Jamie Carragher believes that two of Thomas Frank’s biggest strengths at Brentford are proving to be his undoing at Tottenham Hotspur.
There was a lot of optimism among Spurs fans when Frank was appointed in the summer, and the Dane made a positive start to life at N17.
However, all of that positivity has now evaporated, with the Tottenham fans starting to lose patience with the lack of attacking impetus shown by their side.
Reports indicate that Frank no longer has the unanimous support of the Spurs board, and Carragher has now suggested that he has to change the way he interacts with the media.
Thomas Frank urged not to be so honest in Tottenham press conferences
Carragher has admitted that one of the most refreshing things about Frank at Brentford was his honesty and forthrightness.
However, he suggested that the same qualities are now costing him at the North London club, as all of his words are being scrutinised to a much higher degree.
Carragher told An Echo of Glory podcast: “I’ve always been a huge admirer of Thomas Frank. We’ve had him on Monday Night Football, and he is really honest when he speaks and comes across really well whenever you hear him speak.
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“I almost think that his honesty is not helping him in some ways when he’s at Tottenham. I think your words are scrutinised so much more when you’re a manager of one of the biggest clubs in the country, or one of the big six.
“They get a lot of the media attention and know we get criticised for that, but it’s just the nature of the beast. Something that we would think was honest and refreshing at Brentford can annoy a set of supporters at a big club as well. I think he’s got to be a little bit cuter with how he deals with questions in the press conference.”
While Brentford scored a lot of goals in their final couple of seasons under the current Tottenham boss, Carragher pointed out that it was a case of Frank building things slowly from the back year on year.
The pundit questioned if the 52-year-old has the same luxury at Spurs and if he is capable of delivering the kind of football that the supporters want to see.
The former Liverpool man added: “The way his teams played at Brentford and when he came on Monday Night Football, he definitely made a point of saying, each season he wants to see more football, and so they can gradually improve the way they play and we did a big part of that on Monday Night Football.
“The big problem any manager has is being a pragmatic manager, then going to a bigger club is the actual build-up and creating chances and playing through the thirds, and playing between the lines. Are they used to coaching that as much? And are they as good at coaching that as Pep Guardiola, shall we use for example.”