The Thomas Frank era at Tottenham Hotspur may have officially started in June, but it truly came to life on Tuesday night.
At home in the Champions League against FC Copenhagen, admittedly weaker opposition than Spurs are used to facing in the Premier League, everything clicked. Elevated by the returns of defensive duo Destiny Udogie and Cristian Romero, they played with a verticality and width the fans had rarely seen from their side on that pitch under new head coach Frank, laying siege to the Danish visitors’ goal. It finished 4-0 to Tottenham, including a sure-fire Puskas Award contender from Micky van de Ven, and it could have easily been five or six.
Up until then, their home form had been atrocious. And not just since Frank was lured away from fellow London side Brentford in the summer.
Over the past year, Spurs have played 19 home league games and won just three. Ange Postecoglou coached the first two victories: a 1-0 defeat of Manchester United in February, and a 3-1 win against Championship-bound Southampton in April. The other came in the Dane’s first league match, beating newly-promoted Burnley 3-0 on this season’s opening weekend.
The reason the north Londoners are sixth in the table with 17 points after 10 games, two off Manchester City in second, is because their away form has been the polar opposite.
Spurs started on their travels in style, beating City 2-0 in August, and have been consistent ever since. In their five league matches on the road, they’ve won four and drawn once — coming back from a 2-0 deficit to rescue a point at Brighton — leaving them with an average of 2.6 points per game.
Brennan Johnson celebrates his goal in Tottenham’s win at Manchester City (James Gill/Getty Images)
So, why are the same group of players title contenders when looking only at away matches but relegation candidates in terms of results in their own backyard? The crux is that playing in front of a home crowd comes with different expectations for a Tottenham manager/head coach.
“During my lifetime, the Spurs fanbase have been one of the most obsessed about insisting their team play in a certain way,” former Liverpool and England defender Jamie Carragher said in a recent column for British newspaper The Telegraph. “They never took to Jose Mourinho or Nuno Espirito Santo for that reason.”
‘To Dare is To Do’ is among the most recognisable club mottos in the Premier League. It’s an edict that outlines the intent and ambition Spurs fans expect from their players on the pitch, particularly in front of a home crowd.
While many fans believe it was the correct decision to part company with him in May, Postecoglou embodied the mantra from the word go in his two-season reign and will be remembered fondly because of it (as well as for ending the club’s 17-year trophy drought with the Europa League). For successor Frank, as most starkly evidenced in the dismal 1-0 home defeat by Chelsea last Saturday, being daring appears to come less naturally.
Across the capital at Brentford, there is no such motto. As one of the Premier League’s smallest clubs, their model for success centred on maximising their talent, and in that Frank punched above his weight consistently. In front of a home crowd at Spurs, however, he is having trouble balancing his natural pragmatism with the style many supporters expect.
Speed was essential to his success at Brentford. He had quick forwards and encouraged his goalkeeper and defenders to hit them early, and he’s found success implementing this on the road in his new role at Tottenham. While he perhaps does not have the same quality of forwards available to him at the moment as he did at his previous club — Bryan Mbeumo, Yoane Wissa and Kevin Schade combined to score 50 league goals for Brentford last season — Tottenham launch more direct attacks (two per game) when playing away than at home (1.4).
In their 2-1 win at Leeds a month ago, for example, Spurs got the ball from back to front very quickly for both goals. Mathys Tel scored the opener after Pedro Porro’s headed defensive clearance found its way to Rodrigo Bentancur, who played quickly to Mohammed Kudus, who then released the young Frenchman. For Kudus’ winner, Porro played a searching ball down the right wing to find the Ghana international, who cut inside and finished from outside the box for his first goal since being signed from West Ham in the summer.
Perhaps the finest example of their ability to launch quick, direct attacks was the opener in that early-season win at City, where Brennan Johnson finished at the far post from a sweeping move just 10 seconds after Porro had played a long channel ball from inside his own half. Going ahead inside 25 minutes, as they did against City, Everton and Leeds, encourages the opposition to force the attack, opening avenues for direct transition opportunities.
At home, Frank is trying to implement a more possession-oriented style. Naturally, given that he coached differently since winning promotion with Brentford in 2021, he has had some teething issues. Bentancur and Joao Palhinha are a formidable pivot away from home, but there is a lack of central ball progression when they both start, particularly if Romero is also out of the team.
Under Frank, the passing from midfield and defence has often been sideways and unimaginative, perpetuating a growing concern over the “horseshoe”-shaped pattern that the ball filters through — leading to last Saturday’s 0.05 expected goals (xG) tally, Spurs’ lowest on record in a Premier League game (since 2012-13), according to Opta. Like in the 1-0 home defeat by Bournemouth in August, they were smothered under Chelsea’s press, lacking someone to play through the lines under duress.
Tottenham are missing a ball progressor (either through passing or dribbling) from midfield, something that getting the sidelined pair of James Maddison and Dejan Kulusevski back would help remedy. Even Yves Bissouma, who is also currently out due to an ankle injury and has persistent disciplinary issues surrounding lateness, provides more urgency and incisive passing when fit and available.
Maddison and Kulusevski have both been missing all season (John Walton/Getty Images)
Spurs are generally more dominant territorially than their opposition, indicated by the 54.1 per cent field tilt, and press higher and more aggressively in home matches. Up until this point, however, they have had more success playing away, where direct and fast-break-oriented play is a larger part of their attack.
They’re also better from set pieces on their travels. The two 3-0 wins against West Ham and Everton were largely earned through their dominance in dead-ball situations, something Frank has implemented to great effect since taking over.
Remarkably, 30.2 per cent of their shots on the road this season have come from set pieces, which can be interpreted in multiple ways.
First, it demonstrates how efficient they are with turning such moments into goalscoring opportunities. They are maximising the aerial threat of Van de Ven, Romero, Bentancur and others to turn an area of the game that Postecoglou effectively ignored into a consistent route to making chances. However, it may also indicate their electric start away from home may not last. Chelsea dealt with their set-piece threat easily at the weekend, and opposing sides will become more comfortable with it unless Frank and set-piece coach Andreas Georgson can continue to innovate.
Truthfully, the underlying numbers indicate an overall unsustainability if their performances do not improve.
While Tottenham are more threatening on the road, their average xG for figure is lower than their xG against one. Though this tends to level itself out over the course of a season. Their aptitude for going ahead early in games plays a part, as they are more likely to retreat and invite pressure; however, their brilliance in both boxes is an anomaly. Goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario is in the form of his life, and Spurs are finishing as if Harry Kane and Son Heung-min never left. Currently, they are the league’s largest overperformers in terms of xG (17 goals from 11.4) and xG against (eight from 14.04).
Encouragingly, however, Frank appeared to make some progress in figuring it out on Tuesday.
Forward players were found in dangerous areas with incisive passes, prompting season-best performances from Simons, Wilson Odobert and Randal Kolo Muani, who was unfortunate not to score.
To ensure they are in Europe’s premier club competition again next season, that Copenhagen match must serve as a springboard at home — starting when Manchester United visit for Saturday’s early kick-off.
Additional reporting: Thom Harris