Ruben Amorim's criminal decision which leaves Man United exposed... and the manager who is on thin ice with Brendan Rodgers now available: IAN LADYMAN on My Premier League Weekend

Tottenham spent £1.2bn on their new stadium but currently have the worst 2025 home record of any team in the Premier League. Is that due in any way to those who turn up to sit in it every weekend? Certainly, they don't seem to help. Does any set of football fans moan so enthusiastically and readily?

Since the start of the calendar Spurs have won three of 20 league games played at home. Even West Ham have won five.

Tottenham fans may blame Thomas Frank's predecessor Ange Postecoglou for some of that and with good reason. But turning up to matches ready to feel disgruntled and dissatisfied doesn't necessarily help either.

What is it that Tottenham supporters want?

Postecoglou gave them entertainment and drama and a European trophy. And they booed and jeered and complained.

Frank has sought to give them a greater sense of organisation, certainty and pragmatism. As it stands Spurs are a point outside the top five and that, it seems, isn't good enough.

On Saturday against Manchester United, some Spurs fans booed at half-time. Many more did so when Frank made substitutions during the second period.

Anyone who watched Frank's Brentford play will know how the new Spurs boss operates. The football was always going to be more direct with a greater reliance on set pieces and throw-ins.

At the moment there have been teething problems. Frank is missing his centre forward, Dominic Solanke, and his two most creative midfield players Dejan Kulusevski and James Maddison, who are all injured.

As Theo Walcott said on Match of the Day, sometimes it's best to give a manager a break. They tend to know what they are doing.

Not all change is good 

United's manager Ruben Amorim continues to get plenty of support from his club's fans and his team's unbeaten run now stretches to five in the Premier League. Progress.

But Amorim continues to baffle many with his obsession with substitutions.

The Portuguese coach's tendency to replace a centre half in many of his team's games still feels odd – it's as though as he doesn't quite know his best combinations and maybe he doesn't. United have kept just one clean sheet all season, against Sunderland at home.

At Tottenham, meanwhile, he left his team exposed simply by making too many changes too early.

Amorim made five substitutions in the first 27 minutes of the second half only to end the game with ten men after one of them - striker Benjamin Sesko - limped off late in the contest.

A man short, United shipped a goal and almost lost the game.

In the age of five substitutions – a move pushed through by United and other big clubs – it really is criminal to leave yourself vulnerable and exposed to late injuries in this way.

Amorim had actually made all his changes with 72 minutes gone. What if a player had gone down injured a minute later? United would have faced almost half an hour – including all the added time – with inferior numbers on the field. That's mismanagement.

Champions too soft

At least United are finding ways to get something from games that seem to be going away from them. Late goals against Liverpool, Nottingham Forest and now Spurs have added four points to their Premier League total. It's a good habit.

Liverpool are not finding it so easy. United's great rivals have conceded the opening goal five times in the Premier League so far this season – and lost every time.

Another VAR failure

The decision to disallows Virgil van Dijk header at the Etihad Stadium for an offside against Andy Robertson seemed marginal but understandable.

As the great Brian Clough used to say: 'If you are in the penalty area but not interfering in play then what are you doing?'

However the call to give a penalty to Manchester City when Jeremy Doku went down in the first half was ridiculous.

Any touch from Liverpool goalkeeper Giorgi Mamadashvili on Doku's foot was so slight that referee Chris Kavanagh didn't see it. The VAR officials then looked at it a dozen times so clearly weren't sure either.

At that stage, Stockley Park should have chosen to let the initial decision stand. There is supposed to be a 'high bar for VAR intervention' this season. This one was so low it had grass stains on it.

Here we are in early November and another PGMOL initiative lies in the bin.

Edwards is going home for a reason 

While Pep Guardiola basks in 1000 games as a manager at City, it seems Rob Edwards will soon be starting afresh at Wolves.

Much fuss and criticism aimed at Edwards for his apparent desire to leave Middlesbrough for a club for who he once played 100 games.

It's understandable. Edwards has previously talked about a so-called connection with the Teesside club and Middlesbrough fans were hoping he would be the man to take them back to the Premier League for the first time since 2017.

But sometimes I wonder whether we are simply becoming victims of the environment we create.

