Thomas Frank spoke to the media at Hotspur Way on Thursday afternoon, ahead of our Premier League clash against his former club Brentford at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Saturday (3pm).
Here’s what he had to say…
It's already being called the Thomas Frank derby – is that an extra incentive to put the home record right?
Thomas: “Of course, it's a little bit more special for me because I face Brentford, where I'd been for nine years. That's almost a quarter of my life. I had a fantastic time there, enjoyed every second of it. There's a lot of people I haven't seen for a long time and I used to see them every day, more or less, so that will be special. It would be not true not to say that, and it is very true, but today it has been preparation against a team. Players I know very well, of course, there are small tweaks to what you could say I used to do, but a lot of the identity is the same in many ways, which makes it difficult in many ways – but when the whistle goes, it's all about getting three points and winning.”
Will you celebrate if you score against your old team?
Thomas: “I will, because I think everyone respects the respect I got for Brentford. The fans, everyone, before kick-off, after kick-off, or after the final whistle. In the 90 minutes plus, it's all about one thing, do what we can to win the game.”
You are struggling at home, they are struggling away – something’s got to give, hasn’t it?
Thomas: “Yeah, definitely. It will be nice timing for us to get the three points on Saturday. There's only one way to do that, put a good performance in there, work on the things we're constantly working on - phase two, phase three, constantly make it sharper, quicker, not direct, but more penetration when we need to have that, play with intensity, come out brave, and we're looking forward to the game.”
Have you had your defenders out there practising their overhead kicks?
Thomas: “Maybe Cuti and Micky should play strikers. We discussed a little bit if it was Richy or Cuti's overhead kick that was the best. I think they agreed to disagree, let's put it that way.”
Any issues following the Newcastle game, any injuries?
Thomas: “No, everyone from the Newcastle game should be ready.”
What did you make of the half-time huddle and how happy are you to leave the players to their own devices when it comes to how they can encourage each other?
Thomas: “I think it's on the pitch, the more they can encourage each other, the more there's a positive body language, all the small setbacks, all the good, positive actions, I think that just builds to that togetherness and that performance, so I think it's good. They're out there on the pitch, they're out in the arena, none of us are out there. I know I stand close to it, but I'm not in there. They need to sort it out and they can only do that together.”
When did you first know that Keith Andrews would make a good manager?
Thomas: “I think first and foremost, it's big credit to Brentford to be brave enough to promote him, but also have built something over time. I've been there nine years, seven years almost, as a head coach, and it's definitely not about me, it's about what we together built there, that consistency, stability and high performance at the level. So, that culture, knowing who we are, what we want to be, that was easier to continue with, with appointing Keith, and I think he's done a remarkable job. It's never easy to step up to your first head coach role. The club lost crucial players in the summer, and the way they just continued, you can see they got what I would call the Brentford identity, and he knows that with culture and style of play and kept it, but also tweaked it with his ideas because we're all different, so big praise. What I saw in Keith, very good man, good values, good coach, had leadership potential, very impressive.”
Who had the more difficult job? Keith stepping up for his first ever managerial role at a club he knew, or you coming here to a club you didn't know?
Thomas: “I think it's, how can you say, difficult challenge, experience, whatever you call it. Two different levels. He's come within the club, but he still needs to be standing out there a little bit more on his own, in front of everyone, facing players, staff, owners, press, everything. At the end of the day, it's his decision, dealing with the ups and downs and it was not an easy summer, looking from the outside, with players leaving the club and stuff like that, and didn't have just a perfect start to the first three or four games, he still kept calm. Here it's different, of course, stepping into a new club, but again, you need to know how the players are, the club, leadership, everything. So, yeah, both good challenges.”
How will you feel on Saturday when you come up against players you bought for Brentford, players you trusted to go out and perform for Brentford?
Thomas: “That's the nature of football. As I said, before the game and after the game, I'm looking forward to seeing good people. I really enjoy to work with players, staff, everyone, but during the game it's just about competing and winning a match. It's the same if I'm playing a padel game or something against good colleagues, when we're playing, we're playing, it's not for fun, it's competitive, and after we can be happy again.”
Heung-Min Son is back (against Slavia Prague on 9 December) - the fans are going to love seeing him, and I guess he might be able to give you some good luck?
Thomas: “That would be nice, no doubt about that. I'm so pleased for Sonny that he’ll come back and really hopefully got the well-deserved celebration for everything he's done for this club. I think it was a fantastic send off in South Korea, but on Tuesday I really hopes he gets that.”
Sonny was really good at bringing people together at this club - do you think you've missed him as a kind of unifying figure on the pitch and in the dressing room this season?
Thomas: “Yeah. I don't know, I would say. He's not here, so others need to step up. It's like when you miss a player for whatever reason, because leadership qualities are part of Sonny, bringing people together, the level they had, others will step up, others will shine a little bit more, because some of the players that were there before took the shine, if that makes sense. Of course, you can always use good people as Sonny.”
Sonny’s position was normally from the left - do you feel you know who your preferred candidate is in that position?
Thomas: “I think it's fair to say that there is competition for that left-side role. I think everyone can see that. There are two things in it. We've played a fair amount of games, we play every third or fourth day, so there needs to be rotation as well. It's also fair to say that there's not been one player that put his foot down, ‘I'm playing that position’.”
Do you have an update on Dominic Solanke or Deki Kulusevski?
Thomas: “When they are ready to really be close to being involved in the squad, then I will give more information.”
When is Mathys Tel going to get the opportunity that he's been pushing for?
Thomas: “That's a good question - when I take the decision. We spoke about Mathys before. It's been a toughish season for him, of course. The first thing was we can't run away from that he was not involved in the Champions League squad, but the way he carries himself, the way he trains, his mindset is very good, and that's also why I've used him in games, he also started mainly as a nine in the games he played this season, I'm very aware he also can play off the left, so it's a little bit what kind of type and who you go with, and how many players can you go with on the side and stuff like that. The only thing that any player can do is to keep training well, keep doing everything they can to catch my eye, and make it very difficult for me when I take my decisions.”
How has Xavi reacted to being substitute four the last four games?
Thomas: “Xavi has trained fantastic. The last five or six times he really could train, very good attitude on the training pitch. I like that a lot. We played different games with different line-ups. I think Xavi was coming towards something better and better, and as long as he trains well, good attitude, then we're getting closer and closer. I think it's also fair to say that he's coming on in all four games we've played.”
Any reason he didn’t start against Fulham?
Thomas: “It's just different scenarios. We played with two strikers against PSG, both of them scored. I think it's fair to say that. I will not say that we struggled to score, because we scored 23 goals. I think that's quite a fairly high amount, that's quite good, but we also played with the two in just a little bit different role against Man United. So, it's just different personnel and who's been a little bit in form and stuff like that.”