Saturday marks almost two years since that day Tottenham Hotspur In this match they had to face defeat 4-1 chelsea –Just then, Spurs fans chanted their manager’s name at the final whistle.
At the time, Tottenham supporters were “preferring Big Ange instead” because Ange Postecoglou’s high-line, high-risk style surprised attendees at its chaotic unpredictability.
Tottenham’s 1-0 defeat to Chelsea on Saturday was greeted with applause for Spurs manager Thomas Frank at both the halftime and fulltime whistles. their own players, mickey van de ven And Jade SpenceIt appeared that he ignored his request to remain on the pitch and headed straight down the tunnel.
As Frank applauded fans afterward, some people seemed to aim some choice words at him.
“Obviously all the players are disappointed,” Frank said. “They’ll want to perform well, they’ll want to win, want to perform well. I understand that. It’s important to be consistent in the good times and the bad times. That’s why I went to the fans. It’s more fun when we win, I can tell you that.”
, Man United get reality check at Forest as winning streak ends
, Rank: Top 50 players of the Premier League season so far
, Why so serious? Haaland scares locals as clown for Halloween
On the criticism of Van de Ven and Spence, Frank added: “I understand why you’re asking that question but I think it’s one of the smaller issues. We’ve got Micky Van de Ven and Jade Spence, both of them are doing everything they can, they’ve done very well so far this season. Everyone is disappointed. We do things differently so I don’t see it as a big problem.”
To give Postecoglou his due, the November 2023 game was his first defeat as Spurs boss, leaving them in second place Premier League table. Yet despite losing here, Tottenham remained in third place above Chelsea on goal difference.
Style is an important asset in these parts, and the biggest issue here was Spurs’ lack of attacking cohesion.
In these circumstances it would be customary to assume he had run out of ideas, but what is worrying for Frank is that he didn’t have very many to begin with.
The importance of the “expected goals” statistic is sometimes overstated, but no one can argue with the clear picture painted here: Spurs’ xG of 0.05 was the lowest ever in a Premier League game since records began, dating back to 504 games in the 2012–13 season.
“I would say it definitely hurt in a big way,” Frank said. “I’ve never been in charge of a team that has scored so little in a game. Never. So, definitely I’ll look at what we’re doing. That’s one thing. Everything is a little bit connected.”
1:09
Did Thomas Frank make a mistake in Spurs vs Chelsea?
Janusz Michalik has reacted to Tottenham’s “disappointing” performance during their 1-0 defeat to Chelsea in the Premier League.
Spurs conceded three shots in the match joao pedroScored the winner in the 34th minute after two mistakes and being indebted to the goalkeeper while playing from behind Guglielmo Vicario Many excellent saves were made to keep the score low. Option jamie gittens Furious at a brilliant late chance which might have given the scoreline the slant Chelsea deserved.
There are underlying causes and mitigating factors for the hostility experienced by Frank.
Despite a terrific league campaign after winning the Europa League in May to give the club its first trophy in 17 years, some fans did not want Postecoglou to depart after last season. And it is for this reason that if Postecoglou’s shift towards an extreme playing style was marked, the return trip cannot be considered without complications.
Furthermore, Frank has been open about the lack of fluidity currently present at Spurs, which is partly due to injuries to key players james madison, dominic solanke And Dejan Kulusevski But he also had issues with the summer transfer window which caused him to miss out Morgan Gibbs-White And Eberechi Eze before receiving xavi simmons And randall kolo muani The window was late.
They became even more distraught because of the defeat. lukas bergvall He was forced to withdraw due to concussion protocol after just seven minutes. Bergvall wanted to continue but fumbled in fashion on the touchline and the right decision was quickly made.
Simmons arrives to resume the challenge he has struggled with: injecting creativity into a team lacking inspiration.
And Frank inherits a troubling domestic record that’s more than a year old. Spurs have played 20 league games so far at this magnificent home stadium and won only four.
Here his efforts extended to removing the usual 10-minute pre-match video montage and allowing the crowd to organically build atmosphere. This did not produce the desired result as what Spurs lacked in open play they made up for with some dreadful set-piece delivery.
The increasing frustration in the second half can be portrayed through a series of deadlocked situations. at 64 minutes, pedro porro Played a free kick to Mohammed Qudus who played it back. Another pass went wide and the ball went out of play. Show anger in the stands.
Five minutes later, Poro scored a direct free kick robert sanchez‘Weapon. More anger. On 87 minutes, Qudus kicked a corner which Sanchez easily claimed. Another chance to play forward came when Vicario played it to Spence, who played it back to Vicario and the Italian passed the ball to Sanchez. And on the final play of the game, Spence lofted it aimlessly to Sanchez for the rebound.
The reproaches were deafening. Without late chairman Daniel Levy to act as the focal point for such fury – which he did for so many years – fans took aim at the team and Frank.
Caicedo once again excelled for Chelsea and won the ball twice pedrogoal, Maresca later declared that “he and [Manchester City‘s] Rodri Two of the best defensive midfielders in the world at the moment. The Blues now sit fourth and Caicedo’s contribution to that achievement has been profound.
Over the years Chelsea teams came to the old White Hart Lane and won so often that they nicknamed it ‘Three Point Lane’. This, again, is in some ways a familiar sentiment but one Spurs should be missing as they aim to compete for the biggest prizes on a yearly basis.
It now fell to Frank to pave the way to that place and it was a strange early memory of long-standing disappointment after years of failure.
