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Thomas Frank - Head Coach

Legohamster said:
These games are useful for him to see who he can trust, much how Mopo uses the first season to do the same

I don't think the squad has any bad eggs like Mopo did, just inconsistency
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Said somewhere else that in Poch's first season we were similarly plodding in our attacking /possession play and things didn't really click until the end of that season
 
When Maddison went down in that nothing pre-season game, that was a massive moment for our season.

Fitness is vital, I'm hoping all our players got through tonight, however much you might bemoan them, we are better with them.

E.g. Romero, hopefully it is just a precaution, e.g. VdV I hope all that charging and screaming and fighting and throwing himself into sprawling challenges has not disturbed those hamstrings.
 
clownfoot said:
I feel it’s incredibly knee jerk to be judging after so few games but it’s hard not to weigh it up in my head.

Pros - we’re hard to beat and resilient. The last 2 games getting late equalisers shows this. After the last 2 years the change in defence has been great to see (ignoring the horror show of the 2nd goal conceded tonight). Late equalisers and winners breed a belief we are always still in the game and is an excellent trait in a team, shows character

Cons - I personally can’t see the attacking plan other than crosses into the box at the minute? Appreciate the plan is to secure the defence first and then improve attack. City away we had a plan of how to stop them and it was a terrific performance, but when it comes to how we break down a team I just don’t see how we’re planning to do that at the minute. Would like to see players being braver personally. Too many safe sideways passes

Interested to hear other’s thoughts. I’m not complaining, losing one game so far this season is a brilliant start to Frank’s reign. Suppose the attacking issues can be caveated with the fact a number of first team players are missing through injury. Hopefully over the coming weeks we can start to see things clicking in the attacking third
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It's all a bit Mourinho so far. Solid defensively, good on the break in some games at least, low risk and set pieces.

Agree that at the moment it's difficult to see what the attacking plan is going to be. Probably because of players missing and those attacking plans not being worked on that much so far.

I'm not complaining either, though perhaps my Mourinho comparison is a bit inflammatory - it's not meant to be that. Have to work on some stuff first and then other stuff later. Frank is more on the conservative side so it's not surprising.

We need to see improvements over time in our possession game. I'm guessing Frank thinks the same. Personally I would like to see more risk at this stage, I think playing with this little risk on the ball comes with a different risk and we're seeing that in several games. But benefits to being more conservative as well. As long as there's improvement within some kind of reasonable time window I'm fine with that.
 
Gazza said:
Can we just give him a pass this season without pressure. He is a good manager and it will take time to get his ideas translating on to the pitch.
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There will always be pressure. But agree that we shouldn't put undue/unrealistic pressure and expectations on him.

If we see improvement across the season in our overall play and performances I'm quite happy with that. If at the end of the season we look back in a season where performances like some of those we've seen recently are the norm with little to no signs of improvement I don't think he gets a pass (not to say he should then get the sack, but more that the pressure will imo rightfully increase).
 
braineclipse said:
It's all a bit Mourinho so far. Solid defensively, good on the break in some games at least, low risk and set pieces.

Agree that at the moment it's difficult to see what the attacking plan is going to be. Probably because of players missing and those attacking plans not being worked on that much so far.

I'm not complaining either, though perhaps my Mourinho comparison is a bit inflammatory - it's not meant to be that. Have to work on some stuff first and then other stuff later. Frank is more on the conservative side so it's not surprising.

We need to see improvements over time in our possession game. I'm guessing Frank thinks the same. Personally I would like to see more risk at this stage, I think playing with this little risk on the ball comes with a different risk and we're seeing that in several games. But benefits to being more conservative as well. As long as there's improvement within some kind of reasonable time window I'm fine with that.
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The issues with playing with more risk, which seems to be a theme for forever is that when we do, we're unable to marry it with the defensive side of the game.

I remember us beimg great going forward under Jose until we capitulated in that West Ham game and he realised that we were unable to be expansive and yet solid. A succession of managers haven't managed to crack it.
 
thfcsteff said:
He has to be given some leeway!!!! As poor as that first 70 mins were, he has to be given time...
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Absolutely has to be given time to see one way or another. But at the same time it is ok to observe what you are seeing in front of your eyes, it's not as if anyone is yelling 'Frank out'. If we play well people are all too happy to talk about how great the Frank setup is, but a poor performance (of which there has been a few to be fair) and if you dare be critical it's 'He needs to be given time'. We have seen many managers start off well here and the masses get carried away about how good we are - it works both ways.

