Thomas Frank - Head Coach

[Mikey10]

Watch MoTD on iplayer mate and you'll see how he tweaked it and also you'll hear Conor Gallagher say that the manager inspired the comeback with his half time teamtalk.

Doesn’t fit the narrative, ergo can’t be right.

 

[thfcsteff]

Doesn’t fit the narrative, ergo can’t be right.

You’re like one of our glorious hounds with a bone!!!

 

[Legohamster]

Given Romeros latest post on social
Media, is it possible the players are looking half arsed because of the owners and wanting out rather than the manager?

Would explain why they looked massively tinkled off half the time

 

[Mr Gogolak]

Hmm, assuming that's true, would it suggest the club chose - and appointed - Frank knowing we had hardly any players to suit him?

Do you think Man Utd appointed Amorim knowing they had hardly any players to suit him?

That's just my two pence as a fan, and one who can't even go to the games (unfortunately). I believe a common mistake we all make in our everyday life is thinking a situation is the result of one cause only. It's usually a lot of small things that, added together, produce a particular outcome.

Maybe he said he'd set up differently because he really wanted the job. Maybe his assessment of the squad was completely off. Maybe they chose him because they thought he'd be easy to work with. Maybe I'm wrong (wouldn't be the first time) and we're having a tough time under Frank for another reason.

But I'd say this: either we have a fantastic squad of players who can thrive in any system or the sequence of Pochettino - Mourinho - Conte - Postecoglou - Frank suggests we don't really give too much thought about whether the players and the manager are a good match.

 

[Muttley]

Do you think Man Utd appointed Amorim knowing they had hardly any players to suit him?

That's just my two pence as a fan, and one who can't even go to the games (unfortunately). I believe a common mistake we all make in our everyday life is thinking a situation is the result of one cause only. It's usually a lot of small things that, added together, produce a particular outcome.

Maybe he said he'd set up differently because he really wanted the job. Maybe his assessment of the squad was completely off. Maybe they chose him because they thought he'd be easy to work with. Maybe I'm wrong (wouldn't be the first time) and we're having a tough time under Frank for another reason.

But I'd say this: either we have a fantastic squad of players who can thrive in any system or the sequence of Pochettino - Mourinho - Conte - Postecoglou - Frank suggests we don't really give too much thought about whether the players and the manager are a good match.

I think I've posted similar themes to this myself recently. Most players transition seamlessly.

I have a feeling it was @Raziel and I chatting about this the other day. If there is a concern, it is that we're not shortlisting managers who fit a criteria that match to our club football philosophy. I think @thfcsteff articulates this one better than me but if you want your club to player progress, front foot passing football on a high press then you create a shortlist of managers that fit that criteria. I wouldn't have had Frank in that bracket even though he clearly ticks other boxes that would be in the required criteria.

I reckon if we can get manager transitions done better then we wouldn't even worry about player transitions.

Our dilemma now is what to do with Frank. It's possible he convinced our board that his prior brand of football was out of necessity based on the parameters he worked in at Brentford. He may have convinced them that his intent was to start the way we've seen and then manage a transition into the Spurs way. Personally, I didn't like the way Ange did it. There was no transitional phases. He just said this is the way we're gonna play and put round pegs in squad holes. It failed and he did an about turn for the EL tactics. Frank is clearly managing this job in phases and we are starting to see his methods start to work in my opinion. Whether he keeps transitioning to the eventual end game of attractive football is up for debate, but I still have an open mind. I'm noticing that some fans theorise that he will always revert to his Brentford style tactics and won't be able to change these habits.

 

[Raziel]

Do you think Man Utd appointed Amorim knowing they had hardly any players to suit him?

If anyone at United's hierarchy thought their squad suited Amorim's 3atb system, they should be fired. They had general issues with aging back line and midfield.

I think I've posted similar themes to this myself recently. Most players transition seamlessly.

I have a feeling it was @Raziel and I chatting about this the other day. If there is a concern, it is that we're not shortlisting managers who fit a criteria that match to our club football philosophy. I think @thfcsteff articulates this one better than me but if you want your club to player progress, front foot passing football on a high press then you create a shortlist of managers that fit that criteria. I wouldn't have had Frank in that bracket even though he clearly ticks other boxes that would be in the required criteria.

I reckon if we can get manager transitions done better then we wouldn't even worry about player transitions.

Our dilemma now is what to do with Frank. It's possible he convinced our board that his prior brand of football was out of necessity based on the parameters he worked in at Brentford. He may have convinced them that his intent was to start the way we've seen and then manage a transition into the Spurs way. Personally, I didn't like the way Ange did it. There was no transitional phases. He just said this is the way we're gonna play and put round pegs in squad holes. It failed and he did an about turn for the EL tactics. Frank is clearly managing this job in phases and we are starting to see his methods start to work in my opinion. Whether he keeps transitioning to the eventual end game of attractive football is up for debate, but I still have an open mind. I'm noticing that some fans theorise that he will always revert to his Brentford style tactics and won't be able to change these habits.

I suspect we have abandoned Frank, the fans don't want him, he's continuously 1 bad result from everyone screaming for his head, we are languishing in the bottom half of table with 11 injuries to first team and we chose not only do Gallagher and 2 kids, surely we could have found a loan of some kind.

I'm sure the belief was he could step up, as you said, it's been covered before, numerous reasons why that assumption could make sense.

I think Frank has failed and will fail at this level because a core principle of his is "good enough", he walks away from some of our draws and for him its "good enough", sitting back on 1-0 leads and dealing with the risks/occasional loss of points from there is "good enough" for him, at a smaller club those good enoughs add up to an acceptable position at end of season, here it doesn't, risking more for 3 points is required.

I have family that support United, that we had very similar conversations re Amorim, he thought like some people here do re Frank, that Amorim was doing an ok job, that he needed time and a better squad. He called me after Carrick's last game to admit they should have gotten rid of Amorim months ago, it's not just the results (Carrick has matched Amorim's best run of results literally in his first 3 games), the football is completely transformed.