Tottenham Hotspur manager Thomas Frank once again hooked Xavi Simons off the pitch early in the game, and even though Spurs ended up doing better in the scoreboard without the Dutchman, there is no question in the minds of fans that Simons was basically scaepgoated by the coach.
Simons has had a rough start to life at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium since moving from RB Leipzig to Spurs this summer, and rival fanbases are having a field day with his lack of goal contributions. Arsenal fans are laughing because Spurs went after their big playmaking signing Eberechi Eze first. Meanwhile, Chelsea fans are going after Spurs here because they were the ones who were very close to signing Simons before Spurs got more serious and swooped in.
But Simons hasn't been the problem or even bad at all. He was great against Copenhagen, for example, and while he has still not been up to snuff yet as he adjusts to the actual Premier League, it's hard to fault him for what happened out there against Manchester United.
That's all on Thomas Frank. Although Frank has done a great job as Spurs coach thus far and honestly has too many haters at this point, he does deserve a fair bit of constructive criticism, too, and no player has been burned more by the new coach than the new attacking midfielder.
Thomas Frank gave Xavi Simons nothing to work with
Simons had nowhere to go with the ball against Manchester United, and that's not a new complaint either. Time and time again, Simons gets the ball in a sea of opposition jerseys, clamped down with no time or space or options to pass.
It's not like the players around him are making themselves available either. For example, Tottenham started Richarlison and Brennan Johnson on either flank for Simons to play off of in transition, and, well, that's basically like being all on your own, because Johnson and Richy are horrendous all around and are in the midst of seasons in which they are playing themselves out of the team entirely.
These are the players Simons had to work with. Tottenham inexplicably left Mathys Tel and Wilson Odobert on the bench with Mohammed Kudus injured, and, oh by the way, Tel and Odobert turned the game when they got on the pitch after Simons had already left. Simons got screwed big time by Frank's coaching decisions, and if Frank wants to get the most out of his most gifted footballer, then he has to give him some real help for a change.