REACTION: Bodo/Glimt 2-2 Tottenham | Spurs Deliver One of Their Worst Performances in Years

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0:14That was skin of our teeth stuff, wasn't it?

0:21A little bit concerning that one. A little bit concerning. Very frustrating. Like really very frustrating, that match. I think there's a time for probably more constructive reflection. We can probably talk about the fact that Budiglimt are a side that probably a lot of people underestimate, don't give enough credit to, absolutely dominate their league. They play very well. all the things that we heard about them before we played them in the Europa League. However, being brutally honest, being brutally honest, and this might be arrogant English Premier League fan stuff or whatever, we should be turning that team over.

1:13I know we had a few players missing. I know we're still sort of early on into the Frank project and all that type of thing. A lot of new players settling in, so on and so forth. However, I still don't feel like it's much of a stretch or much of a kind of knee-jerk or impulsive or entitled thing to say that really a Premier League team that has the resources that Spurs do, that has spent the sort of money that Spurs do. We can talk about how we've spent that money and I fully intend to do that. But we should be turning them over. We should be, quite simply. I mean, that's my bottom line on that performance.

2:01We should be turning them over. We didn't. Positives to this. Once again, we fought our way back. We were 2-0 down. And I know, I get it. I know some people will just want this to be a rage session and some people will want me to give the club both barrels, give Frank both barrels, all that type of thing. However, is Champions League away? I imagine, but a glimpse, will probably give teams comparable to us good games this season.

2:39And again, I'm sort of sat here relieved that we've managed to get that you know get a point there at least um i'm encouraged by the fact that once again we have managed to get ourselves back into a game but that also doesn't mean that i don't have concerns about the fact that we have found ourselves behind again against uh let's say inferior opponent that we have been lacking lacking much intensity to our play um seemingly bereft of confidence bereft of ideas that that that side is is is concerning to me you know so there are always glimmers of hope and there should be. You know, this shouldn't be a case of, you know, I've sort of, I've aired a few opinions about this on Twitter and responses have ranged from, you know, people sort of being tacitly frank out already, which I do just think is, I think is over the top, to be honest.

3:58It's a hard one to, honestly, see it's a hard one to know where where this lies tonight do I look maybe maybe I'm a frank apologist maybe it's I you know I don't have any like personal agenda I don't have any dog in the fight when it comes to Thomas Frank he wasn't somebody I was like in love with um before we were linked to him when we were first linked to him I said yeah you know he'd be a pretty underwhelming but all right appointment he'd raise our floor and all that type of thing so you know fine that's kind of that's kind of where I'm at so I don't really have a kind of you know he's not my guy do you know I mean it's not like uh we've brought Pochettino back and I would I would definitely if we if we brought Pochettino back or had brought him back at some point and we were not starting off very well you I can you can you can bet your bottom dollar that I would be bending over backwards to give El Jefe, El Gran Quezo, all the excuses you could imagine for Mauricio Pochettino.

5:05For Thomas Frank, I don't think his excuse is what I give Thomas Frank is, number one, he's not going anywhere for a long, long time. I think we can sort of settle on that. So you might as well get behind it. You know, that's some cheerleading and a half, isn't it? We might as well get behind it. I can't really be bothered to talk about the manager's future after five, six games, seven games, eight games, whatever it is now. I think I've been saying five or six games. I'll still be saying five or six games in a few months' time. He's only had five or six games. Give him a chance. We've just lost four nearly ten times in a row.

5:48My point is like, look, tonight, does it rest on the players? Does it rest on Frank? I couldn't really say what I will say. And I know I normally do like the players at the end, and I probably will still, you know, I'll definitely still do that. But the thing that I do think needs to be said is where we're essentially at right now, in my opinion, is that we have a decent starting XI. I think we've got, and I know it's a squad, Well, this is actually the point, right? It's supposed to be a squad game. I don't think we have enough quality. I don't think we have enough quality in depth. I look at players, basically, since...

6:33I've said this, I'm sort of repeating my point on Twitter, but since Pochettino, since that team faded out, since that brilliant team faded out, we didn't replace them and we didn't... We've sort of spoken about the lack of legacy planning for that squad. how we slowly watched it fade away. We've had a number of players, and actually I would say a remarkable amount of players, who all fall into the category of being quite good, however, we're not really sure quite how good they are or not. And around so many of these players have just consistently been culture wars. you know you think about off the top of my head Lo Celso and Dombolet you think about Pierre and Mojbjerg you think about Brennan Johnson you think about Richarlison we think about even players like Bentenka I personally really like him but you could probably even chuck Kolosevsky into this mix you know we're talking like loads and loads and loads of players that we tend to kind of get on a whim.