My reservations remain from what I said from pre announcement of him taking over - His playing style is not one particularly pleasing on the eye, no particular patterns of play just more direct and reliant on set pieces and this is exactly how we look to date - Take Kudus out of the team and our attack looks poor. And the fact he's never managed in Europe or won anything. I have no doubt that Glasner would have been on our shortlist, who has won a European trophy and the FA Cup, plays more attractive football and has worked wonders at a similar level club to Brentford. The only reason I can see Frank got the job ahead of him (yes he is a decent manager in his own right) was because of his relationship with Lange.

Very much behind Frank, just expressing what my concerns are that I hope over time will be eradicated.....
 
Legohamster said:
These games are useful for him to see who he can trust, much how Mopo used the first season to do the same

I don't think the squad has any bad eggs like Mopo did, just inconsistency
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I think its coaching deficit (past, not current). Defensive coaching is relatively easy. But attacking coaching is much harder - a lot of it is about synchronised movement.

We've come from a way of playing that didn't have this - we just flooded 8 players into the final third and tried to overwhelm them with numbers. Now we're trying to do it in a more effective way, but it takes time to perfect, especially with new faces in key positions.

Hopefully it will click soon, like happened during Poch's first autumn.
 
braineclipse said:
There will always be pressure. But agree that we shouldn't put undue/unrealistic pressure and expectations on him.

If we see improvement across the season in our overall play and performances I'm quite happy with that. If at the end of the season we look back in a season where performances like some of those we've seen recently are the norm with little to no signs of improvement I don't think he gets a pass (not to say he should then get the sack, but more that the pressure will imo rightfully increase).
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Too right. I was impressed with his management at Brentford and game management. So far it’s been a steady start and it’s ok. People need to relax a little and get some perspective
 
fernadez said:
The issues with playing with more risk, which seems to be a theme for forever is that when we do, we're unable to marry it with the defensive side of the game.

I remember us beimg great going forward under Jose until we capitulated in that West Ham game and he realised that we were unable to be expansive and yet solid. A succession of managers haven't managed to crack it.
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Yeah, will always be trade offs between attacking and defending.

Hope Frank can get that balance right and be the first one in quite a while to get us consistently good enough at both.
 
I am a firm believer of building from the back so I think Frank has done a good job so far.
Harder building the attack with the unexpected injuries to Maddison, Solanke and Kolo too.
Even harder when we have a few U-20s who are expected to start.
Hopefully Maddison and Kolo returns soon as I don't think Richy is the type of striker that TF likes - quick, strong and mobile
 
Gutter Boy said:
I think its coaching deficit (past, not current). Defensive coaching is relatively easy. But attacking coaching is much harder - a lot of it is about synchronised movement.

We've come from a way of playing that didn't have this - we just flooded 8 players into the final third and tried to overwhelm them with numbers. Now we're trying to do it in a more effective way, but it takes time to perfect, especially with new faces in key positions.

Hopefully it will click soon, like happened during Poch's first autumn.
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I don't think that is true. It was quite clear to me that we had a number of set patterns of attacking play previously, particularly ones that involved interchange between our fullbacks and Maddison, and we also looked to get the wide player in behind the last defender and hitting the far post where the opposite wide player was arriving.

Looking at last night's match in isolation, I think Frank had us way to deep and timid. We were set up in a low block. We then struggled to get past their press, which resulted in most of the game being played in our half of the pitch. I really don't see that we had any need to play low block against Bodo, even considering the fact that they have a plastic pitch. I think if we actually go out and try to beat a team like that then we do so. I get playing in a negative way away to Liverpool or Emirates Marketing Project or PSG but not against Bodo Glimt. Frank needs to be braver IMO, he's not at a small club like Brentford now.
 
Gazza said:
Can we just give him a pass this season without pressure. He is a good manager and it will take time to get his ideas translating on to the pitch.
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What a good idea, so many new players to bed in, different structure to our game, injurys to Kulu etc it was never going to be a easy job. I despair sometimes about some of our fans who start moaning about the season after so few games.Sad really.
 
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