If one thing is certain, it is that Tottenham Hotspur are going to be a very different team under Thomas Frank.
Spurs ended their 17-year trophy drought under Ange Postecoglou last season with a Europa League triumph that will live long in the memory for supporters. But the high-risk nature of “Ange-ball” resulted in 22 league defeats — the most losses recorded by any side without getting relegated in Premier League history — and condemned them to a 17th-place finish, their worst since winning promotion to the old first division in 1977-78.
But if Postecoglou is a staunch ideologue, Frank is a proud pragmatist. Wednesday’s UEFA Super Cup defeat to Paris Saint-Germain on penalties was an insight into how the Dane focuses on the details, particularly against elite opposition, creating a bespoke tactical plan to nullify and contain arguably the best football team in the world for much of the game.
Assessing how Frank has structured his side at the Super Cup and in pre-season, The Athletic looks at how Spurs could look in 2024-25.
The Super Cup performance should be a confidence booster for Tottenham, but if pre-season offers any indication as to how Frank sees Spurs playing on a week-to-week basis, that tactical plan may be an exception.
Across Frank’s tenure at Brentford, the west Londoners were excellent at punching upwards. In their first Premier League game in 2021, they beat Arsenal 2-0 with a very similar structure to the one Frank deployed for his first competitive match in charge of Spurs in Udine against PSG. Against Arsenal, it was Bryan Mbeumo playing just off Ivan Toney, with David Raya exploiting the opposition’s lack of aerial presence with long balls sent towards the England international.
On Wednesday, Guglielmo Vicario, who played the fewest long passes of any goalkeeper to start 14 or more Premier League matches last season, sent 31 long balls forward for Richarlison and Mohammed Kudus to work with. Even if their style isn’t as direct on a week-to-week basis, expect Vicario to hit the ball long much more under Frank than under Postecoglou.
“Yeah, something has changed,” Vicario said in a pre-match press conference ahead of the Super Cup. “I really need to look to read the situation that presents in front of me. Sometimes it is to build from the back and play, sometimes it’s to go long. It’s kind of a different approach to what I was used to over the last two seasons, but the important thing is it’s useful for the team and to achieve a good result if I can impact in this way.”
That change in approach was noticeable in Spurs’ 1-1 draw with Newcastle United in South Korea on August 3, where Pape Matar Sarr, who was playing centrally, switched with Brennan Johnson on goal kicks, providing a tall and athletic target high on the right wing for Antonin Kinsky to launch the ball towards.
Frank used this strategy at Brentford, particularly with Raya and Toney, allowing a third-man runner to profit from his aerial proficiency. Given Dominic Solanke’s aerial strength and ability to bring team-mates into play, Frank may find similar success in using Kudus in an Mbeumo-like role at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Spurs were often at their best under Postecoglou when they progressed the ball from defence through the thirds into attack at pace, and that’s something fans should expect to continue under Frank. Long balls from the goalkeeper to the forwards is one way to do it, but pre-season has shown their willingness to bait the press and play around it with sharp passing interchanges.
Here’s one example of Spurs combining quickly to hit the opposition at pace…
Vicario baits the Newcastle press, with Anthony Gordon or his supporting midfielders unable to prevent the Italian from passing to Pedro Porro.
With Newcastle out of shape as a result of their failed press, Mathys Tel, playing as a central striker, drops deep to exploit the space left by Newcastle’s vacant midfield. Tel controls the ball into Johnson’s path, who sweeps the ball out wide towards Son, who is free on the left wing.
This passage of play would not be unusual under Postecoglou, indicating Frank’s willingness to retain some of the good habits and passages the Australian built during his two-year spell in north London. It’s something the Dane incorporated more as he established Brentford in the Premier League too, with their rate of 4.6 quick build-ups per 100 goal kicks last season being double that of their first year after promotion.
Once they break into the opponent’s half, Frank, who has typically set up his sides in a 4-2-3-1 formation through pre-season, has asked his No 10 to focus on facilitating attacks in wide areas.
Here’s an instance of Lucas Bergvall moving from the central area towards Wilson Odobert on the left, and then combining with the Frenchman to provide space for Djed Spence at left-back.
Again, this was a common theme through Postecoglou’s reign, with some of Spurs’ brightest moments involving James Maddison and Dejan Kulusevski connecting with wingers and full-backs to create overloads in wide areas.
