Tottenham manager Thomas Frank has apologized to fans for their side’s disastrous 4-1 defeat to Arsenal, admitting that Spurs goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario did not perform well against their north London rivals.
Spurs’ disappointing defeat left them with the lowest expected goals tally of any team in a Premier League game so far this season, with their 0.07xG surpassing their previous low of 0.12xG set in a 1-0 home defeat to Chelsea in early November.
Just 22 days later, Spurs suffered another brutal defeat, having won just three of their last 11 games in all competitions, dropping them to ninth in the table.
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Free to watch: Premier League highlights of Arsenal vs. Tottenham Hotspur
The disastrous home defeat to their local rivals was branded “embarrassing” by former Spurs striker Les Ferdinand, with Frank forced to say sorry to the club’s fans.
The Dane told Sky Sports: “It’s very painful. It was a terrible performance and it was the complete opposite of my intention before coming here.”
“All I can do is apologize to my fans for this performance.
“Even if the team tried to play a little shorter, they would ride it and we couldn’t get out.
“We couldn’t get out of those duels because they were stronger in the duels. When the matches got longer with duels and second balls and things like that, we just couldn’t win enough of those duels.”
“On the day, we lost due to a bad performance.
“I’ve seen a lot of fight and character on this team (in the past), but one of the big things we didn’t do enough was win duels.
“Call it what you want, but I just couldn’t win enough duels.”
He added at the post-match press conference: “It’s no exaggeration to say I’m very disappointed and not satisfied with today’s performance. I don’t want to run away from that.
“Like I said, I’m sorry to the fans. I think it’s also fair to say where we’re coming from. Last year we finished 17th and we’re trying to build something and today it didn’t look like we were trying to build anything.”
Vicario: We didn’t fight.
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Tottenham goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario reflects on the disappointing north London derby defeat to Arsenal
Spurs have lost four games in a row against Arsenal, while the Gunners have won 4-1, the most in the Premier League.
Vicario, who is part of Tottenham’s coaching group under Frank, also apologized to fans and criticized the losing team’s fight as they look to new and difficult tasks when they visit Champions League holders Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday.
“It was a very bad night for us,” the Italian told Sky Sports. “First of all, I have to apologize to those who supported us and traveled with us, who were expecting to see a fight because as a group we did not fight.
“Participating in football matches is non-negotiable, especially at this level.
“But this is a tough night, a very bad loss, but we have to stick together because we know we have to deal with it.
“We have another great night on Wednesday. We didn’t show anything tonight that we usually do, so we have to stick together and believe in ourselves.
“I understand that emotions run high when you lose a derby like that, but we need to remain calm.”
Spurs players look depressed after losing 4-1 to Arsenal
Ferdinand agreed with Vicario regarding the lack of spirit shown in the defeat.
He said: “It wasn’t a five-star performance from Arsenal. The scoreline was five-star but there was no fight. Arsenal just couldn’t get out of third gear.”
“You would be hoping for a bit of an incentive. Arsenal have three players who have never played in a north London derby before. Tottenham probably had one, but there was nothing.
“At the beginning of the week I was thinking about this game. Nothing the players did there felt like a north London derby.”
Frank’s tactics to attract attention
Frank opted for a 5-4-1 system at Arsenal, but it backfired as the home team dominated the first half and scored two goals while Spurs failed to get a shot on goal.
This prompted Frank to switch to a 4-2-3-1 system at half-time, but Arsenal’s hat-trick hero Eberechi Eze scored his second goal just 35 seconds after the restart.
Eberechi Eze scores hat-trick for Arsenal against Spurs
Asked in the post-match press conference if his tactics were wrong, Frank said: “I always take full responsibility. So, full responsibility is always on me. We didn’t perform well today, so I chose the team to play 5-4-1.”
“We made the change at half-time, which was very, very smart. They scored in the first minute and made it 3-0, and the rest was history.”
“What I’m saying is that no matter which system we play, we needed to be more aggressive and better than Duel. It doesn’t matter which system we play.
“But I take full responsibility for today.”
Jamie Carragher believes former Brentford manager Frank needs to be more proactive if he is to succeed at Spurs.
He told Sky Sports: “The negative thing so far under Thomas Frank is that he has gone from being a pragmatic coach and trying to make things difficult, as he tried to do here, to thinking more about how to score and how to win games.”
“You can keep going back to your fundamental numbers and xG, which is very low.
“If you just watched the first five minutes of the game, you’re thinking, ‘What are Tottenham going to do here to hurt Arsenal?’
“That’s the problem with every manager who breaks into the first team. You have to do more than just stop opponents. Thomas Frank can’t do that. There’s a reason for the first team. There’s a reason for the first team.”
“They’re special. They’re elite because they can sometimes coach teams that are hard to win, but at the same time they can coach teams to win games. That’s the big difference. If you don’t get it right, you’re not going to last very long.”
Neville: It could have been more embarrassing.
Here’s what Sky Sports’ Gary Neville has to say about Spurs:
“Spurs are going to get a lot of criticism because of this game. There’s a lot of love for Thomas Frank and we all want him to do well.
“But you have to discuss the first half. I’ve played against teams where they come out to play and forget they’re playing football. They’re just playing a role, and that’s just stopping the other team with deep plays.”
“Spurs had no idea how to go from front to back. If you’re playing like that you have to win because if it goes off it’s going to be really ugly. That’s why you saw Thomas Frank get more progressive at half-time.”
“They looked like a team that was grappling with how to stop opponents and forgot about winning games. When you push a team too much into a glass-half-empty mentality, it can look really ugly.”
“It could have been worse, it could have been more embarrassing. They have to work on their identity. They didn’t know the pattern of how to play a third of the pitch. That has to be worked on.”