7:51We either have a kind of an in there to get a player or there's a... James Madison. I'm sorry, James Madison is probably another example of this. We maybe do miss James Madison, but again, James Madison was an opportunistic piece of business. James Madison was another one of those players that the clubs who are bigger than us, should we say in the established pecking order didn't want um and so now we kind of we've constantly found ourselves in this position where we have a squad of players that we can't really agree on how good or not they are there's a couple of players I think in this team that we would all unanimously say are amazing you know I think most people are all agreed on the fact that Christian Romero is a very talented player.

8:44Most people would agree on the fact that Mickey van der Ven is a very talented player. Although I do, you know, I think he struggled a bit tonight. I'm going to say I do think he struggled a bit without Romero's kind of experience and presence alongside him. Bergvall's a very promising youngster. Pat Matassar, I think, is a very promising young player. And then obviously we've got Kudus who is just phenomenal but wasn't playing for most of the game. Jed Spence, who is making a good fist of resurrecting his career. But I think we can probably say that it's going to take a bit more time for us to say he is truly a brilliant player.

9:25My point is that I don't know how many really good players Spurs have. I don't know how many really good players we have. and this to me is a ripple and this is a scar if we want to be dramatic about it and use quite charged language but this is one of the ripple effects of the way in which the club has been run quite simply I mean the club was run this way prior to the to the building of the stadium and everything however the club the squads the stature of the club has gone up levels in that time and we can look this is a conversation this is a tired conversation but the way in which the club operate never changed until Daniel Levy left I mean we don't know now let's let's wait and see and I'll get on to that but Daniel Levy continued to operate the football club like we were the spurs that he first picked up and when he was signing Aaron Lennon when he was signing Tom Michael Dawson, Andy Reid, players like that.

10:35That's what we continue to do and that's what we continue to do even when we were a team that was finishing in the Champions League or whatever. We coasted on that Pochettino team for as long as we could. We absolutely wrung every single bit of juice out of that Pochettino team, out of that era. And now what we've seen for the past few years is quite simply a group of players who are for the most part good you know and it feels harsh when we go after these players feels harsh when we dig them out and I feel harsh a lot of the time because I look at a lot of them and I think they are pretty decent even Hojbjerg who I always went for and anybody that's listened to this for any amount of time will know how much I always went for Hojbjerg and look he's having a decent enough career at a club like Marseille now right but again he's not tearing up trees is he you know he's he's he's been an all right player and that's kind of where we're at so I guess the main thing for me now is could Frank be inspiring this group of players more you know he's been given Xavi Simmons he's been given Mohamed Kudus we've got a Lucas Berval who seems to be improving a lot going up levels are other things that he could be doing that could maybe improve this side yeah probably but I reckon he is trying to do that right now it is a work in progress and we can talk about things that he hasn't learned we can talk about you know the Wolves game the other day how he arguably didn't learn from the Bournemouth performance a few games prior to that and repeated some of the same mistakes I haven't really kind of had enough time to absorb what people are saying about this in terms of his you know his managerial failings approaching this game I'm always hesitant to start going after managers you know I know the immediate thing is why has he dropped Kudus why has he dropped dropped but why is he rotated Kudus why has he dropped uh rotated Xavi Simmons we don't know how fit or not they were we don't it's that it's that thing isn't it I can't imagine he's been desperate to rotate those players out.

12:48But has he thought they're both a bit leggy? They're both looking a bit knackered. Kudis especially gives 150 % for... That's a bit of spinal tap, isn't it? He switches it up to 11 every single game that he plays.

13:10and is playing away against a team who, yep, can spring a surprise, yep, who are kind of a tricky customer at times, but ultimately are one of the minnows in this competition. Is that the opportunity to rest Mohamed Kudus? I reckon you can forgive a manager for thinking that that maybe is an opportunity to do it. But for me, you know, players should, our players, all of our players should be of a quality where they could handle an occasion like this. I'm not really buying the, I'm not really buying that they shouldn't be able to. and this is one of those things that you know when I'm talking about the players that we have at our disposal and I'm not basing this just off of this game I'm basing this off of the past couple of seasons of the start to this season of the observations that we've all been able to make you know if we are looking at this kind of Tavistock Enoch era as something that's going to be new that is going to try and have Spurs competing with teams like Arsenal teams like Liverpool then we need to learn from teams like that and just start to get brutal really start to get brutal because we've seen Liverpool do that basically from that point that we beat them at Wembley you know that that game that Jurgen Klopp himself has spoken about when he realized look if we want to overtake a team like Spurs, let alone compete with the teams above them, it's going to take some changes.

