Sky Sports’ Jamie Redknapp believes Tottenham’s 1-0 home defeat to Chelsea was “one of the worst performances” by Spurs, as boss Thomas Frank played down being snubbed by some of his players at full-time after they were booed off.
A toothless Tottenham suffered a fifth straight defeat to London rivals Chelsea as they mustered just one shot on target in a dismal defeat.
A sorry Spurs were loudly booed off by their own fans as Joao Pedro’s first-half winner deepened Spurs’ home woes, with Frank’s side suffering a 12th loss in their last 19 league games at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Footage has since emerged on social media at full-time showing defenders Micky van de Ven and Djed Spence ignoring Frank’s request to applaud the fans.
On the incident, Frank said at his post-match press conference: “All the players are, of course, frustrated. They would like to do well, to win, to perform well, so I understand that.
“I think it’s a part which is difficult, of course, to 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 you win, I can tell you that.”
Asked whether their behaviour was acceptable, he replied: “I understand why you ask the question, but I think that’s the, how can you say, one of the small issues.
“We have Micky van de Ven and Djed Spence doing everything they can. I think they have performed very well so far this season.
“Everyone is frustrated. We do things in a different way, so I don’t think it’s a big problem.”
Frank on record-low xG: It hurts massively
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Spurs boss Thomas Frank says he understands his home fans booing after their side’s loss 1-0 loss to London rivals Chelsea.
The loss to Chelsea saw Tottenham record the lowest expected goals (0.05xG) by a Premier League team this season and their lowest on record since Opta started collecting Premier League xG data in 2012/13.
Questioned about the record-low xG, Frank said: “I would say that, of course, hurts massively.
“I’ve never been in charge of a team that created that little in one game, never. So that of course, I will look into what we can do to make it better, but I think that’s one thing.
“I think everything is a little bit linked. And today we didn’t hit the level.”
The dreadful performance irked the home support, who showed their frustration throughout.
Asked whether he understood the boos, Frank responded: “Yes, 100 per cent. I think we all sense the frustration and the emotions that’s part of football. It’s extremely painful.
“That’s part of the job to face you guys now and answer the very good questions, when you just are burning inside and you like to find solutions, watch the game back, see what went wrong, all that. But I think it’s about trying to stay calm in general.
“I think Chelsea were good. We were definitely second best. We performed badly. I think we lacked energy and intensity. That freshness, we didn’t have that.
“Then I think the high pressure they came with, I don’t think we solved it well enough, even though we worked on it, so that we need to keep working on.
“Our high pressure, we lacked a little bit in the beginning until we got on top of it. Then they went up 1-0, and then we were chasing, and that was just a bad circle – chasing, lagging, intensity, energy, bad decisions.”
Redknapp: Tottenham were so poor
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Spurs boss Thomas Frank says he understands his home fans booing after their side’s loss 1-0 loss to London rivals Chelsea.
Tottenham failed to have a shot on target in the second half, and they created zero big chances in the defeat to the Blues.
The display led ex-Spurs midfielder Redknapp to label it one of their worst ever.
He told Sky Sports: “It didn’t look hard [to play against Spurs] tonight. That was as easy as it gets. If it were a boxing match, they’d have stopped it.
“Tottenham were so poor. I actually thought they’d have a real go tonight, but that was one of the worst performances I’ve seen from Tottenham.
“They have won three home games in the last year, and I would probably put that as No 1 because if you flip it to some of the other games, like last season when they lost 4-3, at least they had a real go.
“They got after teams, it could have gone either way, and it was exciting.
“That today, they never laid a glove on Chelsea. They had no idea to play out, they had no understanding and they were missing challenges. They made it so easy for Chelsea.”
