Thomas Frank reflected on the management of the Tottenham squad as attacking options decrease.
Mohammed Kudus pulled up with an injury in the 1-1 draw against Sunderland only hours after Brennan Johnson became the record signing for Crystal Palace. With Dominic Solanke, Dejan Kulusevski, and James Maddison already missing, Spurs are looking short of offensive numbers.
“It was not a game where we were just, boom, on top of it, and we just need that goal, and we were just controlling the game. So if that was the case, then it could have been a different decision. I think when we put Joao Palhinha and Lucas Bergvall on, there's been a lot of running, and it was a little bit back and forth.
“So Lucas played 10 many times, and been a very good creative player for us, so that was more or less like-for-like [positionally in this game] for Wilson Odobert, and then with Joao for Archie Gray, it was a game where we, I think it's fair to say, maybe lacked the exact cutting edge.
“Maybe it would be good just to make sure we could win 1-0, which we unfortunately couldn't.
“I'm very happy with Mathys Tel stepping in and looking very positive. That was a big positive, I would say.
“You can say that if we had Xavi Simons and Mohammed Kudus for today, then I think we have enough. But now we, for this game, didn't have them. Mo only for, what, 10 minutes? So there's just some games where you're very light, and that happens for teams.
“I think the depth is one thing. Sometimes, you know, the decisions make more sense further down the line. And now there was an opportunity to sell a player, which the club hasn't been that good at in the past and sometimes that window can be small, if you want to do that, for example.
“We are out there. We are really, how can you say, alert. The club really wants to see what we can do to strengthen the squad and the team. I say many times it's a difficult window and we still need to have the short-term solution to be the long-term solution as well.”