14:56It's going to take us buying lots of really good players. And that's what Liverpool did from that point. And they were ruthless with players. It's what Arsenal have been like. The first couple of years under Arteta when they stuttered and they did all right, but didn't really see also under Emery. They're sort of post-Wenger era. And then they just had that point clearly, didn't they? Where Arteta must have laid his cards on the table and just said, we need more players. We need better players. We need players of a certain quality. And they have been ruthless in rotating out players, you know?

15:34And that's what we need to do. Like, we need to stop being in this position. And what I'm talking about is if Spurs are aspiring to be a top team, right? If Spurs are aspiring to be a top team, if we are wanting to go toe-to-toe with teams like Liverpool, with teams like Arsenal, Julio Mavicario, not good enough. He just isn't good enough. We can talk about how what he does, all his reflex saves are decent. Overall, he is not good enough. He wouldn't get into Arsenal's team. He wouldn't get into Liverpool's team. He wouldn't get into Newcastle's team even. I'm not having Vicario over Pope. I think Pope is similarly frustrating though.

16:18At least just watching the Arsenal game the other day, his kicking is appalling. Actually cut from a similar cloth really, Vicario and Pope. So maybe I'll put them on a par.

16:32Liverpool doesn't get into Liverpool's team, definitely doesn't get into City's team. It's, you know, Richarlison, just simply not good enough great he started the season well and yeah I'm going to be a bit gammon about it but it just kind of irritated me a bit seeing the club put out like videos of them training and of course Richarlison is prattling about in training again and I know I know that's so anti-fun and I know that's so you're I know I know that is like knee jerk and I know that's basing my opinion on a player from like one clip of training which might have just been one light-hearted moment in an otherwise intense and well-trained session but it just irritated me and it just irritates me that you know on like the Ballon d 'Or night he is making stupid photoshops of himself winning the Ballon d 'Or like it's just not he's not serious he's not a serious player like you actually you actually have an opportunity there you you're playing for Spurs you're you have been at least at one point I don't know if he is anymore Brazil's number nine like why you why you sort of why are you doing jokes about yourself winning the Ballon d 'Or why aren't you striving to try and be a player that is that good you know but just bin him off man like it's just again this is like years we've been having this conversation around him he's not good enough Brennan Johnson I'll be forever grateful I'll be forever grateful to the lad for that goal in in in Bilbao for winning us the trophy I love him but we've all known for a long time he is not good enough he's finishing great he can he can he can score every now and again and we can say maybe if he'd have played in the early noughties he would have been an amazing number nine or all this type of thing even that I think is you know I've I think I've even likened him to being like or he could have been like a Defoe type player nonsense man that is me completely underselling Defoe um and I think one of my hottest takes about Jermaine Defoe is I think his like contribution to Spurs and his Spurs career is massively underplayed I saw the the club put out that um it was like the anniversary of Clint Dempsey's winner at Old Trafford.

19:00It was the first time we'd won there in years, I think. The work that Defoe did outside of the box, not only in bringing the ball down, but holding off Rio Ferdinand and then threading through just a disgusting through pass to... I want to say Bale. I think it was Bale that set up Dempsey was ludicrous work. And I've never seen Brendan Johnson do anything similar to that. I think Brendan Johnson seems like a nice lad. You know, I saw him in Madison's thing. I think he seems like a sensitive soul. I think he seems like a very nice kid. You know, I think he's faced horrible abuse from fans or whatever on Instagram and all that type of stuff.

19:52I think all that stuff is very unpleasant. I think football is a cruel and very nasty thing at times. However, based purely on ability, based purely on what Spurs want to be, he just isn't good enough. And we know this, we can't continue to have these type of discussions year after year after year after year about players. We just have to get to a point as a club where we just get brutal. And obviously there's nothing we can do right now. We have the squad that we have. But I'm just talking about like the results, the way we're playing right now is, in my opinion, our result of the types of players that we have available to us, the lack of quality that we have available to us.

