Thomas Frank and Djed Spence haven’t always seen eye to eye this season and there was another flashpoint involving the pair in Sunday’s defeat at Nottingham Forest
It was another day to forget for Tottenham Hotspur manager Thomas Frank on Sunday. The London side lost heavily at Nottingham Forest to increase the pressure on the Dane, whose relationship with defender Djed Spence came into focus once more.
Spence and fellow defender Micky van de Ven appeared to snub Frank after a defeat to Chelsea earlier in the campaign. Both men apologised personally to the boss, but there was another flashpoint involving Spence at the City Ground.
As reported by BBC Sport, the latest episode came when Spence was substituted by Frank around an hour into Spurs’ defeat. He is claimed to have appeared to question the decision when leaving the field after his number came up.
Spurs were 2-0 down at the time thanks to a brace from Forest winger Callum Hudson-Odoi. Ben Davies took Spence’s place in a triple change, with Joao Palhinha and Lucas Bergvall also entering the fray, but it mattered little as Ibrahim Sangare added a third for the hosts.
Defeat leaves Frank’s team in the bottom half with just 22 points from 11 games. Forest, meanwhile, moved five points clear of the relegation zone with their victory.
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Spurs winger Mohammed Kudus delivered a brutally honest assessment after the defeat. “Not good enough. A very disappointing result,” the Ghanaian said. “We didn’t create enough today, including myself. We need more effort in our all-round game.
“To win a game in the Premier League is very difficult. We need the same input every single day. We lacked that. We needed to do more. The final quality, including myself, some of the decisions we took today was a bit in a rush. We need to pick it up and focus on the next game.”
Next up for Spurs is a league meeting with Liverpool on Saturday. They follow that with London derbies either side of the turn of the year, away at Crystal Palace and then Brentford.
Fans on social media voiced their frustration at Frank’s substitution during and after the Forest reverse. “Davies coming on for Spence has been an awful call by Thomas Frank,” wrote one, while another said: “Frank is seeing this diabolical [Pedro] Porro performance and decides to take Spence off instead” and a third said “I can’t wait to hear Frank explain how [Davies] for Spence and [Palhinha] for Bentancur were gonna help us at 0-2 down!”
While some have called for a change of manager, others have been less trigger-happy, with one writing: “I still think Frank should be given time. Build and use our best players when they are back fit. But Frank needs to be a little serious!”
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