Tottenham Hotspur truly outdid themselves on Saturday afternoon in front of their own fans, falling 2-1 to West Ham United, one of the worst teams in the Premier League and an opponent that is almost always suitable to a rebound.
But Spurs could not rebound against West Ham because they were the worse football team on that afternoon. Under manager Thomas Frank, Tottenham continued their troubling trend of being second best to the ball, disorganized tactically, out of ideas offensively, and entirely lacking any sort of threat on goal.
Frank's tactical and personnel decisions doomed Spurs, and yet another week of being caught flat footed has simply done in the heads of Spurs supporters, who had already lost their patience with Frank. This was his performance in a derby game just a week after getting knocked out of the FA Cup, and with time to prepare, he turned in an even worse coaching display.
Thomas Frank is full of excuses
After the game, in classic Thomas Frank fashion, the embattled Tottenham Hotspur manager said he would not give excuses for the performance, then proceeded to literally give the worst possible excuse and attempt to argue, as he has done all season after unacceptably sloppy losses, that Spurs should have won.
Here is what he said, as relayed by top Tottenham journalist Alasdair Gold of Football.London, “I think you all saw the game today, we could easily have won this one 2-1. I think it's no excuses. But also, the reason we're a little bit down to the bare bones with players. And we also need some of the offensive players to score a goal or two. All that is difficult for me to do like that and click with a finger. But I can promise that I'm sitting here, giving everything, every single day. I feel the trust from everyone and there's only one way, we need to keep going.”
There is so much in here that is straight up laughable. From Tottenham's manager saying he has no excuses to literally blaming injuries and the players themselves, Frank was so full of excuses that you, once again, really have to question his competency to be a leader of a top football club.
Frank sounds like a man who knows he is going to get fired, babbling about how hard he is working and then having the gall to say that he feels the trust from the organization. That trust, if it still exists, was entirely misplaced from the beginning, and the fans certainly do not trust a babblemouthed hypocrite who always has an excuse and never has an answer. Frank. Out.