'Smart' or 'PATW' (punching above their weight) category.
 
Back