- 7 weeks ago
Despite being 3rd in the Premier League, it’s been a weird start for Thomas Frank at Tottenham. Big wins over Man City and Everton have masked a disappointing run at home, with fans questioning if their new manager has what it takes to manage a team that needs to play on the front foot. Adam Clery looks at what isn’t quite clicking at Spurs, and what they can do about it.
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00:00Right, hello everybody, welcome to the Adam Cleary Football Channel.
00:03If I sound weird and different, it's because I'm deathly ill, but whatever, we'll just get on with it.
00:07So Tottenham Hotspur, right?
00:09There are nine Premier League games into life under Thomas Frank.
00:12They sit third in the table.
00:13They've got the second best goal difference, the joint best attack, the second best defence.
00:18You would think it's all going pretty well, but if you actually ask any Tottenham fans
00:24who've had to sit and watch them this season, they will make the following noise.
00:30And that is because, despite the results, a number of the performances have been very frustrating to watch.
00:36In particular, the home games, where they got beat off Bournemouth, they got beat off Villa,
00:40and they only just scraped a point when they played Wolves.
00:44And the problem, right, is Thomas Frank.
00:47And I know that's not how YouTube's supposed to work.
00:50I'm supposed to drag these things out across the video to increase the run time, but it's all him.
00:55He's the problem.
00:55And specifically because of stuff like this.
00:58And you are looking at a typical Tottenham midfield pass map.
01:02This one in particular from the defeat to Aston Villa.
01:05And we will have a proper look at it later in the video.
01:07I'll actually explain what it means and stuff.
01:09But just as an appetiser for the rest of this, right, just press your face right up against the screen.
01:15Really have a good squint.
01:16And you try and tell me how many of these passes look like they're going forwards.
01:21There's like four, maybe five across 90 minutes.
01:25And only two of them, you would say, end up in an area that's going to bother the opposition even
01:29a little bit.
01:30And that is astonishingly impotent midfield play for a supposedly good Premier League side.
01:36And as I say, the reason for that is Thomas Frank.
01:39So let's have a look at how he has created this problem for himself.
01:43But also, because it's not all bad here, right, how he's trying to fix it.
01:50So first up, little disclaimer for you, right?
01:53I love Thomas Frank.
01:55I think he's a brilliant manager.
01:56I'm a huge fan.
01:57I think in the long run, he'll be very, very good for Tottenham.
02:00But it is clear that he is finding the step up from Brentford a bit of a challenge.
02:06And that is because while his Brentford side were adaptable and pragmatic,
02:10and that's what got him the Tottenham job,
02:12they were, first and foremost, always hard to beat.
02:15Last season, their ex-G against was closer to Palace, to Forest, to Villa
02:20than it was to the relegated teams or, lol, Tottenham.
02:24And just to massively oversimplify all of this,
02:26the average distance they concede shots from was betted only by Arsenal and Liverpool.
02:32Which basically means they were one of the three toughest nuts to crack in the Premier League.
02:38They defended the area around the 18-yard box really well.
02:41They stopped teams getting in behind them.
02:43So they forced a lot of sides to shoot from distance, hence that number being high.
02:48But Tottenham last season, you'll no doubt remember,
02:51were about as tough to crack as the parental password on your dad's Skybox.
02:58It's 5555, isn't it?
02:59It's always 5555 because they don't know how to change it.
03:02You do not need me to remind you the teams played through the very centre of Spurs
03:07with consummate ease last season.
03:09They got so badly bullied in their own build-up phase that it effectively became meme.
03:14You could get at Tottenham very effectively when they had the ball at the back.
03:19And you could also get through the middle of them very easily when you yourself had the ball.
03:24And fixing this was Thomas Frank's number one job.
03:28And to give him his due, he has done.
03:31Tottenham are, again, comparable to the newly promoted teams for XG Against.
03:35But this season, that's because Leeds and Sunderland are good.
03:38Like, that's a compliment.
