Here's every single word the Tottenham Hotspur head coach said in Paris on Tuesday ahead of the Champions League match at PSG
Thomas Frank faced plenty of questions on Tuesday afternoon ahead of Tottenham's Champions League match at PSG.
The Spurs boss discussed the fallout from 4-1 defeat at Arsenal as the Dane must lead his team to face the European champions in their Paris home on Wednesday night. Frank also delivered an update on injury news and whether there are any fresh problems in the squad.
He was also asked about the criticism from a run of just two wins in eight matches and questions over his tactics and the lack of adventurous play.
Our Tottenham correspondent Alasdair Gold is out in Paris and was among those putting the questions to the pair. Here's the full transcript from the press conference at the Parc des Princes.
If I could just start off with the usual team news question?
Yeah, everyone available for Arsenal is ok for tomorrow.
After the nature of the approach against Arsenal, is it vital that you show some attacking intent tomorrow night? Is tomorrow night a game where almost the intent shown and the performance is more important than the result?
I think the performance is always the most important thing, because if you do that on a consistent basis, you have a bigger chance of getting results. I watched the game back, that was a hard watch. We were not good, bad performance, not running away from that in any way. The biggest thing, there was plenty of intent and what we wanted to do, but we just couldn't execute it on the day. The biggest thing for me, the most disappointing thing was that we were not able to compete and I was convinced that we could compete on the day.
That didn't happen, we had 53 situations where it was like a duel, second ball situation where either Arsenal went long or we went long, like in a normal football game. We came out on top on 17 of those and lost 36. If you don't do that, that is the basic, then it's very difficult to win a football match.
Tomorrow we are facing another of the best teams in Europe away from home, so it's a nice challenge that we are 100% up for and I'm convinced we'll bounce back with a good performance.
You were visibly pretty angry in the Emirates press conference room on Sunday evening and I can tell you're still pretty annoyed about that performance. Have you seen that same anger from the players and the same will to put things right tomorrow?
Yeah, no doubt. I think it's been two good days with talks and meetings, of course. A meeting yesterday, of course, a main meeting and a meeting today, a main meeting mainly about us. How we improve, how we go forward, because in football there are setbacks and it was a setback on Sunday.
It's all about how you react, because one thing for sure you're not going through life without setbacks, you're not going through our football season without setbacks. It's how you react to it.
How much does Randal Kolo Muani want to perform?
Of course he wants to perform. Every player wants to perform and show their best, no doubt about that. That’s mostly the feeling with Kolo. He was very happy to join Tottenham and perform for us and we were very happy to have him.
Then he got that dead leg that took longer than we thought it would do, and then he got the broken jaw. So it’s definitely been stop-start. Plus he came and was fit, but not top fit, because he came from pre-season where (he didn’t play much).
So all of that meant he was playing catch-up. I’m convinced we will see more and more good stuff from him.
There's unfortunately been a lot of negativity after the Arsenal game. I just wondered how you were trying to reframe, almost reset, with the squad, with the players?
First, what a wonderful story with Wilson there, being part of that as a 15-year-old player. Now he's sitting here, I think we need to remember that. Thank you for that question. Because we always forget that in all the focus on winning and losing. So, that’s what football’s about.
The actual joy of why we do this?
Yes, exactly. That’s why we do it. We're all part of loving football and we started, all of us, playing in different levels …. just watch it. That's why we're here. But back to your question. When you have tough defeats, and tough defeats can be two different things, but especially if you don't hit a top performance …. if you hit a bad performance. That's why I need a bit deeper analysis and talk about a bit of a reset, but definitely that bounce back. I think there's something in …. as I said from the beginning when I came in … we are in a fantastic four-game spell, if you can say that. Four games in ten days. Arsenal away, PSG away, Fulham home and Newcastle away. Three very difficult away grounds. Difficult game against Fulham. Two of the best teams in Europe we are facing inside three days [after Arsenal]. That's the challenge we want. That's the challenge we want to embrace. And on the way to be very competitive, there will be ups and there will be downs. It's how we react to it, how we learn from it. The players will learn from it, I will learn from it and we'll move forward from here.
Secondly, I was just going to ask this in terms of the back five? Given what what said and all of the fallout from the game on Sunday, would you have any hesitation about playing that back five again, as you did in the Super Cup?
The beauty of the first part of your question is good, because all the fallout, I don't read anything. No articles, no social media. So I don't know if there was a fallout. But of course, my good friend here to my right said there could maybe come a question about that. We'll go back to the first question with Jamie, I think it was. We didn't win enough of these duels. We were not aggressive enough. We were not going forward enough and playing forward enough. And if you play 4-3-3, 4-4-2, 4-2-3-1, 7-9-13, it doesn't matter if you're not doing that. I'm not in doubt of that.
It’s been three wins in 11 games, why are things unravelling and how confident are you of getting this project back on track?
