Once again, Tottenham Hotspur turned in a lousy performance, and fans are tired of manager Thomas Frank setting this team up to play as if they are a club battling relegation with a shoe string budget. Nothing Frank has done as Spurs coach is befitting of a Big Six club, and both the latest 0-0 draw with Brentford and Sunday's 1-1 tie with Sunderland have reiterated this issue.
That said, at least against Sunderland, compared to Brentford, all was not bad for Tottenham. They actually had a few positive attacking moments during the team, and a large part of that is due to the fact that Frank finally started young French gems Wilson Odobert and Mathys Tel together.
Odobert earned a start at the 10 position with Xavi Simons suspended and Lucas Bergvall hurt a bit, while Tel finally drew a start on the left wing as, by far, the team's superior option in the position. Frank had been discarding Tel from the starting lineup for weeks despite Tel playing well literally every time he is out there.
A bright spot as Tottenham were dreadful
And once again, even as Tottenham Hotspur were pretty dreadful overall, Mathys Tel turned in a very positive individual attacking performance for Spurs. Sure, not everything he did came off, and he could not get Tottenham to pull all three points against a very good Sunderland team.
But playing against one of the best defenses in Europe this season, Tel made his mark. His athleticism, positivity in terms of trying to get quality shots off on goal, and his general mentality were a breath of fresh air to Tottenham.
Tel was by far the best attacker on Spurs on a day in which right wing partner Mohammed Kudus went down early in the 20th minute with an injury. The young French forward created chances, nearly scored a couple of times, and genuinely looked like the one threat to change the game for Spurs or give them a hope at victory.
Between the Premier League and Champions League, Tel has been doing this frequently, and while Frank has been leaving Tel out of the lineup and bouncing him around, preventing him from getting into a real rhythm, all the former Bayern Munich man has done is impress fans and be a real asset. By performing well against Sunderland, Tel has just taken Frank out of the equation and forced the manager's hands. As the boos rained down for Frank, the cheers did for Tel; he is the one the fans want to see every week.