Tottenham manager Thomas Frank played down an apparent show of dissent from Mickey van de Ven and Djed Spence but slammed his side’s performance against Chelsea as one of the worst attacking displays of his managerial career.
Spurs suffered their third straight home defeat with a measly performance in a 1-0 loss in the London derby courtsey of Joao Pedro’s first-half goal.
The team were booed off at full-time after barely laying a glove on their opponents throughout, with Van de Ven and Spence seemingly ignoring Frank’s instructions to acknowledge the supporters after the final whistle.
“I understand why you ask the question, but I think that is one of the small issues,” Frank said of the incident.
“We have Micky van de Ven and Djed Spence who are doing everything they can. They perform very well so far this season and everyone is frustrated. We do things in a different way, so I don’t think it is a big problem.
“All the players are of course frustrated. They would like to do well, they would like to win, they would like to perform well, so I understand that. I think it is about which is difficult to be consistent in good times and in bad times. That is why I went around to the fans as I did. It is more fun when we win, I can tell you that.”
Frank laments toothless display
Tottenham’s poor attacking display is perhaps best described by their xG (expected goals) total for the game, which ended at just 0.05xG – the lowest for a Premier League side home or away this season and their lowest on record since Opta started collecting Premier League xG data in 2012/13.
Frank added: “I would say that, of course, hurts massively. I’ve never been in charge of a team that created that little in one game, never.
“So that, of course, I will look into what we can do to make it better. But I think that’s one thing. I think everything is a little bit linked. And today, yeah, we didn’t hit the level.”
When asked how a Tottenham team that is behind against Chelsea can fail to register a single shot in the second half, Frank responded: “Good question. There’s probably not one answer to that. One thing is for sure: we need to do that better.”
Frank: New-look side needs time
Despite admitting the hosts were well below the standard required, Frank insisted his new-look team, and in particular his attacking players, need more time to gel.
“Today was one snapshot that didn’t look good,” said Frank. “I think there have definitely been other spells that have been better. There’s no doubt, and I keep saying it, that we have a front four that is new.
“We have to build together with short turnarounds in games. We’ll do that. I’m not in doubt that will happen. I think every team I’ve coached has scored a lot of goals. It will happen again in the future here.
“It is extremely painful and of course that is part of the job to face you guys now and answer the very good questions when you just are burning inside. And you like to find solutions, watch the game back and see what went wrong, but I think it’s about trying to stay calm.”
