Things were brought to something of a head for Tottenham Hotspur supporters on Sunday as the Lilywhites lost 2-1 at home to Aston Villa.
For the first time in eight attempts, Spurs went into an international break on the back of a win, but turned things on their head by losing on the other side of the two-week sojourn.
Rodrigo Bentancur had given Spurs an early lead, firing home a Joao Palhinha knock down.
But Tottenham were pegged back by a fine Morgan Rogers strike before half-time and then saw the scoreline turned on its head by an equally brilliant Emiliano Buendia strike in the second half.
Spurs had the chance to go second in the table, but instead find themselves sixth and five points adrift of leaders and north London rivals Arsenal.
While results had been pretty good up until that point - the Bournemouth home defeat aside - performances have not exactly been pristine from Thomas Frank’s side and the reverse against Villa led to a fair amount of fan anger.
Criticism was pointed towards his team selection, with Joao Palhinha and Rodrigo Bentancur both chosen as more defensive-minded midfielders for a home game they would have been expecting to win.
But it was not just those two who had something of a defensive mindset during the game as Frank has created something of a problem with one of his key attacking players too.
Transfer coup
Xavi Simons was signed from RB Leipzig for his creativity and attacking intent. Tottenham were in need of a new No.10, with injuries to James Maddison and Dejan Kulusevski and bringing Simons in was seen as something of a coup.
He has played on the left of a front three but is at his best centrally, picking the ball up in tight spaces and getting Spurs on the front foot.
But there is an unseen part of his game that certainly endears himself to Thomas Frank and the way he wants to set up and while endearing to the fans in the moment, is not where supporters want to see him.
Simons showed on Sunday that he is not afraid to do the dirty work, which would ordinarily be left to the likes of Palhinha and Bentancur.
Defensive output
The Dutchman made a quite staggering ten defensive contributions in the match - more than all but four other players on the pitch - the two defensive midfielders for both sides.
He also made four tackles, only bettered by Palhinha, and recovered the ball three times. He also made two clearances.
This is not what he is on the pitch to do, and while it is a team game and it is laudable the work he is putting in, which Frank will love him for, Spurs need him higher up the pitch, making the attackers tick and creating chances.
In an attacking sense he created just one chance and passed the ball into the final third on only three occasions.
Frank splashed out £51million to sign the forward, having missed out on players like Morgan Gibbs-White and Eberechi Eze already in the transfer window. Simons had 17 goal contributions in 25 Bundesliga matches for RB Leipzig last season. It will take time to adapt to a new league, a new head coach's philosophy and new teammates, but Spurs need to get him firing sooner rather than later if they are to really challenge for the Champions League spots come May.
And to have any chance of doing that they need to push him higher up the pitch and leave the so-called dirty work to other players.