Thomas Frank - Head Coach

[thfcsteff]

LOL is right.

The narrative from those who didn’t want Ange sacked is hilarious. We are moving forwards! Let it go

I suppose it’s how modern life works. Comparisons all the time. No two situations share all the same charactaristics, so it all becomes an ‘academic ramble’. We’re all guilty from time to time, me most certainly included!

 

[thfcsteff]

is there a bit of a tendency just to look to at one-off games like Forest and draw sweeping conclusions? You wouldn’t want Dyche over Frank or you wouldn’t identify Dyche as a manager of quality who could lead a top club. If you agree, then it’s just about giving him enough time.

Frank is great for people who like reactive, pragmatic coaches. He keeps on saying (when asked about style and approach) that no two games are the same, suggesting he has a different approach for each game tailored to what he expects to be dealing with. If you like proactive coaches, those who predominantly look to impress their identity on matches -with respectful observation of where the oppos threats are - then this is going to be a hard journey.

 

[metalgear]

Ange’s football was never going to work here. He wasn’t doing anything novel or unique — I’ve seen the same ideas many times — and it requires key components he was simply never going to get at Spurs. A high-pressure, heavy-possession, intricate-passing system demands a calibre of player that just isn’t present in this squad.

Even last season I said we were basically trying to play Barcelona football with far inferior players. Give Ange City’s squad or Klopp’s Liverpool and I think he’d do very well. Those players have, at a minimum, the technique required to attempt his system, which realistically needs the very best of the elite to function at the highest level. Instead, he was trying to play intricate short-passing football with players like Johnson, Richarlison and Solanke. That was never going to work. The level of technique, intelligence and finesse simply isn’t there — and even Barcelona under Flick suffer huge exposure when their finishing drops, despite being man-to-man levels better than we are.

So for me, it wasn’t more depth that Ange needed. His starting XI was nowhere near what his system required. It needed a massive overhaul, with technically adept players across most starting positions. That was never going to happen, so what was actually required was an adaptation of his ideals. In truth, the only players who matched his requirements were Romero and VDV.

That’s why I’m not surprised by the lack of quality this season — it’s always been there. It's why you don’t see me tearing my hair out or overly bemoaning Frank yet, because what I’m seeing broadly matches what I’ve always thought. Ange’s kamikaze system simply masked those issues in an attacking sense. Without Kane and Son, we’re distinctly meh.

I understand the glass-half-full argument that things can just click, but ultimately it always comes down to player quality. A great coach can coax extraordinary things out of players with potential, but that baseline quality has to exist in the first place. No coach is turning Lamela into Messi or Dawson into Baresi.

100% with you.

Ange was getting bamboozled tactically and could not find a way out.

Frank has already implemented some very logical changes. However there is still a performance gap. I am unsure how much of it is coaching and how much of it is players but it is clear that too many players are weak by EPL top 5 standards - Vicario, Porro, Johnson, Richarlison, Odobert, Simons - many are first eleven candidates and in a team like Liverpool you have only 1 (wirtz). For once I see NO FEAR from oppoents when they play us. They just know how to bully our players in every game.

 

[metalgear]

Frank is great for people who like reactive, pragmatic coaches. He keeps on saying (when asked about style and approach) that no two games are the same, suggesting he has a different approach for each game tailored to what he expects to be dealing with. If you like proactive coaches, those who predominantly look to impress their identity on matches -with respectful observation of where the oppos threats are - then this is going to be a hard journey.

well the opposite is nuno or conte or mourinho who have distinct styles and systems.
while frank says the team is in transition, i see Frank himself as being in transition.
we can't attract good players until we are comfortably top ten, and we can't attract the best players until we are comfortably top 6.

so we need frank now to steady the ship - consolidate the playing identity (that ange destroyed) and hope the injury issues abate and young ones step up.

 

[thfcsteff]

As well as probably being the best team in the competition, we had also given up competing in our domestic league at the business end of the EL. That scenario is not acceptable this season. We're expected to be competitive in both the League and CL

I will boldly predict that if somehow Thomas’ Tottenham find themselves in the last 8 of the CL, yet 15th or 16th in the PL but with a 15 point cushion between us and the bottom three, absolutely no-one would have a single issue with trying the same thing twice, especially with a manager that puts huge stock in ‘per game per opponent’ specialist preparation.
I am not, BTW, saying that I disagree with you. It’s just lightning in a bottle malarky!

(Caveat - I am not mad enough to believe that this scenario could happen…or could it?)