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Thomas Frank - Head Coach

Way too early to be saying anything about Frank really, he's blooding the youngsters and juggling the Champions League. If he keeps giving the youngsters experience (though to be fair I'd much rather be seeing Gray and Bergvall than Odebert and Tel) I could accept top six for sure. Think people are getting upset with the idea we have to get Top 4, we don't and mostly likely won't.
 
harr1984 said:
Frank was not close to being my choice as manager, but he's here and believe he deserves a minimum of two years to show what he can do, as does any manager.

However, as you say this is modern day football and having seen our fans behaviour in the past he has no chance of that. Problem with playing a bland brand of football is that as soon as results turn you have very little to fall back on, and our home supporters are rather unforgiving and not known for their patience.....
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Totaly agree with the bolded bit for sure. He was not my choice either but he is here as the manager and i will support him. Anyone who thinks he is not the man after a dozen or so games needs to give their head a wobble. imo
 
Does anyone think that our players are tired already? We started each half against Villa with energy and high press but that didn’t last long each time before it dropped into tired and laboured play.
 
Mosquito_Coasting said:
Way too early to be saying anything about Frank really, he's blooding the youngsters and juggling the Champions League. If he keeps giving the youngsters experience (though to be fair I'd much rather be seeing Gray and Bergvall than Odebert and Tel) I could accept top six for sure. Think people are getting upset with the idea we have to get Top 4, we don't and mostly likely won't.
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How do we get UCL next season if we don’t finish top 4?
 
Mosquito_Coasting said:
Way too early to be saying anything about Frank really, he's blooding the youngsters and juggling the Champions League. If he keeps giving the youngsters experience (though to be fair I'd much rather be seeing Gray and Bergvall than Odebert and Tel) I could accept top six for sure. Think people are getting upset with the idea we have to get Top 4, we don't and mostly likely won't.
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We don't have a Top 4 squad so I don't know what people were really expecting.
 
El Dante said:
How do we get UCL next season if we don’t finish top 4?
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There are 4 better squads in England than ours, all with well set managers. Top 4 shouldn’t be an expectation from the fans, unfortunately it sounds like it is though reading the forum since the first few weeks of the season.

We can all want better and to win everything but we’ve got to be realistic with what we’ve got right now and what the competition looks like currently.
 
It’s crazy to think people are talking about top 4.

We carry little to no threat. Our prime attacking players will all be returning from long injuries and are unlikely to majorly influence this seasons position. We spent our chips on a position that already housed our top scorer from last season who now doesn’t play. (Kudus is a massive upgrade I know). But we left ourselves inept on the other side in doing this - and let go someone who whilst on the decline, was light years ahead of what’s replaced him (I know the time was right).

We’d have known about Solanke’s problems - hence the loan for RKM. Again - a shortcut option.

Saudi Sportswashing Machine didn’t p!ss about when Isak was off. They went and signed a forward who’s made an immediate impact. Every team bolstered their attack with 2,3,4 players. We effectively removed our 2 top scorers from last season and added Kudus + some 11th hour players that other teams didn’t want (truth will hurt).

I think we have a very competent team in defence and midfield. One that’s easily worthy of top 4-6 but our neglect on the attacking side of things and the way we have tried to do things on the cheap has left us in a position where we will be searching for goals for most of the season.

This isnt a doom and gloom post. I’ve just initiated my own reality check quite quickly. Worth others considering doing the same.
 
Benny_Lad said:
It’s crazy to think people are talking about top 4.

We carry little to no threat. Our prime attacking players will all be returning from long injuries and are unlikely to majorly influence this seasons position. We spent our chips on a position that already housed our top scorer from last season who now doesn’t play. (Kudus is a massive upgrade I know). But we left ourselves inept on the other side in doing this - and let go someone who whilst on the decline, was light years ahead of what’s replaced him (I know the time was right).

We’d have known about Solanke’s problems - hence the loan for RKM. Again - a shortcut option.

Saudi Sportswashing Machine didn’t p!ss about when Isak was off. They went and signed a forward who’s made an immediate impact. Every team bolstered their attack with 2,3,4 players. We effectively removed our 2 top scorers from last season and added Kudus + some 11th hour players that other teams didn’t want (truth will hurt).

I think we have a very competent team in defence and midfield. One that’s easily worthy of top 4-6 but our neglect on the attacking side of things and the way we have tried to do things on the cheap has left us in a position where we will be searching for goals for most of the season.

This isnt a doom and gloom post. I’ve just initiated my own reality check quite quickly. Worth others considering doing the same.
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I totally agree on your sentiment and current attacking quality, but I can't say I think we have 'done things on the cheap' in that area. Simons and Kudus both cost around £55m, Solanke also cost this amount. Tel and Odobert are young punts in the same way Bergvall, Gray etc were of which Tel was a £30m one, and that is not cheap for that type of signing.

