Thomas Frank spoke to the media at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium after our 2-2 draw against Manchester City in the Premier League on Sunday.
Here's what he had to say...
Can you talk about Dominic Solanke's goals and performance, also, he said he rolled his ankle - is it okay?
Thomas: "The last bit I don't know, but he clearly also struggled to run, so we knew - struggled to run fitness-wise - before the game again it would be a big push to play 90. He's not there fitness-wise where he should be, because he's been out for so long. We've been, in a way, a little bit forced to play him. I think it's pretty evident that he's relatively important for us - four goals in four games, with him being on his 70-80% of fitness and top sharpness. Imagine City playing without Haaland for six months. We've been quite hard hit with injuries, in general, but Dom was excellent."
What did you make of his two goals, the first maybe a bit controversial, and the second one spectacular?
Thomas: "First one, I think there's clear contact from him on it. We want, in general, a higher threshold. I understand it's in the grey area. I think if the Liverpool goal, Ekitike, in my opinion still, two clear hands in the back of Romeo. So, I think it's no grey areas. I'm very happy it finally dropped to us, which I think was more than fair. The second one was something we, of course, trained yesterday, so it went well!"
Why did Cristian Romero come off at half-time?
Thomas: "Illness. We are assessing him. Hopefully he's fine."
On Romero - has he been ill before this game, or did he struggle at Frankfurt as well?
Thomas: "He struggled for the Frankfurt game as well and pushed through that with a fantastic captain's performance. He struggled a little bit, but we hope it's nothing."
What did you like most about the second half?
Thomas: "I'm extremely happy that we finally got a point out of a big second half. It felt like a big point, of course, because we're playing against the best team in the Premier League in the last seven years, eight years. They're playing to compete for the title. I said it before, this team's ability to respond to setbacks and show resilience, I think we are growing it bit by bit. Now it's game 11 since Nottingham Forest, where I think we are showing more consistency, we are more competitive, it's just going in the right direction. Not all the results have gone with us, but, for example, I think it's been some good, top performances and mentality against Bournemouth, West Ham and Villa, we just didn't get at least a point or something out of it. So now we get the point as well, on top of a good performance against Dortmund, more good than bad against Burnley - I know it looks bad because we only get a point, but a game we could and should easily have won with the chances we created, and a big performance against Frankfurt. We are building some of that and we are, by the way, building it with, I don't know, players dropping left, right and centre to injury. We're ending a game without three normal centre-backs, two normal full-backs. We play Archie and Joao in the back four. Dragusin played his first game in 12 months, Jun'ai is coming on as the right midfielder. I think that shows everything about the team and what they are building. The players... very proud of the players."
Tomorrow (Monday) is the final day of the transfer window - do you expect to be active?
Thomas: "We are active, no doubt about that. If something happens, let’s see. Romero, I hope is minor, nothing. Micky we hope is back for Man United and Djed is hopefully not too long."
Such an impressive second half performance - why can you not play like that from kick-off?
Thomas: "I wish I could do it like that. Then it would be easy. It’s not. I need to look at the game back. I think we did still some okay things in the first half and just made two mistakes. They punished the first one so hard after 12 minutes which makes things more difficult to come into a football game, but what I liked of the second half is we were even more aggressive in the high pressure and finally the 50-50s landed a little bit more for us. It felt like everything landed for them in the first half. Middle pressure was good, so not too much through us, and then we played more behind them and hurt them more in that way. How united the fans and the players were second half. That’s what we need to build. The fans helped us massively and pushed us towards a big point and they were fantastic against Dortmund so if can we do that more and more consistently together we can create some magic."
Fans love to see the team on the front foot - some may worry we only see this version of Spurs when they are chasing a game...
Thomas: "I think it’s fair to say that we tried to be front footed in the first half as well but we just didn’t land in all the high pressure situations. We didn’t win them and we were playing against City who are pretty good at keeping the ball. I think we showed a lot of intention in the first half but just didn’t land on it."
Xavi has been great in recent weeks - was that his best performance?
Thomas: "Xavi was exceptional today. He's a very good footballer, but he's probably an even bigger winner and fighter. So, the way he fights with the team is exceptional, and how he's part of driving the team forward I think is very impressive."
Talking of Xavi, Wirtz (Liverpool) also came in from Germany and has taken a while, do you think for players of that quality it still takes time to get used to the physicality and get up to speed in the Premier League?
Thomas: "I think it's fair to say that the Premier League is the best league in the world. It's also the most physical, not only in the duels, but physical in the pace of the game. It's so quick. To adapt to that takes a little bit of time. Then I think some players, for whatever reason, just adapt a little bit quicker. For whatever reason, if they're coming into a team that's in flow, they may adapt a little bit quicker. There can be a lot of things. It's humans we're dealing with. The most important thing is their intentions and their work ethic and all that. Then it will be step by step - Xavi has taken some big steps, especially in recent weeks."