Tottenham boss Thomas Frank has called for a major rule change in the Carabao Cup to stop the "same boring teams" winning the competition
Spurs manager Thomas Frank
Spurs manager Thomas Frank
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Thomas Frank has urged for two-legged Carabao Cup semi-finals to be abolished to prevent the "same boring teams" from dominating the tournament.
Newcastle secured the trophy in March, breaking an 11-match winning streak in the competition by the so-called 'Big Six' sides.
Crystal Palace claimed their maiden major honour in the FA Cup while the current Premier League standings feature Bournemouth and Sunderland near the top of the table.
Ahead of Wednesday's trip to St James' Park, the former Brentford manager argued the League Cup format should be altered to provide smaller clubs with enhanced opportunities to claim silverware.
"There should only be one semi-final," declared the Dane, reports the Mirror.
"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 EFL Cup semi-final was last contested over a single leg during the pandemic-affected 2020-21 campaign when Tottenham defeated Frank's Championship outfit Brentford 2-0.
Spurs dismissed Jose Mourinho just a week before their final defeat to Manchester City.
Frank's Brentford were knocked out 3-1 by Newcastle in last season's Carabao Cup quarter-finals following five changes to his starting XI.
"That's a long time ago," said the Dane. "I remember we lost."
Frank's Tottenham outfit - who claimed the Europa League last season - have now risen to third in the Premier League following five consecutive away matches without defeat and five goals from set-pieces, including two headers from Micky van de Ven at Everton.
The 52 year old Dane revealed his extensive background in working on dead-ball situations, beginning with his Under-12 team in Frederiksvaerk before progressing to his Denmark Under-17 national squad which overcame Jordan Pickford's England side at the 2011 Euros.
"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."