Tottenham Hotspur will battle Burnley on Saturday afternoon in their 2025/26 Premier League season opener, and after they blew a 2-0 lead on Wednesday night in Udine in the UEFA Supercup Final against reigning Champions League winners PSG, they'll have more than just the chip on their shoulder from last season's 17th-placed finish.
Spurs final form isn't yet complete, as they are after Eberechi Eze, Savinho, and potentially other top transfer targets before the summer market closes on Sept. 1. Before that, Thomas Frank will get a good look at how his current crop fares against a much easier opponent.
Here are five players Frank absolutely has to start 100 percent on Saturday against Burnley and beyond, as these players will be central to his new era at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
RW Mohammed Kudus
Though RIcharlison did play well in his first game under Thomas Frank's management, there is no question that Mohammed Kudus was the most dangerous player on the pitch for Spurs against PSG and that the club's fortunes fell off a cliff after Kudus had to be subbed off.
You just know Kudus is going to run himself ragged for the White kit, and he clearly belongs with Tottenham. He gave it his all against PSG and was willing to try anything to create chances for not only himself but also for his teammates. Kudus just might be Spurs best non-defender right now.
CB Cristian Romero
Of course, the best player on Tottenham is Cristian Romero, who was the best player in the entire Europa League last season en route to handing Spurs their first major European trophy in more than 40 years.
Now the captain of the team after the departure of club legend Son Heung-min to Los Angeles, Romero is as important as ever to the Tottenham squad and the first name Frank pencils in his team sheet. Romero has a case for being the best center back in the world, and this needs to be the season that he makes that case loud and clear.
CM Pape Sarr
If Kudus was the best player on the pitch for Tottenham in Udine, then center midfielder Pape Sarr was a close second. Sarr has his limitations technically and is certainly never going to be confused with Andrea Pirlo, Paul Scholes, or Paul Pogba in midfield, but he is a different kind of asset to the Tottenham lineup with his determination and ball-winning.
Sarr did the work of three men against PSG, dominating the off-ball game against arguably the best midfield in European football. Just 22 years old, Sarr looks like he could be the biggest breakout midfielder of the season under Frank, who seems to know exactly how to use the Senegalese internatioanl to his full potential.
CB Micky van de Ven
Cristian Romero is Tottenham's star man, but Micky van de Ven isn't far behind him on the list of the best center backs in world football. The supremely gifted Dutch athlete has been sublime since stepping foot in North London after breaking out in the Bundesliga with corporate club Wolfsburg.
Van de Ven is a special athlete and a speed freak at center back who can even poach well-taken goals, as his opener against Lucas Chevalier can attest. The talented left-footer is worth his weight in platinum to Tottenham, and he and Romero are the benchmark tandem on this team.
RB Pedro Porro
It's flabbergasting how underrated Pedro Porro is on an international scale, because you have people who legitimately think that Diogo Dalot is better. It's hard to conjure the name of a Premier League right back who is definitively better than Porro, as the Spanish international is a sublime crosser of the ball while being a tremendous ball-winner and athlete defensively.
Porro stands head and shoulders above his peers and the opponent in so many matches, and he was as important as anyone in the road to the Europa League title. You have to think that with more output from the strikers under Frank, Porro will be richly rewarded with more stats and recognition of his own, too.