Tottenham Hotspur boss Thomas Frank wants to the two-legged semi-finals to be scrapped to stop the “same boring teams” winning the competition
Thomas Frank has called for the two-legged Carabao Cup semi-finals to be scrapped(Image: Michael Steele/Getty Images)
Thomas Frank has called for two-legged Carabao Cup semi-finals to be scrapped to stop the “same boring teams” winning the competition. Newcastle lifted the trophy in March to end a run of 11 consecutive wins in the competition by Big Six clubs.
Crystal Palace won their first ever major trophy in the FA Cup while the current Premier League table includes Bournemouth and Sunderland. And before Wednesday’s visit to St James’ Park, the former Brentford boss claimed the calendar for the League Cup should be changed to give smaller teams a bigger chance to lift silverware.
“There should only be one semi-final,” said the Dane. “I said that before at Brentford and that’s why I’m very happy to say it again. For the smaller clubs, if you want to beat a bigger club, it’s much much easier to play only one game.
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“So if we really want someone to break out and it’s not the same boring same teams that are winning – of course except for Spurs – then we need to skip one semi-final. For everyone else that plays so many games, it should only be one.
“So if it’s about money then someone needs to fix it. If it’s the Premier League paying money to the EFL, because as far as I understand it’s because of that, so someone fix it. It should be very very easy.”
The last time the EFL Cup semi-final was played over only one leg was in the Covid-hit season of 2020-21 when Tottenham beat Frank’s then Championship side Brentford 2-0. Spurs sacked Jose Mourinho a week before losing the final to Manchester City.
Frank’s Bees side lost 3-1 to Newcastle in the quarter-finals of the Carabao Cup last season after he made five changes.
“That’s a long time ago,” said the Dane. “I remember we lost.”
Thomas Frank has led Tottenham to third in the Premier League(Image: John Walton/PA Wire)
Frank’s Tottenham side – who lifted the Europa League last season- are now up to third in the Premier League after five away games unbeaten and five goals from setpieces, including two headers from Micky van de Ven at Everton.
And the Dane, 52, said he had a long history working on moves, starting with his Under-12 team in Frederiksvaerk and then his Denmark Under 17 national team which beat Jordan Pickford’s England team at the Euros in 2011.
“They were very, very good in playing football, **** at set pieces,” he laughed. “With a proper old school coaches called Viggo Jensen, we worked on it and we scored the first goal in the Euros against Serbia then we won 3-2, then we beat England 2-0 in the second game.
“But Brentford was the real game-changer. Especially with that focus from Matthew (Benham) but especially Rasmus Ankersen.
“If one should have credit for the long throws it’s Rasmus Ankersen. He loves that. When we beat Arsenal on the first day on a long throw in the second goal he was very, very happy.”
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