03:39They're down from 1.67 per 90 to 1.19.
03:44Which, yes, alright, it's a decimal point.
03:46You're not some sort of long division nerd.
03:48That doesn't sound very exciting.
03:49But in real terms, that is like a 35 to 40% drop in the quality of chances they're giving
03:56away every single game.
03:58When you put it that way, that's a massive improvement to have made this quickly.
04:03Improving how your team defends by, like, over a third with almost exactly the same players,
04:08I think, is quite good.
04:11I think well done him.
04:12And the aforementioned average shot distance is now the third best in the league.
04:17So, almost overnight, Thomas Frank has taken Ange Postacoglu's soft-touch, gooey, caramel centre Tottenham Hotspur
04:25and turned them into his, well, you can kick me in the nuts if you want, but I'm wearing a
04:31metal cup,
04:32Brentford.
04:33And that's good.
04:34But while it is good, it is also, coincidentally, their entire problem.
04:39Because being resolute and hard to beat is great, but if you want to be the Tottenham manager, that's not
04:45enough.
04:45There are a number of games where you are expected to be very dominant instead.
04:50They got off to a flyer against Burnley, but since then, every game in which they've gone in as clear
04:55favourites,
04:56who have the vast majority of possession, they have really struggled.
05:00Bournemouth were happy to sit off and they created nothing.
05:02Wolves just let them have the ball and they were really unlucky not to get all three points.
05:06Villa are famously nodding about possession and mugged them in broad daylight.
05:10And all of these games were at home where both your fans and the expectation is.
05:17Like, the hardest part of managing a big club, right, is not the big games.
05:23You have those at every level.
05:25You will be used to them.
05:26The hardest part is acting like a big club.
05:30And in order to do that, Thomas Frank is having to unlearn a lot of what he did at Brentford.
05:35So, if you will rejoin me on the passing maps, right, these are your two central midfielders, right,
05:41your two pivots.
05:43Undeniably, the two most important players in a game when you are going to be on top.
05:49They will see the ball more than anybody else.
05:51They are responsible for having it at the back.
05:53They are responsible for moving you up the pitch.
05:56They are responsible for you being set right.
05:58So, if you do lose it, you can recover quickly.
06:00Now, Thomas Frank has shifted between a 4-2-3-1 and a 4-3-3 in certain games this
06:07season.
06:07But regardless, when Spurs do have it at the back, when they are in possession,
06:11it is always a pivot to here, usually of Benton Kerr and Paulinia.
06:17And these are two lads you would have absolutely loved to have at Brentford.
06:22They are professional.
06:22They are reliable.
06:23They are robust.
06:24You can see here they're very comfortable with the ball.
06:27They'll circulate around and keep possession for you really, really well.
06:31But just to pick off that scab from the intro, right,
06:34you will also see they do not move the ball forward.
06:39And so, time and time again this season,
06:41in games where Tottenham have had most of the ball where they've been in charge,
06:45they end up in one of two situations.
06:49Both are bad.
06:50If the opposition press them high, then you get a 4-2-4 at the back
06:53where there's just this huge disconnect between the players here
06:57and the players at the front.
06:59The centre-backs can only really play it into those two midfielders
07:02who, as we've shown, are not likely to be getting turned
07:06and splitting the opposition defence either by running it or passing it.
07:09So instead, they'll just knock it sideways or back where it came from
07:13and eventually, when it gets to the full-backs,
07:15they can only really play it straight up the flank to a forward
07:19who usually has his back to goal and cannot get turned.
07:23So they will either lose the ball or it just comes straight back where it came from.
07:28It's all straight lines, right?
07:30And it's incredibly difficult to open the opposition up with straight lines
07:35or connect with your teammates in a dynamic way with straight lines.
07:39And don't get me wrong, this build-up structure is solid.
07:43You are not going to make a tit of yourself,
07:46give the ball away and concede cheap goals by doing this,
07:49but it is also incredibly unimaginative.