We definitely need a quality LW and another CF - But Kudus is good and will be better if his decision making improves, it's likely Simons will turn out to be very good if used properly. At least one of Tel/Odobert will come good IMO. I agree that attack is a big problem right now, but I don't agree its because of doing it on the cheap - more so these are players that were investments as much for the future as for now, so will take a while for some of them to flourish. We need more 'ready now' quality really....
 
harr1984 said:
I totally agree on your sentiment and current attacking quality, but I can't say I think we have 'done things on the cheap' in that area. Simons and Kudus both cost around £55m, Solanke also cost this amount. Tel and Odobert are young punts in the same way Bergvall, Gray etc were of which Tel was a £30m one, and that is not cheap for that type of signing.

We definitely need a quality LW and another CF - But Kudus is good and will be better if his decision making improves, it's likely Simons will turn out to be very good if used properly. At least one of Tel/Odobert will come good IMO. I agree that attack is a big problem right now, but I don't agree its because of doing it on the cheap - more so these are players that were investments as much for the future as for now, so will take a while for some of them to flourish. We need more 'ready now' quality really....
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Agreed. We've certainly not done anything on the cheap. What I will say though is... the younger players I will give a pass to, but I'd argue Johnson Richie and Solanke were ready now players, and I've always worried that the £170m spent on them might not be value for money. They looked 'ready now' but also players already at their limits.
 
harr1984 said:
I totally agree on your sentiment and current attacking quality, but I can't say I think we have 'done things on the cheap' in that area. Simons and Kudus both cost around £55m, Solanke also cost this amount. Tel and Odobert are young punts in the same way Bergvall, Gray etc were of which Tel was a £30m one, and that is not cheap for that type of signing.

We definitely need a quality LW and another CF - But Kudus is good and will be better if his decision making improves, it's likely Simons will turn out to be very good if used properly. At least one of Tel/Odobert will come good IMO. I agree that attack is a big problem right now, but I don't agree its because of doing it on the cheap - more so these are players that were investments as much for the future as for now, so will take a while for some of them to flourish. We need more 'ready now' quality really....
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I think it's OK saying we need more quality. I guess that never stops being the case with any top club.

More than that though, I think Frank needs access to Solanke and Kulu. When I think back to the Ange teams, they were nothing without these 2 guys. Ange became so dependent on Solanke as his movement is top class and he is always making himself available for a pass. He drags people around to create space for other players, something Kulu was benefitting greatly from.

I also still feel the lopsidedness of the team. I like Spence but really want to see a leftie at LB. Spence isn't getting on the outside and is congesting Xavi's space. When you have a double pivot midfield you need wide full-backs. It's then the wide fullbacks that keep their markers occupied and create the space for the inside players to be creative. We are missing that at the moment on the left when Udogie isn't in the team.

Put Solanke dragging people around and creating space up top along with the full-backs doing the majority of their work in the wide space and I reckon this thing starts to look different. Creative space will then appear.
 
Muttley said:
I think it's OK saying we need more quality. I guess that never stops being the case with any top club.

More than that though, I think Frank needs access to Solanke and Kulu. When I think back to the Ange teams, they were nothing without these 2 guys. Ange became so dependent on Solanke as his movement is top class and he is always making himself available for a pass. He drags people around to create space for other players, something Kulu was benefitting greatly from.

I also still feel the lopsidedness of the team. I like Spence but really want to see a leftie at LB. Spence isn't getting on the outside and is congesting Xavi's space. When you have a double pivot midfield you need wide full-backs. It's then the wide fullbacks that keep their markers occupied and create the space for the inside players to be creative. We are missing that at the moment on the left when Udogie isn't in the team.

Put Solanke dragging people around and creating space up top along with the full-backs doing the majority of their work in the wide space and I reckon this thing starts to look different. Creative space will then appear.
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Signing a LB is getting more and more of a priority for me. I always felt we needed another left footed LB anyway, but with Udogie's seemingly constant injury issues it is even more of a requirement. At home at this stage I would consider playing VDV there for the time being when Udogie not available because natural width and balance is so vital when the onus is on us to attack. I appreciate not many will agree, but I would give it a go personally....
 
harr1984 said:
Signing a LB is getting more and more of a priority for me. I always felt we needed another left footed LB anyway, but with Udogie's seemingly constant injury issues it is even more of a requirement. At home at this stage I would consider playing VDV there for the time being when Udogie not available because natural width and balance is so vital when the onus is on us to attack. I appreciate not many will agree, but I would give it a go personally....
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I guess this one depends on Takai's readiness to be in the match day squad. We could end up with Romero, Danso and VDV on the pitch plus Udogie, Davies and Dragu not in the match day squad. That leaves Spence as the only senior sub, plsu the option of pulling Palhinha back into defence I guess. Your idea may not be palatable in a congested period of fixtures.
 
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