Spurs star is in danger of becoming Dele Alli 2.0 under Thomas Frank
The 2025/26 campaign promised a new dawn for Tottenham Hotspur and their supporters.
Before too long, Ange Postecoglou and Daniel Levy had both been replaced. Thomas Frank was the new manager and Fabio Paratici had even returned for a second bite of the cherry.
Yet, rather like it did with Ange, things have unravelled all too quickly for Frank. There’s one word for it: Spursy.
The North Londoners began the season brilliantly. Their new Danish manager had engineered more security and better organisation at the back.
From the remarkably high line of Ange-ball to the more sedate Frank ball, excusing the Super Cup defeat to PSG, Spurs kept five clean sheets in their opening seven games of the Frank regime. How times change, eh?
Tottenham have now won just one of their last eight matches in all competitions and have shipped 18 goals in that time.
While Spurs may not be in 17th place, the position Postecoglou steered them to, a number of players have regressed.
The biggest issues of Thomas Frank's reign
The Dane moved from west to north London over the summer and while his appointment did not garner the level of fanfare a certain Antonio Conte or Jose Mourinho attracted, it was viewed as a smart appointment.
From Championship to the top half of the Premier League, what Frank achieved with Brentford was first-class.
Yet, he is no longer with the Bees and Spurs fans demand more. They demand good football, they demand that they challenge for honours.
Well, despite Postecoglou’s tenure now a thing of the past, Spurs look no closer to achieving their goals under Frank.
The defence improved for a limited amount of time but the biggest issues have emerged in attack.
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Brennan Johnson ended last season as Spurs’ top scorer with 18 strikes to his name but he has put in a number of abject performances of late. The Welshman has found the net just once across his last 12 matches, a dire run that’s caused frustration.
Up top, Dominic Solanke has rarely been seen due to injury and the same can be said of James Maddison and Dejan Kulusevski.
Without them, Spurs have a creativity problem. According to FBref, their expected goals tally sits at just 11.9, the fourth-worst record in the division. That’s hardly a surprise considering that they rank 18th in the Premier League for key passes (88), and 16th for expected assists (8.1) across the campaign so far.
That’s even with marquee signing Xavi Simons in the team. Their failure to sign Morgan Gibbs-White and Eberechi Eze is well documented and how Frank must wish they’d secured a Premier League-proven creative midfielder instead.
That said, their full-backs are not offering enough either. Pedro Porro, usually so creative and dangerous, particularly over a dead ball, has only carved out 1.39 key passes per 90 minutes, down on last season’s tally of 1.97 per 90.
His partner in crime on the left isn’t faring much better either. In fact, his drop off has been somewhat reminiscent of Dele Alli.
Spurs star is heading down the Dele Alli path
When analysing the right back position at Spurs, it’s clear that improvement is needed. Perhaps Archie Gray or Djed Spence could profit from Porro’s lack of form.
Likewise at left-back, Destiny Udogie is enduring a tough season. He spent early parts of the term out injured but is now back in action. However, he’s largely disappointing.
It was only a few years ago that the young Italian was described as “one of the best left-backs” in the league by pundit Clinton Morrison but that now couldn’t be further from the truth.
In many senses, Udogie’s rise and fall mirror that of someone like Dele, like a Tanguy Ndombele. He’s got all the talent in the world, all the raw attributes to thrive at this level.
We’ve already seen that. In 2023/24, the wing-back collected two goals and three assists. Not jaw-dropping numbers sure, but this was a player well on his way to cementing himself as a future hero in these parts. He’d get into “nearly every team in the world” remarked journalist Hunter Godson.
Sadly for the 23-year-old, he’s regressed big time under Frank, much like the aforementioned Dele did under Mourinho. While Frank hasn’t called Udogie “lazy”, which was the criticism the ‘Special One’ handed to the England international, his performances have begun to decline.
Like Dele, this was a player with the world at his feet. He looked like a world beater, one of the best young talents in England. Now, however, it’s all gone pear-shaped.
Udogie’s last two performances, in particular, have proven to be a problem. In the defeat to Fulham last weekend, Football.London’s Alasdair Gold noted how the defender ‘didn’t offer too much going forward’ and made an untimely slip when Harry Wilson found the net.
His display against Newcastle United on Tuesday, a 2-2 draw, left plenty to be desired too.
Minutes played
90
Touches
52
Accurate passes
30/36 (83%)
Key passes
0
Accurate crosses
0/2
Successful dribbles
0/1
Shots
0
Tackles won
1
Interceptions
0
Ground duels won
2/7
Aerial duels won
0/2
The aforementioned Gold slated the Italian for having a few ‘sloppy moments’ while flagging that Newcastle got a lot of joy down the Tottenham flanks.
Safe to say his numbers don’t particularly paint a very vivid picture either. Udogie won just two of his nine duels and failed to register a single shot, supply a key pass or successfully complete a dribble.
All in all, it was a poor day at the office for the Italy international and he must improve moving forward.
He’s a talented player, one of the best young talents we’ve seen in the division across the last few years. Under Frank, however, it’s heading in the same way as Dele under Mourinho. Both had immense potential, but their talents could go to waste.
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