That’s a good question. I think sometimes there will always be a little not unstable, but performances that are up and down. If we look at that we play 60 games in a season, maybe 10 to 12 perfect games, there will be 30 average plus games in some areas above or below that and it’s about being consistent enough and performing at a high enough level in the games. And I think we accept some games because one thing is defeat, but let’s say except take the Chelsea and Arsenal game, the other games we have been competitive in and it’s about that and then keep doing everything we can to be better and to create enough chances to win the football matches. We have still scored quite a few goals, my teams always score goals and Richy is on five goals, which he has not been on a long time, so we will keep working hard on it.
You've got this great mantra 'if you don't take risks, you are taking risks'. Does it frustrate you or maybe hurt you when people are claiming that this Tottenham team of yours isn't taking risks?
If they don't think we do, I think we do. Maybe we should do more. I think it's fair to ask the questions. We're not creating enough chances, which is reality. It's my job to do everything to make sure that we do what we can to create more and more chances, be better and better at it.
That's what we work very hard on every day, to find the right formula for that. That's part of the play, but part of it is also how aggressive we are under pressure, how we can win it, and there can be half more open, spacious opportunities, half-transitions, full-transitions. I think it's also fair to say that Arsenal's three of their goals were on half-transitions.. So that's where we need to be good as well, in those situations.
What does Randal Kolo Muani offer compared to your other forwards?
I like his link-up play. I think he is very good at that. His ability to run in behind and also his ability to go one v one. I think he is very good in those situations. That is probably a little difference. And then he is very good in the box.
You mentioned there were 53 duels/second ball situations against Arsenal. Was there a particular reason why you lost 36 of them?
Very simple, we were not aggressive enough in my opinion when we pushed forward. We were not securing the ball well enough which is also part of that. We were not landing in the right areas for where the second ball landed and stuff like that. That was the main bit."
You'll be aware that Tottenham have had six managers in six years. How important do you think it is that they stick with you and have some continuity?
Very important! Part of taking this job was to sit here and have the challenges. Of course, I would have loved to sit here and we've beaten Arsenal and then face Paris tomorrow night. We lost and we lost badly. Part of that is to manage those setbacks and learn from it and move on from here.
One thing I'm 1000% sure of, I know how to build a team, I know how to build a club and we will do that. Along the way, we'll learn and the big thing is how we learn from the bad spells, because that's where we also can see that when we go 1-0 down, how do we react as a team? The best teams, they just continually move on. They still run hard, they still do the same thing. There's no doubt in that. The first four months, I learned a lot about the team. I learned a lot about the individual players and all that learning that needs to materialise to how we find the right formula with the right players on the pitch and also with some players coming back. Then we play every third day. That's the big challenge, but that's what I embrace.
When you say you know how to build a club, I guess that's time, isn't it? It's players getting used to your methods?
Yes, of course. I think no one, even Luis Enrique here, I think it's fair to say that PSG has been on another level than Tottenham the last five, six years, something like that. But also, this is his third season. His first season also had to take a lot of battles and those years also turned everything around from playing with the biggest players in Europe to less stars, very determined players that play for the team and he created one of the best teams in the world by making those changes. And even last year, that's the beauty of football. Fantastic season, winning the treble and they were close to getting knocked out of the Champions League. It's marginal sometimes.
Can you give us an idea of how much – bear in mind the way the team played last season – how much work you had to do defensively?
I think we've been quite good defensively, of course. Maybe we didn't look that way against Arsenal. But how much work have you invested in changing the team from the way you played last season? When you went to Brentford and you came up and you said that you started by making sure they were solid at the back. Has the same operation started the same way at Spurs?
Yes, because that was for me the biggest thing to focus on. Because, again, no team wins anything if they can’t defend. You can look at the team that is on top of the table, no matter how hard and how tough it is to name Arsenal as a Tottenham head coach, they defend very well. Liverpool when they want, defend very well. City when they want, they defend very well. So that’s part of it.
Then we hope we can keep up creating chances that we struggle a little bit with. So we need to look into that as well. But defensive part of it is just very important.
Then on top of that, how conscious are you of the way that the fans at Spurs demand that you play? And how long realistically does it take to build something a bit more adventurous on top of being solid at the back?
I think that hopefully it will not take that long time. But I think it's fair to say, I think the young man next to me, Wilson, which I think is a fantastic player and has got a huge potential. And I also think he, compared to last season, really taking a step up and I’ve a big hope for Wilson. But he's still taking over from a club legend in Sonny, for example, that played last year. And a Maddison and a Solanke and Kulusevski, who were the main guys, I’ve said that before. That’s not the same that Wilson, Brennan, Mo, Xavi, Mathys, Richy, whatever. They can't do it. It just takes a little bit of time in that. And then the next bit, then we have to play every third day in Premier League and in Champions League. So just, no complaints, just the way it is. Just make it a little bit more complicated.