07:53But, ah, yes, I know what you're thinking.
07:54This is when they are being pressed.
07:55What happens when the opposition drop off?
07:58Well, it gets worse.
08:00Frank will encourage two of the midfielders,
08:02again, regardless of whether it's a 4-3-3 or a 4-2-3-1,
08:05to get into the forward line to give you that five up top
08:08and the remaining midfielder will drop to collect the ball from the defenders.
08:12But this, again, because of the spaces that is leaving
08:14between the players at the back and the players at the front,
08:16just leaves this enormous chasm.
08:19Between where you have the ball and where you need the ball to be.
08:22There is effectively no midfield at all.
08:26Like, it is hard to play through the opposition
08:28when you haven't got the right profiles in central midfield to do that.
08:32But it is impossible to play through the opposition
08:35when you haven't got a central midfield to do that.
08:38And I could use, like, any example from the Aston Villa game here,
08:41but here's just one random.
08:43Tottenham have the ball at the back.
08:45Villa have sat off, as is their wants to do.
08:48And just initially, just look at the space in front of the ball.
08:52There is not a single direct short pass here.
08:55Every single Tottenham player who wants the ball in the final third
08:58is already in the final third.
09:01Every other Tottenham player is practically in their own half.
09:04And between them is just a sea of claret and blue.
09:09There's no real structure here.
09:11Some of the attackers do come short into this space to try and fix the problem.
09:14But even if they found them with the ball here, which they're not going to,
09:18they've got their back to play.
09:19They've got a defender right up their arse.
09:21It would just go back where it came from.
09:23And in the end, they work it all the way back to the goalkeeper.
09:27They've got no way of playing through this block centrally.
09:31And what I have seen a lot of people point out,
09:33because they can't quite wrap their head around it, right,
09:34is that this is the sort of situation where you end up with this five up here, right,
09:38where you would normally invert a fullback.
09:41All of a sudden, you've still got the stability.
09:43You've got the extra body in there.
09:44You can come up with better passing angles.
09:46Maybe that fullback is someone like Pedro Porro who can play the ball forward.
09:51But Tottenham do not let the fullbacks do that.
09:53They force them to stay in these wide areas.
09:57And that is a shame, I think, because Porro is a good progressor of the ball.
10:01If you look at his pass map from that game,
10:03yeah, all right, there's lots of red on this.
10:06He gives the ball away an awful lot.
10:07But if we just look at those misplaced passes,
10:09there is ambition to those.
10:12He is trying to knock it down the line.
10:13He's trying to play over or through a press
10:16and find Kudus in a position where he can actually do something with it,
10:20not just a little short ball that he's going to have to give it back.
10:23They should be utilising that better,
10:25but they're forcing their fullbacks to stay out wide.
10:28And when you look at moments like this,
10:30what you see is Thomas Frank still setting his team up like they're Brentford,
10:34like they're technically inferior to the opposition,
10:37like they're the underdogs,
10:38and he needs to snap out of that very quickly.
10:42What it is giving Tottenham,
10:44and here's one of the lesser spotted graphs for you,
10:46the opta pass matrixes, matrices, whatever that word is,
10:52basically, right,
10:53it's average positions of all the players,
10:55and then the lines between them donate how much they pass to each other.
10:59Thick is lots,
11:01thin is not lots,
11:02and no line is none.
11:04They spend a flipping cow's age, right,
11:07just knocking the ball around the defenders and the two pivots
11:10in this sort of horseshoe-shaped thing
11:13when nothing's ever going to happen.
11:14And they really, really struggle to get the ball into anybody
11:18even remotely resembling a forward.
11:20Like, again, this was from the Aston Villa game,
11:23and there are six passes, six, you can count them,
11:26that go from Danzo, van der Verne, Paulinha, or Bettenker
11:30into the forward players.
11:33Six.
11:34That is, that is broken, Thomas, you must fix that.
11:37But, here is the twist, my friends.
