Eagle Eye FC

🦅 Paid to worry about markets, born to worry about Palace.

Season ticket holder. Tactics, stats & deep dives 📊

🗽 New York City FC while in NY for work.

[Eagle Eye FC @EagleEyeFC]

@Majed____000 I think even outside of tactics, I starting to feel this way. He’s the perfect manager I think to build a long-term team with. Smart, understands the club, worked in a similar sized club before and was highly successful. Just smart and pragmatic approaches.

[Eagle Eye FC @EagleEyeFC]

🦅 Thomas Frank to Palace?

Well, it looks increasingly likely. So naturally, I’ve spent far too much of my Sunday + evening going through
Brentford stats and Tottenham tactical footage.

Turns out there’s a lot more to Frank than sitting deep and launching long throws.

Here’s what I found, what worries me and why I think he could actually suit Palace. 🧵👇

[Eagle Eye FC @EagleEyeFC]

@Gradient_Sports Elite player

[Eagle Eye FC @EagleEyeFC]

@DJlegacykfnb I have to keep reminding myself of this haha

[Eagle Eye FC @EagleEyeFC]

Exactly the kind of noises we want to be hearing…

As amazing as Glasner was, the constant public digs and undermining of the football club’s set-up wasn’t entirely helpful. Having someone who gets Palace and wants to build with the club I think is a very attractive option.

[The Athletic | Football @TheAthleticFC]

“There is something to be said for somebody that really wants it... the desire to get inside and make an impact.”

@david_ornstein explains why Thomas Frank would be an attractive candidate for Crystal Palace, should Pierre Sage be sacked.

🎙️ 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗔𝘁𝗵𝗹𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗰 𝗙𝗖 𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁

[Eagle Eye FC @EagleEyeFC]

@M_Yasin1998 Great point. It is a weird trend.

[Eagle Eye FC @EagleEyeFC]

@M_Yasin1998 Completely agree with this. Thinking of doing a deep-dive on Hobbs and his background etc..

[Eagle Eye FC @EagleEyeFC]

I love Glasner and he’s comfortably our best ever manager, but I don’t think he was always right about how the club was run.

We’re near the bottom of the PL for revenue and have to operate within SCR. Survival has to be the first priority, and selling our best players at the right time is unfortunately part of that.

Look at Guéhi. We ended up getting around £20m for an England international largely because Glasner was so against selling him.

He was 100% right about the lack of squad depth, but some of the decisions he publicly opposed were pretty important for the long-term future of the club.

You can love Glasner and still disagree with him on that.

[Eagle Eye FC @EagleEyeFC]

@PaulDuffy0863 100%. Different proposition now

[Eagle Eye FC @EagleEyeFC]

@Mark11692470 @gazbod Thanks mate

[Eagle Eye FC @EagleEyeFC]

@wrighty_84 Completely agree. Mentality, style and expectations all change when you get to the big teams. Similar story with Potter at Chels.

My worse fear is having to write a Dyche thread if he gets appointed.

[Eagle Eye FC @EagleEyeFC]

@EashN17 🤣🤣🤣 cheers mate

[Eagle Eye FC @EagleEyeFC]

Yeh it’s interesting. Clearly great defensively as shown by his numbers at Brentford by conceding the lowest xG per shot in the league.

The long shot trade-off is a really interesting debate. We saw it with Pep’s city and the frustration fans would get with them trying to walk it into the net. Clearly this approach works in aggregate as this is the approach of many of the high possession based teams now. Also think the number is slightly skewed given they had Toney who was elite in the box. I can imagine with a Mateta profile striker, we could see Frank try a similar approach.

[Eagle Eye FC @EagleEyeFC]

Think that’s a pretty unfair assessment of Frank. Of course Brentford’s SmartOdds-backed recruitment model deserves huge credit, but suggesting their manager of seven years deserves none is a bit ridiculous.

