Thomas Frank spoke to the media at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium after our 2-1 loss against Villa in the FA Cup third round on Saturday.
Here's what he had to say...
What are your reflections on the game?
Thomas: "I think it was a good second half. We played with energy, passion, intensity. How we want to play. We played with penetration, runs and passes through the middle, scored a good goal, had other chances, opportunities to get the equaliser. We couldn't get that, unfortunately, so that's the disappointing thing. The first half was not as good, especially after that goal. We can't concede the second one. That would have kept us more in the game for the second half. But second half… the energy and the cooperation, the unity with the fans was brilliant. They were very good."
Do you feel you need more in terms of bringing players in this window to help you now?
Thomas: "I think we definitely need to do everything we can to play two good halves, which I think every team wants to do. Every team wants to be consistent in that aspect. In terms of transfer market, as I said many times, we are out there working very hard, trying to improve the squad."
Richarlison, it feels like you have done so much work with him - does it look like another hamstring problem?
Thomas: "Yes, it could look like that. I think we have done a lot of things right to get him where he is now. I think he has done a lot of things right. I think it is not only about us, it is about every club. I think there are a few injuries across the Premier League. I think it is something for the football authorities to look into as well. We played five games in 13 days, four in 10, one of the few clubs that did that. This is our third time (doing that) this season. That is the most tricky thing, two days in between. We are dealing with it, we are doing everything we can to compete in it, but that is a tough schedule."
The club made a big declaration at the start of the season that it wanted to compete in all four competitions. Obviously you are out of the two cups pretty early, albeit to tough teams. What is the message to the fans that that just has not been achieved?
Thomas: "Of course that is disappointing. I said before the game that we (are going) full strength. There was nothing (more we could do). There were players we couldn't... should we energise? Micky is in a top place. That was definitely a player to think about (switching out), but we wanted to do everything we could to win the game. We did everything we could. Especially in the second half, you can see we did everything we could. Unfortunately, we faced a good Villa team as well that made two moments and scored two goals. We could only make one."
What do you think was the main difference between the first half and the second half? Especially from the beginning of the second half to the 70th minute...
Thomas: "Yes, I agree. I think there was a little bit of momentum against Sunderland. We played a very good first half. We could not keep it up in the second half. Here we played a much better second half. We came out with more energy, passion, more determination. We need to do everything we can to do that over 90 minutes. We need to keep working on that."
What can you say to fans tonight that think the season is virtually over now after this competition?
Thomas: "Of course that is disappointing. We are all hurt. There is nothing we wanted to do more than to get through to the next round, no matter who we face. We play at home. We had a good opportunity. Unfortunately, we could not go through. As I said, we went with full strength in terms of how we could do it. We all look back at the game and think, hmmm, I think we could do better in the first half and all that. In the second half, very good."
I don't know how much you saw of what happened at the end, but more post-match confrontations, this time with the other team. Are you players losing control? Are you troubled by it?
Thomas: "I don’t think so. I guess you have seen the situation. I just saw it to be sure what I saw was right. Of course, it is all about keeping a cool head. The players gave everything out there, losing a tight game. The season is not going perfect. I think Ollie (Watkins) is very provoking, the way he is going down to celebrate in front of the Villa fans and he is walking into Joao. He can just easily walk around. I think everyone who has been in a competitive nature, that is difficult, they can trigger things."
Have Villa got a bad habit of this kind of provocation?
Thomas: "That I don’t know. I do not know that about Villa. I will just speak about this situation."
Is it a growing trend?
Thomas: "I think you need to play with passion. When you play with passion, then sometimes you play to the line. Sometimes a little bit borderline. I see players with big passion. They want to do very well for the Club. I think that is very important. Of course, you also need cool heads."
Aside from the enforced change in the first half, it was the 78th minute until you made your first non-enforced change. Was the waiting time perhaps speaking to a lack of depth on the bench?
Thomas: "Yes. Basically, that was it. I don't think we had the depth on the bench today. We basically didn't have a midfielder to replace Archie and Joao. I had a few solutions in my head if we had to lose one of them, we fortunately didn't. That was part of it, yes."
There was a positive response to the performance in the second half. Is that, again, indicative that it's the players and the performance that's got to get the fans rather than the players asking the fans to back them without any doubt, as it were? Do you have to start performing to get them back onside?
Thomas: "We all know there's only one way to have everyone happy, that is performing consistently and winning enough games. That's the only way. We could see in the second half especially the energy, how they feed off each other. The players and the fans were fantastic, the experience of being in the middle of it… unfortunately, we couldn't get that fantastic comeback, which sometimes kicks starts momentum. That's what we're working very hard to do. But I think the fans, the way they backed the team and pushed them forward in the second half was very, very good. First and foremost, it's us. We need to perform, and then they can feed off the energy. But, of course, we also need them in tough times, which they are there. They're travelling in big numbers to away games, and they're backing us."