11:40He might already have fixed it.
11:43Against Everton, where, granted, they were the away side,
11:46but still pretty clear favourites in terms of ability,
11:48he finally relaxed his sphincter over the full-backs
11:52holding a wide position
11:53and allowed Pedro Porro to invert.
11:57Sometimes it was into a back three,
11:59sometimes it was into the midfield,
12:00but either way, he was occupying more central areas
12:03and getting on the ball in a way
12:05that helped Tottenham play through thirds.
12:08And it gave him this pass map for that game.
12:11And again, it's still pretty similar
12:12to the one we showed you before.
12:13There's a lot of misplaced passes,
12:15but again, I would argue it is at least incisive.
12:19It is at least forward-thinking.
12:20There are some going into areas
12:23that Everton would not have wanted.
12:25And above everything else,
12:26the main thing to look at when you see this here,
12:28right, is how many of these passes are sideways
12:31versus how many of them are forwards, right?
12:34Because forward passes are incredibly, incredibly important.
12:37And you go back to that Paulinha-Bentonker mess, right?
12:42Ask yourself again, how many of these are sideways
12:45versus how many of these are forwards?
12:48One of these players is helping you get up the pitch,
12:50is helping you play through the opposition.
12:52The other two are doing many good things,
12:55but that is not one of them.
12:57And don't get me wrong,
12:58I don't blame Bentonker or Paulinha for this.
13:00It's not a criticism of them.
13:01They're just different kinds of players, right?
13:04But if you look at this situation here, right,
13:06and you can make up your own mind
13:07about whether or not this is good or not,
13:09I think either Paulinha or Bentonker
13:12would play this ball into here in this situation,
13:16whereas Porro instead elects to do this.
13:19And there's no right or wrong there necessarily,
13:22but one is a kind of player going forwards
13:24and the other two are not.
13:25That decision, if nothing else, is a proactive decision.
13:28And yes, you would like to see a lot more of that
13:30in the home games when they're far more dominant
13:33than they were at the old Hill Dickey,
13:36but it is at least a start.
13:39Now, I've seen a number of Tottenham fans
13:41concerned that this whole, like,
13:43bad performance, good result thing
13:45is going to come crashing headfirst
13:47into what is a minging set of fixtures.
13:50They've got Newcastle right after I put this video out,
13:53but then Chelsea, Arsenal, PSG, Liverpool.
13:56And do you know what?
13:57And maybe I'll lump Man United in with this as well, right?
14:00I actually think, in the immediate term,
14:04those games maybe suit them.
14:06All of those teams,
14:07this is why I said maybe Man United, right?
14:09But all of those teams
14:10will expect to be on the front foot against Tottenham.
14:13They'll expect to have most of the ball.
14:16The exact kind of games where you would want
14:18that prison yard style double pivot
14:20of Paulinha and Bentonker.
14:22Paulinha and Bentonker.
14:24I'm still ill.
14:24They will make sure that you are not giving the ball away cheaply,
14:28that you are robust and resolute in the middle.
14:30They're the perfect pairing for games
14:32where Thomas Frank is allowed
14:33to have a bit more of a Brentford mindset.
14:36But as the season wears on,
14:38this is what Thomas Frank will have to fix in his own head
14:41if he wants to make Tottenham
14:42a serious force in the league again.
14:45Like, you want a big job at a big club,
14:49well, you've got it, mate.
14:50It's time to now be a big boy with some big ideas.
14:54So yes, normally I would not put a video out about a team like Amir
14:58a few hours before they take on my own team
15:01in a televised game of football
15:02because that could backfire spectacularly on social media.
15:06But I've been in bed since, like, Saturday,
15:09so I thought I should probably, like, drag my carcass in here
15:12and make some content for you
15:14as that is literally my job.
15:15So I hope you've enjoyed that.
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15:51And that's it.
15:54I need a limp sip and a lie down now.
15:56So I will do that immediately.
15:59Love you. Bye.
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