“I haven’t seen it. Thank you for the information,” Thomas Frank said when a reporter revealed Djed Spence hadn’t reacted all that well to being substituted in Tottenham’s 3-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest, in a clash which if anything hides the real story of caution, which is far more the reason to doubt the Tottenham manager’s future at the club.

A mini-revivalwhich had seen Spurs draw away at Newcastle and beat Brentford and Slavia Prague at home was comprehensively brought to an end by Forest, as mistakes from Archie Gray and Guglielmo Vicario helped Sean Dyche’s side to victory over a familiarly toothless, weak and laboured Spurs.

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“It was hugely disappointing,” Frank said. “It’s burning, annoying. That was a bad performance. Especially first half, overall we looked disjointed. We didn’t win enough duels. And then we couldn’t hit each other, it seems like we gave the ball away every time we won it back.

“Of course the first two goals are two mistakes, that happens. We need to work to be more consistent. It’s two steps forward and a step back today.

“That’s down to individuals. We are in it together, we win together and lose together. It’s hugely irritating that we perform like this today. Simple passing, I think we lose the ball 20 times, simple passes.”

Spence was taken off on the hour mark. Few watching the game would have been surprised, albeit at a point when any one of the 11 Spurs players on the pitch could have been hooked without complaint.

Complain he did though, throwing his jacket to the ground as he took his place on the bench.

“You’re the third one that said that to me today. I didn’t see it,” Frank later confirmed. “Of course I will look back to be aware of it.

“I think there can be three reasons. He can be disappointed with his own performance, the team’s performance, he can be disappointed with being subbed off. I’ll ask him about that.”

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A more burning question that perhaps should have been asked about that moment is why Frank thought the best way back into the game at 2-0 down was to put Ben Davies on for Spence as part of a triple substitution which also saw Joao Palhinha replace Archie Gray and Lucas Bergvall come on for Rodrigo Bentancur.

The attacking cavalry eventually arrived in the 80th minute in the form of Mathys Tel and Ben Johnson, but they were again like-for-like changes, with Frank’s in-game management strengthening the claims of Spurs fans that their new manager is the anti-Ange Postecoglou, obsessed with caution rather than throwing it to the wind.

A team which would have featured as many attacking players on the pitch for as long as possible when behind under his predecessor had almost the exact same structure and balance as it did at 0-0 as when chasing the game in the second half, meaning Spurs fans – and quite possibly the players – will have left the City Ground thinking they hadn’t really given it a go.