20:41And if the club, if the owners really want to make a change, then they've got to start being brutal. They have to keep spending money and they have to improve. And I'm not talking about signing superstars constantly. I'm not saying spend hundreds of millions of pounds on players time after time after time. But as I was saying with Joel in the pod the other day,

21:12you look at a player like Trossard. That was the example. Trossard, who Arsenal signed. right? He's not a superstar, but he was an above-average performer, way above-average performer at Brighton, a clearly very talented player that Arsenal managed to pick up kind of on the cheap, who they don't have to play week in, week out. They don't constantly have to play him, but more often than not, when he does play for them, he ends up being one of their best and most influential players. We need to get smarter. We need to get smarter with the type of business that we do we need to just bring in players that we know are good I want to see us keep taking risks I want to see us still keep bringing in the Bergvolds the Archie Greys and so on and so forth but also I want to see us improve the overall quality of the squad and I think until Spurs do that we are going to continue to have frustrating afternoons like Wolverhampton Wanderers frustrating evenings like today but this is the the point that I land on with this is that I'm not going to blame Frank for this I don't think it's worth blaming Frank for this because what he is doing within his control in my opinion at least is putting in more of a floor for us we're not losing these games that we're going behind in for the most part Bournemouth obviously but we're not losing these games that we're going behind him we are fighting and I think I mean just look at how much better we looked when Xavi Simons, Mahmoud Kudus come onto the pitch you know you can't you can't see like how much of a lift adding personnel of that quality into the mix.

23:17That's a really garbled sentence. But essentially, you can't look at that and say that there wasn't a huge lift when players of a certain quality suddenly entered the pitch. That's just simply the case. And if the likes of Brennan Johnson, Wilson Odeber, who personally I think is a very promising player, has a lot of ability but is not ready yet in my opinion

23:47if these guys can't if they can't beat a team like Bodo Glimt with all due respect and all that type of thing

23:58then it's just an indication that we don't have enough good players and I'm kind of repeating myself here but I'm not going to throw Frank under the bus for this and at the same time you know although that's kind of been a bit of a sort of a rant about playing staff and a rant about Levy and the legacy of it and all that type of thing don't don't take this as like I'm kind of feeling like this season's over until we spend loads of money in January or we spend loads of money in summer like I still think that we started this season really really well we're still in the sort of I mean let's let's wait and see until this match this sort of match day is finished right now we're sat fourth in the Champions League who knows where that goes we're sat fourth in the Premier League we're doing all right like we're doing all right and I fully expect this to be a more positive season I wouldn't be surprised to see us win a trophy i'd love to see us win a trophy obviously um i kind of feel like i kind of feel like we might i kind of feel like the sort of resilience that we've shown at times could see us win something um so i i think there's plenty to be positive about i just think there you know it's obviously a frustrating evening and it was a frustrating game against Wolves wasn't it it just was and so one has followed the other and of course this conversation is gonna you know sort of bleed out in this way but you know I just there's there's it's like the too long didn't read isn't it like ultimately I kind of feel like we were all right once our good players came on and as such the reason why we played so badly today is because the other players weren't good enough so I'm not going to sit here and eviscerate Frank and his tactics and all that type of stuff because I don't really buy that I just quite simply don't think there's enough quality in the Tottenham team

26:15HackerBLCPS says I wonder if Frank modelled the first half after Angers' line-up. Barely remember it, though, to be quite honest. I'm not sure, mate, either. John Benfield says, smelly, smelly game. Ben Mathis says, I cannot argue against the resolve of this lot, but we need to find a way to start creating chances. Yep, agreed. T-Pace says, I missed all up to Bodo's second goal. Xavi again poor and Kudus holds onto the ball too long a lot I don't know mate if you missed all the way up to Bodo's second goal it was night and day since those two lads came on so I'm not going to be throwing them under the bus at all to be honest Jack Underhill says Christ on a broomstick that was dire, what was the plan park every conceivable bus in the Arctic whilst trying to score exclusively in the last 10 minutes.

27:15Sounds like Jack isn't too fond of Tommy Frank there. Chris Tucker says, Johnson really poor. He spent more time... I don't know what that's in reference to, so I'm not going to say that. Chris Tucker says he makes some salacious accusation about what Brennan Johnson's been doing as opposed to attacking the glint defence. Freddie SP says, seeing Bodo have 73 % possession is a managerial issue. He needs to find solutions in terms of what we do in possession. I'm not 100 % convinced by Frank yet. Yeah. Is it a managerial issue though? Or is it, again, is it a personnel thing? Ben Sankar was abysmal today.

