Jamie Carragher does brutal U-turn on ‘best Tottenham signing under Thomas Frank’ | OneFootball

Jamie Carragher appears to have done a bit of a U-turn when it comes to Tottenham Hotspur’s signing of Joao Palhinha over the summer, after analysing the midfielder following the deflating weekend defeat to Chelsea.

The 30-year-old Portugal international has largely delivered what was expected of him after making his loan switch from Bayern Munich, even chipping in with three goals for Thomas Frank’s men.

Palhinha has been posting excellent numbers when it comes to ball recoveries, tackles and interceptions so far this term, and has clearly made Tottenham a tougher nut to crack defensively.

However, his partnership with Rodrigo Bentancur has not been a productive one in home outings, with Caragher pointing out how the duo shy away from passing the ball fowards and often opt to go sideways or back when in possession.

Indeed, Carragher brutally named the reason why top Premier League clubs didn’t move for Palhinha when he left Fulham and also why he struggled to feature at Bayern Munich.

That’s in stark contrast to his comments on the Portuguese in The Telegraph just a week ago, when he wrote: “The best signing under Frank so far is Joao Palhinha, a highly effective ball-winner more so than a playmaker.

“In the early stages of his Spurs career, Palhinha is exactly what Frank and his new club need, and it could bring instant success.

“Going forward, there will have to be an evolution, as the pairing of Palhinha and Rodrigo Bentancur is perceived by supporters to be over-cautious in home games.”

Carragher doubles down on Palhinha weaknesses

When Palhinha and Bentancur have played together at The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, Spurs have struggled for creativity from the middle of the park.

The midfielders across the Premier League were plotted on a graph for tackles and line-breaking passes on Sky Sports’ Monday Night Football.

Carragher pointed out that while Palhinha is comfortably outperforming almost every other midfielder for tackles, neither he nor Bentancur are making many passes through the lines to forward players.

The Liverpool legend said: “One of his [Thomas Frank’s] first signings is Palhinha. He is not capable, I don’t think, of doing this [breaking the lines with his passes]. There was a reason why teams from the Premier League didn’t buy him from Fulham. There was a reason Bayern Munich bought him and didn’t play him. So, that would be a worry.

“For Thomas Frank going forward, when you think of pragmatic managers in the past who have made the jump up from a smaller club to a bigger club, that has always been the problem, in terms of can they coach the rotations, the build-up play, to break the lines?”

Carragher is perhaps being unfair on Palhinha, who is doing what is asked of him by Frank and perhaps more focus should be on Bentancur being more progressive with his passing.

Frank has also not been helped by the likes of James Maddison, Dejan Kulusevski and now Lucas Bergvall all being sidelined, in terms of the creative options available to him.

And, while Spurs have the best away record in the Premier League this season, the Tottenham boss needs to quickly find the right formula to fix those home woes.

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First up, Tottenham are leading the race to sign a proven striker Thomas Frank knows well in January, and TEAMtalk can reveal the Spurs boss has already held direct talks with the frontman.

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