Although Tottenham Hotspur didn’t pick up all three points in their 2-2 draw with Brighton on Saturday, new Spurs manager Thomas Frank was still delighted with his team’s performance. “The mentality that we showed today, I was so impressed with. The mentality to stay in the game, to keep going, to keep pushing and come back and get a well deserved 2-2,” noted the Dane to the BBC after the match. "I actually think that overall if there should have been a winner, it should have been us.”
Frank’s optimistic take on two points dropped was certainly a sign of how things have changed in North London, following the club’s decision to bring in the former Brentford tactician to replace Ange Postecoglou in the summer. For a club that was uneasily keeping one eye on the relegation spots at the start of the year, Tottenham now sit third in the Premier League table with just one defeat from their first five league games of the season. Everything seems to be clicking into place for Frank and his team, but how much have the club really improved since making their high-profile managerial change? Let’s take a look.
Postecoglou vs Frank
In Frank’s first five league games at Tottenham, the 51-year-old head coach has picked up impressive wins over Burnley, Manchester City and West Ham, while the aforementioned draw with Brighton and a 1-0 defeat to Bournemouth stand out as the only black spots on his record to date. As such, the new Tottenham manager currently enjoys an impressive average of 2.0 points per league game at the North London club. And when we compare his record to his predecessor’s, we can see why Frank has been more successful.
Indeed, as the graphic above illustrates, Frank has won more points per game and enjoys a far better win percentage of 60% compared to Postecoglou 41%. That, to no great surprise, is in no small part due to Frank’s team already showcasing far more control in their league encounters. So far this season, Tottenham have averaged 2.0 goals scored per league game while conceding on average just 0.6 per game. Only Liverpool have scored more goals than Frank’s team in the first five matchdays of the season, while only Arsenal and Crystal Palace have conceded fewer.
This stands in stark contrast to Postecoglou’s time at the club. In total, Tottenham scored a decent return of 138 goals in 76 league games under the Australian tactician’s stewardship of the club, but conceded an almost equal 126 goals in that time too. As such, not only does Postecoglou’s offensive record of 1.8 goals scored per game fall below Frank’s own average, but his defensive record of 1.7 goals conceded per game is almost three times higher than his successors. Which undoubtedly explains why Tottenham were languishing near the bottom of the table last season but now sit just five points off top spot this time around.