Thomas Frank spoke to the media at Hotspur Way on Monday, ahead of our Carabao Cup fourth round tie against Newcastle at St James’ Park on Wednesday evening (8pm UK).
Here’s what he had to say…
Any fresh concerns from Everton? Can we get the latest on Dominic Solanke, Destiny Udogie and Cuti Romero?
Thomas: “It’s all good from the guys who played on Sunday. Dominic – steps forward, it’s step by step. Cuti is on the pitch, no timeframe, but on the pitch. Destiny is on the pitch as well, so, three steps forward.”
You’re top of the league in terms of away form – why do you think it’s so different away compared to at home this season?
Thomas: “It’s still a relatively small sample. Hopefully, at the end of the year, the stats are fantastic away and fantastic home. It’s a new team, but still a team that needs to find each other. And how I see it, the way we’ve chosen to build it. I think we now have nine Premier League games, 14 games in total and we had one bad performance against Bournemouth, second half against Wolves, second half against Monaco, a bad performance. So, I think in general, we’re building.”
Were there discussions when you joined the club about winning trophies?
Thomas: “I think it was very clear that we’re in this game because we love it and if you are in a club like Tottenham, we would like to do whatever we can to win. I said from the beginning, I’d like to be able to compete in every tournament. We have an opportunity in a tournament where we play, not tomorrow, but Wednesday, against a very strong team. The holders. They have done very well, a very difficult place to play but we will go out there and do everything we can to compete and win and progress.”
How much time do you spend on set pieces? What about the change in style of play in the Premier League?
Thomas: “Yes, Andreas (Georgson, assistant coach/set pieces) is doing a top job. The players are doing a top job. They’re on board. They are really committed to it. For me, I think every phase in the game, we need to be good at if we want to build a top team. But set-pieces, obviously, I think it’s a third of all goals, something like that, is from set pieces. So, not to use time on it and super focus on details, do the right thing, construct a team so you can defend them, but definitely attack them. I think that’s a major strength. I’m very happy with how we are at the moment with that.”
Is a more direct style of football being implemented now?
Thomas: “I haven’t seen every game, every league, or at least just the top five leagues. If you just focus on the Premier League, then you can say that. My feeling is also, maybe the feeling was also a stat, that we have more goals this season from set pieces so far, definitely more long throws in general from a lot of teams. So, that’s definitely a clear example of more focus on it. Every manager wants to compete and it’s about finding the small margins. I think the success that we had at Brentford, maybe not as fancy because it was a smaller club, but also that Arsenal picked it up, I think Liverpool two years ago was extremely good as well. So, the top clubs also picked it up (and thought) probably need to do this if you want to be able to compete or raise the bar to be even better. So, I think that’s probably the reason.”
Is it more economical to play like that?
Thomas: “As I said before, you need to be good in all phases. For example, yesterday in the first half, I think we were very good in building from the back. You also need to be in control of the ball in the middle of the pitch sometimes. It’s all about what kind of strategy and style you have. A big part of it is definitely to be good at set pieces.”
