Mistaken Approach

Things are not right with Spurs Men at the moment.

What previously seemed like mild yellow flags in Thomas Frank's early tenure have turned into spicy red flags that cannot be ignored. The window for him to get things back on track has not disappeared entirely, but it is narrowing.

The impatience of the fanbase could force the issue soon, though we still don't know how the largely new executive board will react to a situation we experienced many times before during the previous era, usually with the familiar outcome of a manager sacking. Perhaps they will have more patience for a project than their predecessors, even if so far the project is ill-defined and poorly executed.

In this issue: Fulham recap

The possibility of bouncing back soon seems slim if you consider the upcoming schedule—or should I say, gauntlet. In general, our away form has been better this season, but that never seems to matter when it comes to playing at St. James' Park. That nightmare of a fixture is followed by a grudge match of sorts with Frank's old club, Brentford, and then there's one more midweek game in the Champions League before we finally get a brief break from the two-games-a-week grind—until we get straight back to heavy fixture churn in the new year.

I don't think we can all agree on the hows and whys of the current predicament, but we can at least agree that's a terrible mood to be in as a fanbase ahead of the holidays. Perhaps we might need to ask for a new manager for Christmas, but I'd prefer it if we could focus on new signings instead.

PL MD 13 | Tottenham 1 - 2 Fulham

Kudus 59' | Tete 4', Wilson 6'

There's no use putting lipstick on this pig. The beginning of the match was an absolute debacle, and the result was effectively decided in a two-minute span full of mistakes and poor decision-making. Or rather, the result was cemented by a spiritless first half in which we failed to get back into the game quickly enough.

Mohammed Kudus' 2nd-half goal had big "I'll do it myself" energy, and frankly, that's been his challenge for most of the season. He's tried to create chances for others despite being double or even triple-teamed by the opposition most of the time, but too often when he looks to pass, there is no one available to receive. So it's understandable that he was determined to take the ball into the box and get off a shot himself. In another game, it might have sparked a comeback and helped the team rescue a draw, but Thomas Frank decided to go ahead with his pre-planned substitutions and stifled any chance of building on the momentum of Kudus' goal.

The sad thing is that the team selection felt fairly promising. On paper, this team should definitely have been capable of beating Fulham. But too many players had an off night, including most of the backline and goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario, most conspicuously. Bad games and bad luck happen, but it wasn't helping that the players didn't seem motivated to have each other's backs to clean up the mistakes.

As for the substitutes, my feelings on the booing discourse are well-established at this point, but I will add an addendum here: Too often lately, it has seemed like adding subs to the game has been more akin to sending lambs to slaughter. They're really not being set up for success from a morale standpoint with the stadium atmosphere so toxic.

The supporter situation is far from ideal, with plenty of blame to go around as to why it's become that way, but I'm increasingly having more and more concerns about the actual management of the football. I'll be the first to admit that I'm not a psychologist or a body language expert, but just from the basic eye test, I get the sense that the players are not understanding the tactics or otherwise simply don't believe in them, because no one is looking particularly empowered out on the pitch. We've been far too reliant on individual quality (like Kudus' in this game) to eke out any silver linings from what has overall been pretty dull, uninspired football as a team.

As I noted in the intro to this issue, there is still time for Frank to adapt and prove why the club hired him in the first place, but I'm not sure how much time there is left. It's a surprising turn of events that we're actually best-positioned in the Champions League campaign rather than domestically (already out of one cup and now firmly mid-table), especially since Frank is new to the competition and was expected to struggle. But I wouldn't translate that current reality into actual hope of winning the European title. Let's be for real. Nor do I think the possibility of continued success in that competition will be convincing enough to keep Frank in his job (as the Europa League angle worked for Ange Postecoglou), especially if he can't right the direction of travel in the league table.

It's difficult to ascertain why things have gotten this discouraging this quickly. The (annoyingly persistent) surplus of injuries hasn't helped, nor has the recent heavy fixture schedule, but these are evergreen problems for a Premier League team also dealing with a European competition. It sounds negative to phrase it that way, like playing in the Champions League is a burden and not a privilege, but I would argue that it is more of a burden for this iteration of Spurs. Looking at it realistically, our strength and depth of squad compared to other teams in the competition make it highly unlikely (barring any transformative January signings) that we can balance the rigors of the continent's elite tournament with maintaining a respectable position in the domestic league. As evidenced by Postecoglou's sacking, the latter is not a viable sacrifice according to the club—and for what it's worth, I agree. I truly do not want to see us phoning in PL games again, like we saw far too much of last season.

It's worth noting that I don't think that's what is actually happening right now; the team is just going through a lot more new manager growing pains than expected, and navigating a player availability crisis at the same time. I think the players are more lost than merely unmotivated—though on an individual basis, that could definitely be the case for some players who aren't getting the game time they want, an inevitable casualty of a new manager figuring out who they favor and who they think they can rely on to deliver week in and week out.

Basically, we're in a pickle. I don't think it's going to get markedly better any time soon, again referring to the upcoming schedule. We either have to ride it out and stick with Frank or take the approach of going back to square one with a new manager. For now, I'm still in the former camp of preferred strategy, but I reserve the right to change my mind, as we fans are wont to do when enough becomes enough.

Notable & quotable:

• We haven't won a domestic game in over a month; that was the 0-3 away win at Everton on October 26, which was also our last domestic clean sheet.

• Thomas Frank believes the players are eager to turn around the home form:

I see players who badly want to turn it around, badly want to do everything they can to get the win here in front of our fans, make them happy and proud of the team. Sometimes you just have a spell that is tough and we just need to keep working through it, keep going forward, keep doing everything we can to improve it—then we all know we will turn it around.

Up next:

December 2 | Spurs Men @ Newcastle United
Team news — Cristian Romero is available for selection again after serving his one-match suspension; otherwise, the same players are available from the Fulham game

I do not have high hopes for the Newcastle game, but any sign of improvement would be welcome. I am mostly hoping to see more game time for Lucas Bergvall and Archie Gray, since their developing partnership has been a rare bright spot of late.

COYS

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