Of the positives Tottenham boss Thomas Frank tried to salvage from defeat towards Liverpool maybe the important thing was the response of followers to their efforts in adversity.
The connection between an ailing Spurs workforce and its residence crowd has been strained via 2025, a 12 months wherein they delivered the Europa League trophy however received solely 4 video games within the Premier League and misplaced a membership file 11.
Dissatisfaction has been clear, and Saturday’s defeat left them languishing once more within the backside half of the desk with Frank underneath strain from those that are usually not satisfied he’s the best man for the job.
However the workforce did battle for an hour with 10 males and completed the sport with 9 after first Xavi Simons after which Cristian Romero have been despatched off, and nonetheless they summoned a robust end, rattled Liverpool and roused their supporters.
There may be an irony that they generated this temper with the form of direct soccer and aerial assault that offends a number of the Spurs purists, however they discovered a method to unite the group behind them by refusing to offer in. And it felt like progress.
‘We felt the followers actually pushed us ahead,’ mentioned defender Micky van de Ven. ‘It was actually robust, we made 2-1 and also you noticed that we saved pushing ahead even once we have been with 9 males.
Thomas Frank has been topic to growing disapproval from followers however should harness the combating spirit in his workforce that supporters responded to
Micky van de Ven was disillusioned he was with the choices which went towards Tottenham
‘On the pitch, we knew possibly we will get one thing right here, we will get the outcome. Sadly, it did not occur. What can I say? I am pleased with the boys. How we saved pushing the entire time and the way exhausting we labored for the entire recreation.
‘It is a number of feelings going via my head. I am pleased with the workforce and naturally I am gutted, disillusioned. I am offended how some issues have been going within the recreation. However we will get nothing modified about it anymore. And that is it.’
Nothing galvanises a workforce and their followers like a collective feeling of injustice and Frank raged accordingly about the important thing selections that went towards his workforce, the 2 pink playing cards and what he claimed was a foul on Romero by Hugo Ekitike as he scored Liverpool’s second.
Romero’s livid protests earned him a yellow card from referee John Brookes.
‘Cuti is a robust defender so I do know he isn’t going to go down simple,’ mentioned Van de Ven. ‘If Cuti is that this satisfied that he is getting pushed then most likely there ought to be one thing improper with it.’
Even so, it’s not possible to excuse Romero for retaliating to a foul by Ibrahima Konate in stoppage time. Spurs have been on the cost on the time. Liverpool have been rattled and an equaliser didn’t appear out of the query.
However the Spurs captain kicked out at Konate as they lay on the ground on in a heap and now misses the sport at Crystal Palace on Sunday via suspension. It will likely be his second suspension of the season.
He was dominated out of the house defeat by Fulham, banned after 5 yellow playing cards and his regardless of enhancements within the final two years, his indiscipline stays a legal responsibility.
Simons will serve a three-match ban for his pink card, awarded after a VAR intervention for catching Virgil van Dijk mid-calf along with his studs.
Xavi Simons was given his marching orders when VAR reviewed his problem on Virgil van Dijk
Frank claimed it was not a pink card and Arne Slot mentioned he had seen related fouls dedicated with out the culprits despatched off, however the actuality of the scenario is that it leaves him with out his most inventive drive for key video games, journeys throughout London to Palace and Brentford and at residence towards Sunderland.
Regardless of their misfiring kind, these are fixtures Spurs are anticipated to win. Six or seven factors would definitely ease a number of the strain on Frank and carry them up the Premier League.
Then come fixtures towards Bournemouth, West Ham and Burnley, three groups all under Spurs because it stands.
That is six-match midwinter sequence seems essential if Frank is to steer the doubters that he can halt the slide and switch round his first season on the helm. It would assist if they will harness the constructive vitality from the way in which they completed the sport towards Liverpool. If not, there could also be bother forward.
