What Thomas Frank has asked of Lange and Levy in the final days of Tottenham’s transfer window
Here are our Tottenham talking points following Thomas Frank’s side’s defeat to Bournemouth in the Premier League on Saturday
Thomas Frank gestures on the touchline during the Premier League match between Spurs and Bournemouth at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium
As certain as the passing of the seasons and the sun and moon rising in the sky is the fact that Tottenham will lose before an international break.
Spurs might have put in three impressive performances, starting the Premier League season with five goals and two clean sheets, including a win at the Etihad Stadium, but just whisper in someone’s ear that it’s time for international football and the north London club will crumble.
Tottenham have now lost their past seven Premier League games on the matchday before an international break. It never used to be that way, they had gone unbeaten in the previous 13 before that, winning 10 of those but something shifted a couple of years ago.
Perhaps it’s just coincidence, perhaps players are mindful of getting injured or perhaps they just lack the ability to focus on the present.
Either way, this was a dismal affair reminiscent of much of what was served up in the Premier League last season with Spurs as open to counter attacks as they were back then despite Thomas Frank’s new defensive structure and that’s what annoyed him even more than the lack of creativity
“We clearly didn’t perform well today. We played against a very good Bournemouth team that we know can make it difficult for any team in the league,” Frank told football.london. “They played to their strengths. They did that very well and we didn’t handle it well.
“We knew exactly what they came with and we trained for it. We just didn’t handle it well enough in terms of the balls in behind, the second balls, duels in the middle of the park.
“That’s the defensive side and on the offensive side we struggled to find good enough solutions to get through phase one and two so we could get up there and put a bit of pressure on them. We only did that in the last 15 where we put on good pressure and could have equalised. I think over the game it was fair that Bournemouth won.”
Tottenham were missing that bit of magic and the man who can provide that was only able to step on to the pitch to say hello to the fans inside his new home.
Xavi Simons, Spurs’ new £52million signing, who put pen to paper on a five-year contract with an option for another two, came out onto the turf five minutes before the supporters had been told, catching out a few who hadn’t reached their seats yet.
He waved and applauded all the stands and showed off his phone goal celebration, which came about because he was always ringing his brother when he first moved to PSG and they decided on it while playing FIFA together and saw a similar celebration.
