After the sobering 0-1 defeat to Chelsea, it wasn’t just the Tottenham fans who showed their frustration: Micky van de Ven and Djed Spence coldly ignored their coach—but he sees bigger problems ahead.
Anyone listening to Tottenham Hotspur Stadium at around 8:30 p.m. German time on Saturday evening couldn’t help but notice: the euphoria that had surrounded the first few weeks under new coach Thomas Frank is now gone. After the deserved 0-1 defeat to Chelsea FC, many fans booed loudly. And there was pure frustration on the pitch as well.
When coach Thomas Frank wanted to send his players to the corner as usual, Micky van de Ven and Djed Spence preferred to head for the locker room. Frank tried in vain to talk to the two defenders, who simply left the Dane standing there and let him watch them for a few seconds. Even standard coach Andreas Georgson was unable to stop them on the sideline.
“All the players are frustrated, of course,” Frank played down the incident at the press conference. “They want to perform well. They want to win. They want to play well. I understand that. The point is – and this is difficult, of course – to remain consistent in good times and bad. That’s why I went over to the fans. It’s more fun when we win, I can tell you that.”
Van de Ven wore the captain’s armband again
When asked whether the behavior of the two players was acceptable, Postecoglou’s successor replied: “I understand the question. But I think that’s, how shall I put it, one of the minor problems we have. Micky van de Ven and Djed Spence are doing their best. I think they’ve performed very well so far this season. Everyone is frustrated. For me, it’s not a big problem.”
Van de Ven and Spence are among the top performers under Frank. The former even rose to vice-captain and wore the armband against Chelsea in the absence of Cristian Romero, who was injured and came on as a substitute this time, which, however, makes his high-profile action even more questionable. Just a week ago, the former Wolfsburg player was the celebrated match winner in the 3-0 away win at Everton thanks to his first Premier League brace. Left-back Spence became an England international under Frank.
Frank is also unable to get to grips with the team’s glaring home weakness
The Spurs are still fourth in the league – at least until Sunday evening – and unbeaten in the Champions League after three games (1/2/0), but they have only won one of their last five competitive games, against Everton, and were knocked out of the League Cup during the week (0-2 in Newcastle). In addition, the glaring home weakness of the previous season seems to be continuing under Frank. Since the 3-0 win against Burnley on the first matchday, they have not won a single league game at home.
“Chelsea were better than us today,” admitted the coach, who was poached from Brentford before the season, and asked for patience with his newly formed attack featuring former Bundesliga pros Randal Kolo Muani and Xavi, as well as €64 million new signing Mohammed Kudus. “All the teams I’ve coached have scored a lot of goals. That will happen here in the future too.” FC Copenhagen await in the Champions League on Tuesday, with the game once again being played at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