It’s the classic Model vs Manager debate, isn’t it? Same questions came up with Potter at Brighton. Both clubs have exceptional data and recruitment setups (Starlizard/Jamestown at Brighton), which Palace simply don’t have. So I agree it’s difficult to separate the two.

But what really impresses me about Frank is that he proved himself at every stage. Championship promotion, PL survival, then two top-half finishes. Brighton are actually an interesting comparison here. They’ve had to change managers as they’ve progressed, bringing in Potter to establish themselves in the PL and then De Zerbi to take them to another level. Frank effectively did all of that himself at Brentford.

The model identifies the players, but someone still has to coach them and get results. And clearly Spurs saw enough in him to give him the job too.

I’d love someone like Hellberg or Eckert in different circumstances, but given the position Palace are in, I think Frank’s years of PL experience and track record make him the most sensible option. We could really do with someone safe and solid right now.

Completely fair to question how he’d fare without Brentford’s infrastructure, but dismissing his record altogether seems a stretch.

Who would you rather have?

[Eagle Eye FC @EagleEyeFC]

@totteng_0 @LeahJWalker @AW_CPFC Not a fan of RDZ?

[Eagle Eye FC @EagleEyeFC]

Yeh it’s a really interesting debate that comes up with the Model vs Manager. Same thing with Potter at Brighton.

Of course we don’t have the data and recruitment infrastructure of Brighton (Starlizard/Jamestown) or Brentford (SmartOdds) so it’s always impossible to really know.

I would say what I like about Frank is that he did at every level. Brighton rose through the divisions and then hired the best manager that suited what stage they were at. Potter when they were safe in Prem and RDZ when they wanted to kick on. Frank proved that he had the coaching ability at each level and clearly Tottenham valued that when hiring.

[Eagle Eye FC @EagleEyeFC]

@DJ_CPFC Yeh manager search is tricky. Hope we had a good succession plan in place

[Eagle Eye FC @EagleEyeFC]

@LeahJWalker @AW_CPFC 🤣🤣🤣🤣 a terrorist - really? I think judging managers at Spurs is a terrible idea. Mou and Conte massively struggled with far superior squads. I think RDZ is one of the best coaches about and even then you aren’t firing.

[Eagle Eye FC @EagleEyeFC]

Complete agree. What can we do when he leaves apart from rebuild.

I’m not 100% sure the current state of club/team can also be stuck on the head of Hobbs. There has been a constant trend of under-selling our top assets (Olise, Guehi) which may not seem a big deal at the time as we enjoyed some more on the pitch success but the knock on effects to lower revenue generating teams are huge.

There’s a reason a gap is appearing between us and the Brighton/Brentford. It’s not only because they have a far superior data and recruitment set-ups with Starlizard/Jamestown and Smartodds but it’s also because they have sold their best players well and regularly which then massively boosts their SCR.

I’m going to a deep dive into Matt Hobbs and his background next week but we must remember he is still acting within the tough constraints of our low revenue and extra harsh UEFA SCR rules.

[Eagle Eye FC @EagleEyeFC]

@DJ_CPFC All good mate. Love the engagement.

I’ll refer to my comment above haha

[Eagle Eye FC @EagleEyeFC]

Yeh it’s a really interesting debate that comes up with the Model vs Manager. Same thing with Potter at Brighton.

Of course we don’t have the data and recruitment infrastructure of Brighton (Starlizard/Jamestown) or Brentford (SmartOdds) so it’s always impossible to really know.

I would say what I like about Frank is that he did at every level. Brighton rose through the divisions and then hired the best manager that suited what stage they were at. Potter when they were safe in Prem and RDZ when they wanted to kick on. Frank proved that he had the coaching ability at each level and clearly Tottenham valued that when hiring.

I agree it’s really hard to know but based on what’s around, I think he’s best shout. I’d love an Hellberg or Eckert but given the situation we are currently in, I think a manager that has vast PL experience and is the definition of safe and solid is a much better fit.

Any names you like more?