Thomas Frank delivers scathing verdict on Tottenham losing to Nottingham Forest

9 hours ago 33

Thomas Frank has now slammed his Tottenham Hotspur side after a hugely disappointing and ‘annoying’ display at the City Ground Stadium.

Tottenham Hotspur never found any real rhythm against Nottingham Forest, a side that has now gone three Premier League games without defeat against Spurs.

Nuno Espirito Santo’s Forest outfit completed a league double over Tottenham last season and, with this latest result, Sean Dyche’s men have now made it three straight league victories in a row over Spurs.

It was a shambolic display littered with individual errors, a performance that stopped Tottenham from building on their back-to-back wins in all competitions and instead dragged them back into old habits that Thomas Frank has been trying to eradicate since arriving in north London.

Thomas Frank was not happy with the performance

Speaking after the final whistle, the Tottenham head coach did not attempt to sugar-coat what he had just witnessed, instead laying bare his frustration with both the collective performance and the basic errors that undermined his side from the opening exchanges.

Frank made it clear that the manner of the defeat annoyed him just as much as the scoreline, pointing to a disjointed first half, a lack of bite in duels and an inability to retain possession when Tottenham finally did win the ball back.

“It was hugely disappointing. It is burning, annoying. That was a bad performance. Especially first half, overall we looked disjointed. We did not win enough duels.

“And then we could not hit each other, it seems like we gave the ball away every time we won it back,” Frank told Sky Sports.

“Of course the first two goals are two mistakes, that happens. We need to work to be more consistent. It is two steps forward and a step back today.

“That is down to individuals. We are in it together, we win together and lose together. It is hugely irritating that we perform like this today. Simple passing, I think we lose the ball 20 times, simple passes.”

Frank opens up on Vicario and Gray error

The opener perfectly encapsulated Tottenham’s problems, with Guglielmo Vicario and Archie Gray caught trying to play out from the back, only for the young midfielder to be dispossessed after taking an extra touch following a routine pass from his goalkeeper.

Frank was asked specifically about that decision to persist with building from deep despite the obvious risk, and while he defended the principle, he was honest about the execution.

On the moment that led to Forest’s first goal, Frank added, “It is a clear one, you see it in the Premier League every week, Serie A, La Liga all over the world.

“In, bounce it out with your first touch. On paper, black and white we lost 3-0 here. The better team won today. When things are going against us we need to keep doing the right thing and keep our cool heads.”