28:09there's talk of him getting a new contract no you know like no get him out the door like for me he's washed he's he's he's a he's a placeholder footballer for me now not good enough just isn't good enough I don't think he influences games I don't think he affects games enough he doesn't control games he doesn't add a sense of calm or any sort of balance to our midfield whatsoever I just don't I don't rate him at all I actually don't rate Ben Sankara at all I think he's actively bad now that's just how I feel about it so I think again I blame my lack of control in midfield for reduced amount of possession Eamon Murphy says large part of that game was worse than the dark days under Ange just remember Tamworth mate Tamworth we were we didn't manage to get one I mean we looked like the second best team against a load of plumbers and car mechanics like Tamworth was a ridiculously bad game and we were awful for 18 months under Ange so you know nah I'm not having that Newman says this is totally reactionary but Johnson should never see minutes again seems like a nice guy but my god if he's not finishing he's terrible at everything else yep Gage Reynolds says it feels like we only score from own goals and set pieces worrying me and Arsenal have done alright doing that to be fair Dan Strickland says wasn't the right 11 to start, ponderous in the first half second half better but still not great signs going forwards Newman says like what's that like his defending as a whole is horrible but looking for their first goal infuriating I'm not sure entirely what you mean there Newman mate sorry

30:26Grant Echo Sonic says far too many good chances on our goal better teams will punish us Hacker BLCPS also says we have no central play it's all tap tap pass up the sides and then losing the ball Robert Glentworth says shout out to Archie Gray for his off ball runs and forward intent yes second goal was a result of him and his play you know a really talented player a really talented player and a really exciting one

31:01keyboard warrior says that point is papering over widening cracks I can't profess to know what the answer is but it's looking increasingly like Frank isn't the answer I mean I just think that's a knee jerk opinion mate I'm sorry I like I'm not trying to you know I'm not trying to publicly shame you but it's just my response to that I just think it's a knee jerk opinion really like I don't think you can be saying that increasingly looks like Frank isn't the answer after a handful of football matches just

31:43Robert says have you seen Potch with the US team not pretty yeah but I mean come on man sorry to any US listeners but let's be real Tom Bicknell says poor game but less than 10 games in need to give frank time coming back from 2-0 down twice in four days is positive we move um it was it was 1-0 in there against wolves just just saying tom but i know what you're saying coming back from behind um twice in four days is positive um andy p says three games running vicario has cost us a goal how much longer does he get before giving kinski a run of games agreed it's almost feeling a bit brad friedland hugo lorice but not quite as pronounced as that that's actually a poor example sorry i red i redact that retract it whatever

32:39um james nicholson says i like frank as a guy and his attitude at the moment i hate his football i cannot see any plan to our attacking game and as we try harder we lose our defensive strengths as well. Just not a fan.

32:55Robert says Vicario playing stinkers game on game. That has an impact.

33:03John Benfield also says I'm staying calm, but it's concerning. Madders is out. Xavi's settling and we're still desperate for a left wing and a striker. Five starters missing today, but even so far our basic passing is so poor. yeah Anon says you'd have to go back before 2008-2009 to find a worse front line than what we have now

33:29James Reid says in my opinion we now have a huge sample size of matches with which to conclude that Johnson, Porro interesting, Benton Kerr and Vicario need to be succeeded by fresh blood I'm surprised you put Porro in there mate I really am I I I agree with you on all of those aside for Porro um who I think is being one of our better players for quite a few months now really um

34:06uh uh Jack Elth says hard to win away in Europe probably be harder to come from 2-0 down. People are getting too worked up too early on. Yep, probably true. Deuces Wild says, credit to Bodo Glimt. They came in with the ambition to play good football and would have been deserved winners. Yeah, they would have been deserved winners. I think they can probably feel hard done by today, actually, really. JustGems also says, Miss Cootie tonight, Van der Ven got proper rattled. Was captain too much. Yeah, he did get really rattled. and he was after his goal um well after he got the goal disallowed for pulling that lad's shirt he immediately ran back and I thought he was going to get a red you know I genuinely thought he was going to get a red it shouldn't have been but I thought the ref might have felt like it was rash and it was rash it was a rash challenge um canine mcgern says have to actively remind myself we're still so early in Frank's time

35:23keyboard warrior says you've just spent as long as the VAR check for our second blaming tonight's performance on history well you know I think it's a bit silly to not consider that things that have happened leading up to this point might have an effect on today. So there we go. I mean, I think it's, you know, I think you've spent the past few streams on here basically saying that Thomas Frank should go already. So I think I'm kind of seeing where you're coming from, chap.

36:02Anon, has Johnson ever played centre forwards for us? feel like he'd do better there than ghosting it out on the wing no I don't think he has that's something we've always sort of spoken about but you know do we think he's any good I don't know I'm not so sure