Tottenham Hotspur tackle Paris Saint-Germain in the UEFA Super Cup on Wednesday night as Thomas Frank faces an enormous test.
Just shy of three months on from Tottenham Hotspur’s emotional Europa League final win over Manchester United, Spurs are back in European action.
The UEFA Super Cup sees Tottenham challenge Champions League winners Paris Saint-Germain in Udine, the hometown of Spurs goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario.
Ange Postecoglou lost his job as Tottenham boss despite winning the Europa League, and Thomas Frank is looking to make an impact as his replacement.
Tottenham were hammered 4-0 by Bayern Munich last time out and face a huge challenge against PSG, arguably the finest team in Europe right now.
Stephen Kelly on Thomas Frank
Frank is gearing up for the upcoming Champions League campaign, and this game against PSG provides a brilliant test.
The Dane also has the Premier League on his mind, with the big kick-off against Burnley coming this weekend.
Frank would love a positive start to his Tottenham reign, and he has already earned praise from a former Spurs man.
Ex-Tottenham defender Stephen Kelly has told BBC Sport that he is hearing positive things about Frank from Hotspur Way.
Kelly is hearing that Frank is taking every single training session himself, getting involved on the grass with his Spurs stars.
Postecoglou would oversee training, but sessions were usually taken by the likes of Chris Davies, Nick Montgomery, Ryan Mason, Matt Wells and Mile Jedinak during the Australian’s time in charge.
Frank is going down a different route, preferring to take sessions himself, and Kelly believes that his more organised style will be visible early into his reign.
“Tonight we will see how Thomas Frank goes about it and how different it is going to be to Ange,” said Kelly.
“It’s going to be very different to how Ange played because the gung-ho, all-out-attack didn’t seem to work for Spurs for a long time in the Premier League.
“I think Thomas Frank is going to be more pragmatic. He’s slightly more organised, from what I hear he takes every training session himself, he’s on the grass with the players,” he added.
Thomas Frank’s approach to Tottenham Hotspur training
Frank has trusted coaches around him at Spurs, with Chris Haslam and Justin Cochrane following from Brentford.
Andreas Georgson has also joined the Tottenham staff, having previously worked at Arsenal and Manchester United.
Frank is taking the lead on Tottenham’s sessions early into his reign, and opened up on his approach to training while speaking to Football London in pre-season.
“I don’t know if I’m a modern coach or not sometimes, but we started running today! I think old school is still good school, I think that’s still important to have a bit of that,” said Frank. “Now we had a running test today, and we’ll have that again when the internationals are back and probably also a little bit later down the season.
“But, in general, that was just a short test, basically a 1km test. So if they did it well enough, they’re below three minutes 15 seconds, so that sounds easier, with turns by the way. So that’s one thing that is done, and then it’s football. Everything with the ball, everything is on that, and then we will top up with some runs because I believe there’s a big bit in that mental part of pushing,” he added.
Frank clearly believes in mixing old-school principles with modern advances, and will hope to solve some of Tottenham’s defensive problems from last season.