Thomas Frank had a nightmare afternoon as Tottenham were soundly beaten away to Nottingham Forest.
Frank beat former side Brentford 2-0 at home last week and accentuated the merits as Spurs beat Slavia Prague 3-0 in the Champions League midweek.
But if he thought his side had turned a corner after back-to-back wins it was a return to the worst of the Dane’s reign on Sunday afternoon at the City Ground as Sean Dyche’s men strolled to a 3-0 win, in large part thanks to an error-strewn performance from the visitors.
Guglielmo Vicario was at fault for both of Callum Hudson-Odoi’s goals, bringing the spotlight back onto the Tottenham keeper after his error in the loss to Fulham a fortnight ago, while nobody was on top form throughout the line-up.
And Frank also managed to irritate Djed Spence, one of the few who looked like they were even properly focused on the day, with a particularly ill-judge substitution that should call the manager’s judgement into question.
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Tottenham were already 2-0 down when Frank made changes, as he’d waited until just inside an hour before deciding on a triple-substitution.
Despite not threatening John Victor in the Forest goal at all and needing to chase the game it was surprisingly a like-for-like swap of a defender and both the central midfielders that was opted for.
Spence’s number went up first as he was removed for Ben Davies, even though the England international had been energetic up and down the left.
He was visibly bemused as he headed towards the bench, pulling a face to show his annoyance and appearing to ask “why?” before shaking his head in disappointment and applauding both sets of fans.
Spence, along with Micky van de Ven, were accused of snubbing Frank as they left the pitch at the end of the 1-0 loss to Chelsea at the start of November, after which the manager said both had apologised and hadn’t meant any disrespect.
This time there was a lot less scope for misunderstanding, and Frank was asked about it after the game, with Spence also reported to have been throwing his jacket after going off.
The ex-Bees boss said: “You’re the third one that said that to me today. I didn’t see it. Of course I will look back to be aware of it. I think there can be three reasons. He can be disappointed with his own performance, the team’s performance, he can be disappointed with being subbed off. I’ll ask him about that.”
Spence right to be annoyed by Davies switch
It’s easy to point fingers at a player appearing to show attitude towards a manager, but surely few would disagree with Spence’s frustration at the City Ground.
He might not have been outstanding by his own standards, but certainly wasn’t central to the issues that had put his side two down, or the ones that made the chances of clawing back the deficit in attack look non-existent at the time.
Davies has been a great servant for Spurs over the years but you’d be hard pressed to find many supporters who would put him down as the answer as the Forest game was slipping away.
And indeed he didn’t make a real difference or improve on what Spence had offered, with his most notable involvement conceding a corner under no pressure soon after coming on following a miscommunication with the embattled Vicario.
Statistically Davies, arguably, may have been marginally better defensively than Spence, although only just, but in terms of attacking threat or production with the ball he was far inferior.
No shots, no crosses, no dribbles, no free kicks won – not what Davies is known for and not what Tottenham needed, so Spence won’t have been the only person frowning at the fourth official’s board and asking “why?” he was being replaced.
Frank can’t help individual errors, although he arguably could prevent Vicario making key mistakes by taking him out of the team.
It looked like Spurs needed to change something at the break whilst just a goal behind after a half where they were second best, but the manager decided not to and was punished when Vicario’s second gaffe doubled the deficit.
He was also burnt in exactly the same way when Ibrahim Sangare scored the third moments before Frank finally planned to bring on some different attacking options with just 10 minutes to go, and his bemused expression on the touchline after going three down will do nothing to reduce critics’ views that he is out of his depth.
Being critical of Spence’s performance when answering questions about the reaction also won’t do anything to fix any issues that are present in their relationship, and it’s hard not to be on the player’s side in this instance after a bad loss where Frank has surely got more to answer for than the left-back.