‘To be honest…’ – Matt Le Tissier tells Thomas Frank to overhaul Tottenham team
Thomas Frank needs to change his tactics to be more attacking in home games amid Tottenham’s poor form in North London and unrest from fans around the way he sets his side up.
That is according to Premier League legend Matt Le Tissier, who has exclusively told Football Insider that the Tottenham boss is not helping himself when it comes to winning fans over due to his defensive style of play.
Tottenham were beaten 1-0 by Chelsea on Saturday (1 November) in one of their poorest performances since Thomas Frank was appointed in the summer.
They mustered just one shot on target to the Blues’ nine at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium as fans made their feelings clear with boos ringing around the stands at full-time.
Djed Spence and Micky Van de Ven were also seen shrugging Frank off after the final whistle and ignoring his request to walk around the pitch, so things are clearly not going well at this point in time.
Tottenham’s poor home form could be Frank’s downfall
Tottenham‘s dismal loss to rivals Chelsea means they have won just three of their last 19 games on home turf in all competitions, so fans are understandably becoming restless.
No top-flight team has scored fewer league goals than Spurs’ five at home so far this term, while only the current Premier League bottom three have had worst domestic starts at their own stadium than Frank’s side.
By contrast, Tottenham boast the best away record of any top-flight team up to now, with four wins in five outings, so something clearly needs to change to get the best out of the squad on home turf.
Frank took a small swipe at the atmosphere at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium following Saturday’s defeat, saying: “(The fans were) fantastic the first 30 minutes of the game Saturday night. I think the noise was incredible and that carried us forwards. It seems there was a little bit of a turning point when we conceded the goal...
“…after the game if we perform badly and on top of that we lost the game, more than fair enough they boo us. But during the game, we need a little bit of help.”
Le Tissier tells Frank to overhaul Tottenham team
Speaking exclusively to Football Insider, former England and Southampton striker Le Tissier insisted that Tottenham need to do more in the final third on home turf going forward and called upon Frank to ditch his defensive style for a more fluid set-up that sees them attack with bigger numbers.
He said: “I think the system that he’s been playing has worked away from home, because they’ve been pretty good away, but I think perhaps at home, they maybe need to be a little bit more expansive and maybe try and change the shape a little bit, give themselves a few more options going forward.
“You play a game against Chelsea there on the weekend, and I think they had one shot on target the whole game.
“For a team of Tottenham’s quality to be playing at home and have one attempt on target the whole game and only three attempts at goal in total, I mean, that’s pretty poor, to be honest with you, especially when your opposition are having almost double figures shots on target.
“So that’s something that does need looking at. I think a good manager will, and I think Thomas Frank is a good manager, I think he’ll work it out.
“But I think a good manager will also change his tactics, depending on whether he’s at home or away and depending on the strength of the opposition.”