The managerial life span in the Championship is less than two years and that is terrifyingly short. Of the 18 clubs who started last season in tier two and were still there for the start of this campaign, only one of them – Portsmouth – had the same manager.

What this tells us is that if you don't get promoted, you tend to get sacked. This is the kind of environment that makes managers twitchy. Edwards is being offered a direct route into the Premier League. They don't come around often and with that in mind, his decision to jump is rather easier to understand.

Farke on thin ice?

Still in manager land, it's hard to worry about Daniel Farke at Leeds.

When Mike Keegan – the Daily Mail's chief sports news correspondent – reported last summer that the club were looking to replace their manager just days after promotion, the Yorkshire club declared themselves upset about the story without every properly denying it. Make of that what you will.

Now we are eleven games in and Leeds are on a bit of a sticky run with only win in six and games against Aston Villa, Manchester City, Chelsea and Liverpool to come the other side of the international break.

Farke doesn't deserve the sack. Far from it. But that doesn't mean he won't get it. And the moment Brendan Rodgers left Celtic a couple of weeks ago, every manager in the lower half of the Premier League became a little more vulnerable.

O'Neill in the dark

Celtic themselves have picked up nicely since Martin O'Neill walked back through the door as Rodgers' short-term replacement, winning 4-0 against Kilmarnock yesterday to cut Hearts' lead at the top of the SPL to seven points.

Despite his close relationship with Parkhead principal shareholder Dermot Desmond, O'Neill does not expect to be consulted over the permanent choice as manager.

'Dermot has not asked my opinion on such a thing in twenty years so I don't see him changing that now,' O'Neill told a friend with a smile.

Managers grumpy over Pep

O'Neill remains chairman of the League Managers Association where there has been some background chuntering at Guardiola's inauguration into the 1000 Club.

Guardiola has been admitted despite a chunk of his games being with the Barcelona B team when he started out back in 2007.

At the LMA there has long been a debate about whether games at non-league level in England should count. Currently they don't and not everybody is happy.

Keane not finished yet 

Everton manager David Moyes was inducted into the 1000 club just last June alongside Jurgen Klopp, Jose Mourinho, Mick McCarthy and Ian Holloway.

At Everton his second coming continues to go well and Saturday's win against goal shy Fulham – for whom 'own goals' lead the scoring charts with three – featured two more noticeable performances from midfielder Jack Grealish and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall.

Nowhere has Moyes' influence been felt more, though, than in the return to prominence of defender Michael Keane.

The former Burnley and Manchester United centre half seemed to be on his way out of the club after falling out of favour with a succession of managers, including his old Turf Moor boss Sean Dyche.

But Keane, now 32, has started all eleven of his team's Premier League games this season which is already as many as the whole of last term. In fact Keane needs only one more start to make this his best season for four years – and it's only November.

An omen for recovery 

Newcastle last won away from home in the Premier League in April when they beat Leicester 3-0. That's a run of nine games and it currently undermines everything Eddie Howe is trying to do at St James Park.

Just like at Liverpool – where five outfield summer signings are yet to spark – so Newcastle are suffering from a failure to get a tune out of Anthony Elanga – out of form – and Yoane Wissa who is injured.

If Howe and his staff are looking for omens, however, then they are in luck. It was last December, after a 4-2 defeat at Brentford, that Alan Shearer sat in a Match of the Day studio and talked about Newcastle players failing to run, tackle and do the basics. 'They don't look like an Eddie Howe team,' said the former Newcastle striker.

Somebody in the north-east must have been listening as a run of nine straight wins followed and Newcastle ended up winning the League Cup and making the Champions League.

The GTECH graveyard

Not that it's unusual for big teams to lose at Brentford these days. Keith Andrews' team have beaten Newcastle, Liverpool, Manchester United and Aston Villa at the GTECH Stadium already this season and taken a good point against Chelsea.

A Gray day 

When you make a mistake it's best to own it. So fair play to Michael Gray for taking to X after suggesting on talkSPORT that Sunderland defender Dan Ballard should be considered for England.

Ballard has 32 caps for Northern Ireland already, something pointed out to Gray by all those on social media who have never made a mistake at work.

'My bad,' said Gray on X.

'Dan Ballard is Irish but I was caught up in the moment of how bloody amazing he has been this season.

'Naughty step for me.'