Thomas Frank explains why Spurs lost to Newcastle United and their first away defeat of season | OneFootball

Thomas Frank has been talking after watching his Spurs side get knocked out of the Carabao Cup by Newcastle United.

Two headers won the match, one from Fabian Schar in the first half, then Nick Woltemade sealing the victory in the second half.

Spurs had made headlines this season when scoring goals from set-pieces, including taking apart Everton 3-0 away from home on Sunday.

Indeed, Thomas Frank and his players hadn’t experienced defeat away from home in any match for over five months, so Newcastle United deservedly winning by a couple of goals is a shock to the system, especially when Eddie Howe made eight changes.

United move into the last eight of the Carabao Cup at home to Fulham and for Spurs it will be time to reflect on what went wrong…

Thomas Frank speaking to official Spurs media after losing 2-0 at St James’ Park:

“It’s always disappointing to lose and it’s always disappointing to be out of a tournament where we’d like to progress to the next round.

“To look at it from a bigger perspective, I think our performance was good.

“I think we come to St. James’ Park and created more shots than them.

“We looked much better in phase one and two and looked more clear in our attacking ways.

“We had some good situations and really tested Ramsdale at times. He made some fantastic saves.

“We also had six or seven situations where if we arrive at the right moment we hopefully score. So, that’s the positive. I also think our mentality was good.

“Football sometimes is margins and I think in a tight game it was margins.

“I think the first one, a set-piece, where we normally have been very good, always things we need to look at. It happens.

“The second one, we lost the ball, then we have to defend the box. Then it happens again, but Toni shouldn’t go for the ball, just stay in there and I actually think he would have caught it, but that’s a decision you need to make and it happened.”

My conclusions

Thomas Frank had seen his Spurs side go seven away games unbeaten this season in all competitions. In domestic games, Tottenham winning four away from home and drawing one, scoring 12 goals in the five Premier League away games.

Whilst Spurs had some chances and played pretty well, Newcastle United fully deserved this victory.

United had plenty really good situations of their own when they could and should have done better, including Harvey Barnes hitting the bar from around eight yards out.

The commitment and discipline shown by the whole team, especially those who haven’t had many minutes this season, was great to see.

Eddie Howe at last has got a squad of players, not just a team, he feels he can rely on.

Having now made it five wins in six games, all eyes on West Ham away this Sunday and whichever eleven players the NUFC boss puts out on the pitch, nobody will be betting against Newcastle making it six wins from seven.