Head Coach Thomas Frank and midfielder Lucas Bergvall spoke to the media at Aspmyra Stadion in Norway on Monday evening ahead of Tuesday’s UEFA Champions League clash with Bodo/Glimt (9pm local time, 8pm UK).
Here’s what they had to say...
What’s the team news?
Thomas: “Dom (Solanke), you know, got that ankle issue that's been bothering him for a little while so now we decided to make a minor surgery. It's a small procedure so that will mean he's not ready for today, of course. And of course, Leeds he's out as well. We will have more news about time frame after the international break, but I don't expect it to be long. (Randal) Kolo Muani, I think now we're finally on top of his dead leg so there's also progress there. That's good and Cuti (Romero not travelling) was just a precaution.”
Have you looked back at last season’s game in Bodo?
Thomas: “Yes, I've looked at that game, of course, but I've also looked at a lot of other games of Bodo. I think they're a fantastic team. I think their club is fantastic. I think their story is unique in many ways. I'm pretty sure that the whole of Europe knows about Bodo, because I think it's a little bit of a fairytale. I like, of course, that Scandinavian link between Denmark and Norway, so of course I’ve followed them a little bit, maybe a tiny bit closer, and the background I'm coming from, to see how they have built their club through years with a core group of people, aligning strategy, structure, hard work over the years, and then just built a smaller club suddenly to be the absolute force in Norway and now competing in the Europe over many seasons. That's extremely impressive, I think. Kjetil Knutsen and his staff are remarkable, what they have done. Their style of play is quite unique in many ways. They’re an extremely well-coached team so big praise, I admire them a lot.”
What can you take from that performance?
Thomas: “That's one performance. How many months is that? Four months ago. With all due respect, I was not the coach. Some of the group of players, they have some group of players. This is a new game, this is a new situation, we go into it with huge respect for Bodo and it's going to be very difficult. Their home record here in European games, all that is unique with I think 31 wins out of 39, something like that. They apparently have scored in more or less every home game in 46 games in a row. We know what we are facing but, of course, we also have to trust in ourselves.”
Why did you choose not to train here today?
Thomas: “Because we have one training session. If we have training here and we want to do a little bit of tactical work, with all due respect I think it would be a little bit more obvious what we would do. That's a thing we like to keep for ourselves. Then, yes, you can say if we train here for how long we are allowed, 45 minutes, is that going to make a difference? I know the surface is different. If you really want to get used to it, I think you need to train here day in, day out as Bodo do. We are ready for that challenge but for me, mainly, it was a tactical reason.”
What was your relationship like with (Norway boss) Stale Solbakken?
Thomas: “Stale, when we are in Copenhagen, you can have a few infights in that area but Stale is a man and a football coach I admire a lot. What he built in Copenhagen was also incredible over many, many, many years. Now he is here representing his country. They have started very well, so I am very happy on his behalf in many ways. A good colleague and good friend in the football environment.”
Bodo have a lot of Norwegian players, what do you make of it?
Lucas: “As Thomas mentioned, it’s great, they’ve done great things in Europe like last season when we played against them in the semi-final. So yes, great work.”
Thomas: “A little bit on that, as you say more or less Norwegian players, and a few Danish players as well, of course. Just to add a spark, no, jokes aside, that makes it even more impressive, I think, that you do it with more or less Norwegian players built from this country. It is remarkable.”
What is the best team in Scandinavia? Copenhagen or Bodo?
Thomas: “You put me on the spot there! I think, let me put it this way, I would like to see a match between the two teams. There was a lot of talk about Malmö and Copenhagen when they played each other in the qualifier. I think that would be very interesting between the two styles. I think they are very close to each other, I must admit.”
What is Bodo's biggest weakness and how do you plan to exploit it?
Thomas: “I think I would rather like to say about how their biggest strength is their structure in the way they play. They are so well coached, so their patterns are so clear, which I think is a huge strength. So, I'm very aware that we are... Yes, we come from the Premier League and so on but we also see last year that we had to defend very well. No doubt about that. They are so good and clear in how they want to do things and also they play very, very quick on this pitch.”
Lucas, what’s the biggest difference between the Europa League and the Champions League?
Lucas: “It’s big, the difference. It’s the best thing, for me, as a player that you can achieve – to win the Champions League. It’s going to be a good game tomorrow, a tough game, Bodo is a good team so we need to go out there and perform again.”
What do you think of the team’s creativity in the last few weeks?
Thomas: “I think in terms of the creativity or maybe creating more chances, dominating a bit more, I think the Brighton game was a very good game. I think the first half against Wolves was good, we didn't score, but I think all the right signs were there, so I think it's a step forward. As I said before, I think it's natural. Last year, most of the game, it was Kulusevski, Maddison, Sonny and Dom who played more or less the front four. Now we have more or less a new front four and they are doing very well. One of them sitting next to me is doing very well, having a very good start to the season. I think they're gelling more and more together and we try to give them the best patterns and principles.”
Do you feel like it's been a bit of a wasted month with Dominic?
Thomas: “I think you can look from two ways. That's the easy answer, but it's not that easy. If we knew we could have done the surgery a month ago, we probably would have done it. So for me, I'm always like I imagine, ‘oh, it is what it is, we deal from now’. No doubt that the way we dealt with this was because we thought that was the right way because I think in general, no one wants a surgery, no matter how small it is.”
Lucas, what do you feel you’ve improved on this season?
Lucas: “It’s a great question. I feel like I’m getting better every day. I played as a bit of an eight in the beginning and now more of a 10 and it feels like I’m adding more and more to my game every day so yes, I try to help the team with contributing goals and assists as well so I’m just getting better every day and improving.”
Bodo goalkeeper, Nikita Haikin, said it was unusual to see a team like Spurs going for long throws and set-pieces everywhere on the pitch. What do you make of that?
Thomas: “I personally think that set-pieces are an extremely important part of football. Isn't there a stat that 33 per cent or something like that of all goals are scored from set-pieces? So I think it's clever to utilise a third of your opportunities to try to score a goal. I'm happy, that's a fine comment. If you think that's a strength of ours, I'm happy with that.”
How big a difference does the pitch make here in Bodo?
Thomas: “Not really a tactical approach. Of course we are aware, it's the same in Denmark, when I was coach for Brøndby, we were facing Nordsjaelland at that time and it was also a different surface. It's the same today. It's fine. They're good here, they're very good at home. For me, I think there's a lot of talk about the pitch. I rather want to praise the team, the Bodo team, and their coach for what they do, because they do it quite consistently, home and away, the way they play. So I'm pretty sure they get the answer or the question sometimes, can they play on grass when they go away from home? Of course they can. It’s an artificial pitch, players like Lucas have played on them their whole life. Lots of our players have played there so I know we need to speak about it, but I think, I'm pretty sure all the journalists, Kjetil, myself, all the players just want to talk about football.”
Just following up on Romero. What was the issue?
Thomas: “Just a precaution.”