Why Thomas Frank’s Tactics Aren’t Working at Spurs.

Despite using two completely different

systems, big problems remain for Thomas

Frank's Tottenham Hotspur. I'll be

explaining why the center backs keep

getting exposed, why the midfield feels

like it's become non-existent, and the

reason why their record signing has

failed to thrive. So, why exactly hasn't

it worked for Thomas Frank? Well, I

think to understand this, what I want to

do is break down each part of the team,

starting with the defense. So Spurs,

they've mostly used that 4231 under

Thomas Frank. And from open play, you've

got the center backs. They split when

Vicario has the ball. With the fullbacks

moving higher, operating on the same

line as the midfield. Now the midfield

too, they look to create this box in the

middle of the pitch. But this has been a

problem from the get-go. Neither Archie

Gray or Gallagher are passing options

due to West Ham cutting those passing

lanes. And what does that mean? Well, it

means that it's not actually even a box.

It's just two lateral options. Vicario

tries to bait the press to open that

central option, but West Ham don't allow

him to do this. So, he gives it to Van,

but he has the same problem. He can't

play centrally. And so, he's forced

backwards to Vagario, and they have to

start again. Romero receives the ball,

but yep, you guessed it. No central

options appear, resulting in what can

only be described, to be honest, as a

walking pace in possession that

obviously is easy to defend. This

reflects itself in the stats, too. The

center backs are far less involved.

Check this out. This is Vicario's pass

map against Bournemouth, and we can see

that he attempted several long balls

centrally. Now, compare this to a pass

map from last season. And yes, of

course, Angel was very different, but I

mean, we can really see that the focus

has shifted somewhat in this regard. And

Vicario's instructions often ask him to

play longer passes into wide areas. And

this means sacrificing the midfield to

achieve this. And so when he's in

possession in areas like this, the

midfielders could easily drop five or 10

yards to receive the ball. Or Vicario

could even play sideways to his center

backs. But no, instead the instruction

is to play long, bypassing that

midfield, which I know has been a

frustration to a lot of Spurs fans. And

Spurs failed to win this aerial jewel.

And from there, of course, possession is

now turned over. And after Spurs scored

against Sunderland, they resorted to

playing these percentage passes. And we

can see that after the goal, they

massively struggled for momentum and a

grip on the game. Alienating the

midfield has consistently been a huge

problem under Frank at Spurs. Spurs have

played the fewest through balls in the

Premier League, a stat that has followed

Thomas Frank around this season and

rightly so. And this problem derives

from midfield. Look at this map showing

passes completed by zone this season.

Now, in the wide areas, you can see the

most passes, which is the same for a lot

of clubs, most clubs to be honest. But

there are minimal passes on the edge of

the box and fewer in comparison in the

middle section of the pitch. So, with

most of the buildup coming out wide,

Spurs have then relied heavily on

crosses. I've been fortunate enough to

meet Thomas Frank a couple of times and

have great chats with him. He's very

smart man and he's he is a good manager.

It's obviously just not working right

now. But one thing in both of those

interviews that he spoke about was his

love of crosses and they have relied on

that heavily. In fact, they've got the

third most in the league. But this style

has resulted in them creating the fourth

least expected goals, which is

surprising when from an xG point of

view, Brenford were pretty prolific. So

why has the midfield been so

ineffective? Well, to understand the

difference, let's have a look at what

happened last season. Because this was a

common shape for Spurs. Both fullbacks

inverting, the wingers staying wide and

two players in zone 14. Udogi passes it

centrally for Bentanka. But look at

Madison here. He makes sure to stay in

zone 14 to be a passing option. And as

Madison comes short, Porro makes the

counter movement behind him. Now take a

look at the bigger picture. All Spurs

players are taking up different zones.

And crucially, Bentankur is direct with

his pass playing forward into the box

for Porro. And there's no way around it.

This passing network shows a focus to

play wide with no central penetration.

Leave it. And Galla receives a pass here

from Romero. And and in this position,

there's just such potential to drive

into this big gap between leave it

between West Ham's double pivot. Stop

it. But the Spurs midfielders just

aren't being instructed to exploit these

spaces. It feels very clear. Gallagher

ignores any central options he may have

had in favor of playing the ball into a

wide zone. And this has to be a

directive because there's so many of

those opportunities to play centrally

that aren't being utilized. Before

Gallagher's arrival, the midfield trio

was also a contentious issue. Bentenur

and Pellinia frequently formed a double

pivot and they rarely vacated this zone.

