Thomas Frank admitted he was ‘massively hurt’ to have managed Tottenham’s lowest-ever expected-goals total in a Premier League game, adding he understood why his own players in Djed Spence and Micky van de Ven gave him the cold shoulder after full-time.
Spurs’ xG of 0.05 was the worst recorded by Spurs since the metric entered football in 2012. They were booed by their own supporters at the end of this loss to Chelsea, with Frank conceding he ‘100 per cent’ understood their outpouring of frustration.
Frank performed his usual post-match lap of appreciation to applaud those supporters left in the stadium, but a video by Chris Cowlin showed Spence and Van de Ven ignoring their manager when he tried speaking with them. Spence in particular appeared to wave his arms in disgust as they approached the tunnel.
‘The players are of course frustrated,’ Frank said when asked on the pair. ‘They like to do well, like to win, like to perform well, so I understand that. We can be consistent in good times and bad times – that’s why I went around to the fans as I did. It’s more fun when we win, I can tell you that.
‘I understand why you’re asking the question but I’d say that’s one of the small issues. Micky van de Ven and Djed Spence are doing everything they can. Everyone is frustrated. We do things in a different way. I don’t think it’s a big problem.’
Frank performed his usual post-match lap of appreciation to applaud those supporters left in the stadium, but a video by Chris Cowlin showed Spence and Van de Ven ignoring their boss
Thomas Frank has admitted he was ‘massively hurt’ to have managed Tottenham’s lowest-ever expected-goals total in a Premier League game after their 1-0 home defeat to Chelsea
The Spurs boss also revealed that he understood why his own players in Djed Spence and Micky van de Ven gave him the cold shoulder after full-time, admitting they are ‘frustrated’
On managing only 0.05xG, Frank continued: ‘I would say that of course hurt massively. I’ve never been in charge of a team that created that little in one game. Never. That of course I will look into what we can do to make it better.’
On the boos at full-time, he added: ‘Yes, 100 per cent. We all sense the frustration and the emotions. That’s part of football. It’s extremely painful.
‘Of course it’s part of the job to face you guys now and answer your very good questions when you are just burning inside and you would like to find solutions and you want to watch the game back and see what went wrong and all that. But it’s about trying to stay calm. In general, I think Chelsea were good, we were definitely second best, we performed badly.’
Meanwhile, Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca hailed Moises Caicedo as the best defensive midfielder in the world alongside Manchester City’s Rodri.
