Thomas Frank, the Tottenham Hotspur head coach, says he has no doubt that summer signing Xavi Simons will develop into a top “creator and finisher” for the club and suggested the time to judge him will be “after a year or two”.
Simons, 22, is yet to score for Spurs since arriving in a deal worth €60million (£51.8m; $70m) from RB Leipzig, and he has been on the bench for the past four matches.
Frank’s side host his former club Brentford on Saturday, searching for only a second home league win of the season, and the Dane says there are similarities between Simons and Mikel Damsgaard, who took two years to produce his best football in west London.
Asked if Simons could be as important to him at Spurs as Damsgaard was at Brentford, Frank said: “Definitely.
“That’s one of the reasons why we got him here. I think he’s got a very big potential to be that playmaker — (a) creator but also finisher. I think he’s got a very good finishing, very good at scoring goals and arriving in the right areas. I have a big belief that he’ll be very good for us.
“Sometimes we have a team where you come into a club where everything is smooth, everything is working, no problem, boom, you step in. You can see, compared with (Florian) Wirtz what we have seen at Liverpool, also coming into (the) champions. And it’s not that easy all the time. All the time it takes a little bit longer.
“But as long as the player trains well, keep the right attitude, keep doing the right thing, step by step, we will see him flourish. I’m not in doubt of that. Just because we’re always so good to judge him now, but probably after a year or two, (it will be time to say), ‘Oh, how good is he?’ Now everyone is talking about Damsgaard. He did two seasons before he really flourished in the third one.”
Frank’s side twice fought back to clinch a 2-2 draw at Newcastle United midweek but are under pressure to improve results at home following last weekend’s 2-1 defeat by Fulham.
Frank has tinkered with his set-up in recent weeks, and acknowledged that he is still trying to work out his best XI but says he is thinking long-term to turn Spurs into a “well-oiled engine”.
Frank’s Spurs have only won once in the league at home this term (Charlotte Wilson/Offside/Offside via Getty Images)
“Yes, I think it’s fair,” said Frank, when it was put to him that he does not know his best side yet.
“I’ve got an idea of quite a few positions. I also think there’s competition so not that easy all the time to say, ‘OK, it’s just those 11’ because you need more than 11 players. Normally, you see most teams when they are finding their strongest team, it will be those nine players all the time, and maybe change two. Or maybe sometimes it’s ten.
“I’ve said it from the beginning, every action, everything I do is with two pathways.
“One, we need to win tomorrow and the day after and day after but everything is with a long-term vision.
“If you don’t build anything with a long-term vision then I don’t believe you are a top club.
“It shouldn’t be, ‘Oh, we survived one more game’ then there are pragmatic choices along the way (due to) injuries, form. Bit by bit we will try to get closer to being a well-oiled engine that’s impossible to stop.”