Frank set Spurs up in a 3-5-2 formation against PSG, meaning the natural width came through Spence and Porro. While there was no typical No 10, Kudus worked as an auxiliary outlet from the striker position, using his physical and technical qualities to hold off defenders and allow the wing-backs to push up into wider areas and provide support. Regardless of what system Frank deploys, maximising their talent in wide areas appears crucial.
But the build-up and scoring goals were hardly a problem for Spurs under Postecoglou. Last season, they finished with 64 league goals, the same number as Chelsea, who finished fourth. It’s no surprise, then, that Frank has kept many of the broad ideas about how the team progresses the ball fairly similar, at least against opposition against whom Spurs are favoured. The biggest job on Frank’s hands is improving the team defensively.
A significant issue for Postecoglou last season was the lack of a natural defensive midfielder, and new season-long loan signing Joao Palhinha’s performance in the Super Cup demonstrates how significant he could be to ensuring the team is not so easy to cut through this season. He looks set to be at the heart of the team’s midfield regardless of the system, and keeping him fit should provide a permanent steel in a midfield with technical quality in abundance.
Frank has also tinkered with the team’s structure out of possession, giving them a more solid base to press high up the pitch without as many holes. This pre-season, Tottenham have been dropping into a 4-4-2 block in their defensive and middle third out of possession, providing a much more compact system.
As demonstrated in this grab below, one of the defensive midfielders responds to the opposition gaining ground in their half by moving into the near-side full-back’s spot, allowing the full-back to move further out and defend the wing.
In theory, it should help to prevent opposition players from exploiting spaces in between a defensive line that often looked disorganised last season.
In possession, Frank lined the team up in a 3-2-4-1 structure against Reading in their opening pre-season game, giving them a solid base at the heart of midfield and providing the defence with protection.
Despite a slight change in structure, that commitment to screening Micky van de Ven and Cristian Romero in midfield was again on full display against PSG.
Frank’s pragmatism shouldn’t be confused with a lack of ambition without the ball, however. In fact, the success of their press in pre-season suggests quite the opposite. Johnson (Newcastle) and Sarr (Wycombe Wanderers; below) have both scored goals in pre-season that have come directly from Spurs’ press, which also nullified PSG’s ability to build from the back for large parts of the Super Cup.
The pressing is mainly directed towards one part of the pitch before locking on man-to-man, but there’s a degree of flexibility depending on the opposition’s build-up and strengths.
When Frank has structured the team in a 4-2-3-1, the No 10 has typically pushed up alongside the central striker to lead the charge, but he showed variation against Newcastle when Son Heung-min — in his last game for Spurs — pressed inside from left wing to cut Fabian Schar’s time on the ball.
It helped negate his quality and importance in Newcastle’s in-possession game, and without Sarr needing to jump back and forth, protected Spurs with a 3-v-3 in midfield.
Here is a more typical example of the No 10, in this case Jamie Donley (now out on loan at Stoke City), starting the press by arcing his run to prevent Reading’s goalkeeper from playing short to the right central defender.
On Spurs’ side, Luka Vuskovic has pushed into midfield from centre-back to lock the man-to-man press, forcing Reading to go long, which Van de Ven deals with easily. Frank often asks one of his centre-backs to push ahead of the other, which could leave gaps for top opposition to exploit, but Spurs have the athleticism to make up for it in Romero, Van de Ven, and Kevin Danso.
Perhaps the most marked change will be Tottenham’s newfound emphasis on set pieces. Last season, Spurs conceded 12 goals from set pieces, the fifth-highest number in the league. They scored 10, about middle of the road in the league, a decent number considering Postecoglou admitted he was “not interested” in set pieces in May.
Frank, on the other hand, places as much value in them as any Premier League head coach.
Danso won the “long throw” auditions in pre-season, and his ability to hurl the ball into the box with pace was effective against PSG. Fittingly, both of their goals against the European champions came from set pieces, indicating that, at the very least, Van de Ven should add to his return of three Premier League goals next term. Behind Porro’s excellent delivery, Frank should help to elevate the team in this area significantly.
With ambitions to compete for four trophies this season, Frank will be looking for every extra percentage point to push Spurs up the table, and set pieces fall into that category.
Should he maintain their offensive proficiency — perhaps with one or two attacking additions before the window closes to provide an extra spark — and stabilise their defence, this young Tottenham side has the potential for an exciting season.
(Top photo: Franck Fife/AFP via Getty Images)