Tottenham Hotspur manager Thomas Frank believes the team deserved to lose against Bournemouth
Tottenham have finally fallen short of the mark in the Premier League after a brilliant start to the season. The Lilywhites came up against the high-flying Bournemouth at home this weekend. And it is fair to say that the North London club were pushed on the back-foot from minute-one. The team lacked intensity and urgency, which was evident in their performance.
The Cherries took the lead inside the first five minutes of the game, thanks to Evanilson’s deflected effort. And it is fair to say that Spurs had plenty of time to turn the game around and continue the winning momentum. However, the Lilywhites sat back and defended for much of the match.
To make matters worse, Tottenham’s first shot of the game came in the 55th minute. This suggests the team was fatigued for some reason and failed to follow the game plan. However, Spurs upped the intensity in the last fifteen minutes, but it deemed to be too late after all.
Tottenham manager Thomas Frank is not happy with the performance
The initial positive run appears to be over for Thomas Frank. The Danish tactician faced his first defeat as the Tottenham boss, and it came at the hands of Bournemouth. From minute-one, it looked like the result was only going to go one way… and that is in favour of the Cherries.
Following his first league defeat as Spurs manager, Thomas Frank reiterated a similar message. Speaking in his post-match presser (as transcribed by Football.London), Frank said,
“We clearly didn’t perform well today. We played against a very good Bournemouth team that we know can make it difficult for any team in the league. They played to their strengths. They did that very well and we didn’t handle it well. We knew exactly what they came with and we trained for it. We just didn’t handle it well enough in terms of the balls in behind, the second balls, duels in the middle of the park.”
The Spurs manager added,
“That’s the defensive side and on the offensive side we struggled to find good enough solutions to get through phase one and two so we could get up there and put a bit of pressure on them. We only did that in the last 15 where we put on good pressure and could have equalised. I think over the game it was fair that Bournemouth won.”
Thomas Frank admitted that the performance against Bournemouth was not good, and the Lilywhites struggled to shut down the Cherries as they played to their strengths. The Danish tactician added that his team struggled to make an impact on the pitch defensively, by not winning duels and second balls. The Spurs manager also pointed out that his team did not attack well, except the last fifteen minutes. And Thomas Frank ended by admitting that Bournemouth were the deserved winners.
The international break appears to have come at an opportune time for Spurs. Thomas Frank has the chance to reflect on the performance and rectify the errors his team made over the next two weeks. The poor performance against Bournemouth is likely just a minor setback in what is shaping up to be an exciting season.