Under-fire Thomas Frank has branded Tottenham fans “unacceptable” for criticizing Guglielmo Vicario during the 2-1 home defeat to Fulham.
Frank saw Spurs suffer a third consecutive defeat in a horror week – following heavy defeats at Arsenal and Paris Saint-Germain – after conceding twice in the first six minutes against Fulham, the second due to the madness of goalkeeper Vicario.
There were only 136 seconds between Kenny Tate’s deflected strike in the fourth minute and a brilliant lob by Harry Wilson, which came when Vicario slipped out of his goal and inexplicably kicked the ball out of the infield rather than going out for a throw.
Vicario was criticized on several occasions immediately after touching the ball, leading to a crowd of jeers after halftime.
Mohamed Qudus scored a goal for Tottenham in the 59th minute, but there was no grandstand finish as Frank saw his team inflict increased scrutiny on the Dane with a fourth defeat in six Premier League games.
“Obviously conceding two goals in six minutes gives us a big challenge. I think it’s classic when you’re in a bad spell or a tough spell, things go against you. The first is a deflected shot and the second is Vicario’s mistake. It happens,” Frank said.
“I didn’t like how the fans reacted to that. They immediately shouted at him and three or four times even when he was on the ball. To me that’s unacceptable.
“They can’t be true Tottenham fans. The booing (after the game), fair enough. No problem, but when we’re playing, we need to stick together. If we change it, we need to do it together. That’s extremely important to me.
“Then we rushed in the first half. I think the team was a little bit in shock after the two goals.
“I liked the second half more, scored a good goal, had chances to score an equaliser. Unfortunately I couldn’t.”
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Vicario took charge after another disappointing day for Spurs at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, where they have won only three of their last 21 league fixtures, and insisted the relegation was “part of football”.
“It’s part of football, so I’m a big man, I’m big enough. We can’t be influenced by the condition of the stands,” he told Sky Sports.
“The fans have the right to do what they think and maybe it’s on us to be more calm and more focused on ourselves because we know what our game plan is and what our strengths are.”
It was a special night for Marco Silva as he won his 200th match in charge of Fulham by three points.
“A big win, definitely a big milestone for me and my staff at the football club – 200 games is a big number in football,” Silva said.
“Obviously in the first 10 minutes we scored twice and that gave us the confidence and encouragement we needed.
“We knew this was an opportunity to turn our away form around because we knew they haven’t been as good at home in terms of results.”
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