Lucas Bergval was used as a 10, but he's

not natural here and he often dropped

deep resulting in big distances between

the midfield and attack and therefore

little threat in zone 14 with such a

dangerous area of the pitch. Jed Spence

has the ball here and the three Spurs

midfielders are all in deeper positions.

Bournemouth's midfielders could press

aggressively because there was little

threat behind him, forcing Pellini to

turn away and pass the ball backwards.

Now, Bergal hasn't played as the 10 all

season. Spurs brought in Xiai Simmons to

play in this very role. So why hasn't it

worked for him? Last season, Javi

Simmons played in a 4222, a system that

we rarely see in England, but it's

extremely popular in Germany. And in

this system, that initial starting point

was on the left, but he also had freedom

to move centrally. Now, Frank tested

them in both positions, and neither of

which bore any fruit. And this has led

to Spurs struggling to unpick low blocks

under Frank. and Javi Simmons has been a

victim of it too. Jud Spence, Simmons,

and Salanki are all in a wide area here.

Spence looks into a central area, but he

sees nothing. He's also hesitant to play

this pass into Bassuma. So, the ball

eventually makes its way to Javi

Simmons, and this in itself is the

problem. The only available passing

lane, it's a backwards pass to Mickey

Vanvent. Simmons ideally doesn't want to

pass the ball backwards. He's an

attacking player. He wants to go

forwards. So he holds onto the ball with

a dribble, but he's dribbling away from

goal and eventually has to pass the ball

sideways. Simmons was struggling to link

play into central areas under Frank. But

this wasn't a problem at Leipzig because

of how they set up in attack. Appender

targeted space behind. Sesko moved into

zone 14, giving Simmons a backboard if

he needed it. And he had supporting runs

being made around Simmons, which allowed

him to target the center of the final

third whilst having those options to

play off if needed. under Frank Simmons

routinely gets the ball in wide areas

and then ends up taking too many

touches. Don't believe me? Check this

out. There are three Arsenal players in

close proximity here. Ko Milani makes a

run in behind, but it's an incredibly

difficult bar to execute for Simmons.

Simmon gets his head up, but there are

no passing lanes centrally and no

support runs being made wide, resulting

in him shooting from distance. Something

that I know Thomas Frank won't like

either as an alternative. Javi Simmons

isn't the only struggling aspect in this

attack, though. Tottenham rank amongst

the lowest in the Premier League for

shots taken and xG accumulated, ranking

second worst in the league for xG per

shot. There's never been a settled front

three. And that's, you know, because of

injuries or, you know, trying to figure

out a best team, trying to change

things, but the overarching problems

persisted regardless of their personnel.

Tottenham are on the attack here with

Bassuma driving through the middle. He

gives it to Odar who instantly looks to

cross the ball. Had he slowed down for

just a second, he would have seen Jai

Simmons on the edge of the box. This

cross easily gets cut out by Burnley and

despite it being a promising attack, the

chance that comes from it is low quality

and this is because it was rushed and

possibly forced. Jed Spence has the ball

here and Romero is screaming for it in a

central position. Spence opts to cross

it and that gets cut out easily once

again by Burnley. And this happened over

and over again for Spurs. Otter is

driving positively with the ball here.

He lays it off to Porro and despite

there being two central options, he

still plays wide. From there, Gallalagha

crosses and finds Salanki, but it's

another lowquality chance. The over

reliance on crosses is making them

extremely one-dimensional. good crosses

with players attacking the box, that's

great, but it needs to be kind of done

at the right tempo with players arriving

at the right time. And so over relying

on it means that the opposition are

ready for it. And that makes it quite

easy to defend against in my opinion.

This is incredible. This is a map of

every through ball that Spurs have made

under Thomas Frank in the Premier

League. Now, after 23 games, it's just

it isn't nearly enough. And now look at

how many crosses they made in that same

time. Without strikers that don't really

feed off aerial balls. It's ultimately

made them predictable and ineffective in

attack. Another team struggling to

improve is Liverpool. To see why slot

still can't seem to fix their problems,

click