The Tottenham Hotspur boss is expecting things to click at the north London club sooner rather than later after a tough start
Thomas Frank is not losing any sleep over Tottenham's troubles because he has been here before in his managerial career.
The Dane's tenure in north London is yet to spark to life with Spurs sitting 14th in the Premier League table at Christmas and a disgruntled fanbase unhappy about the team's lack of creativity and a shaky defence. Last weekend's 2-1 loss to Liverpool, as Tottenham finished the game with nine men after red cards for Xavi Simons and captain Cristian Romero, made it five defeats out of the past eight for Frank in the league.
Frank has a history of slow starts though at Brentford and Brondby so he is not lying awake at night thinking about Spurs' current plight, even if he admits he does spend plenty of time thinking about it.
"The good thing is I’ve always been a good sleeper, so I think that’s helpful!" he said. "But of course you can feel that the thoughts are just underneath you. Sometimes we’ve all experienced that with work.
"They’ve been there a long time because there’s a lot of things to sort out. We want to be successful, we want to be consistent. There’s all small different bits we’d like to improve. It’s completely open and transparent.
“I think it’s also clear that we are searching to find a very consistent, competitive team week in, week out. When you get small setbacks and don’t get the right response you try something new or you stick to it."
The 52-year-old added: "It’s normal. It’s not the first time in my career I haven’t found the team instantly clicks but it’s coming over time. I know it will come, probably sooner rather than later."
Frank found success at both his former clubs, particularly in taking Brentford into the Premier League and helping them punch above their weight as an established team in the top flight. It is those experiences that he will draw upon to help him out of a hole in north London.
"At Brondby I didn’t win the first eight games and then we were unbeaten in nine. At Brentford, we lost eight out of 10 games and then were unbeaten in 10. So I am convinced we will see a similar pattern here," said the Dane. "I'm not in doubt about that, because I know how to make a competitive team.
"We will make a very competitive team here as well. I’m in no doubt of that. To make it even more complex here is the amount of games we are playing, with rotation and physical load and mental load that just impact a team and especially if it’s not used to doing that week in, week out."
While Tottenham ended their 17-year trophy drought by winning the Europa League in May under Ange Postecoglou, defeats became all too commonplace in the Premier League as the club finished 17th with a second string side as the Australian focused on the European competition.
With losing continuing to be an all too regular occurrence this season, most notably at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, Frank admits that it can become as much of a habit as winning.
“I definitely think there are habits that can go both ways. There are good habits and bad habits, and, of course winning is a good habit and losing is a bad habit, but underneath that is the habit of every staff member, every player," said the Spurs boss.
"How you react when there are setbacks in games is something we are really working very, very hard on. That’s something I also think we have dealt ok with. For example, the Brighton away game maybe the year before we would have lost, but we came back and got a 2-2 draw. That was a good example as was Bodo away.
"So there are bits that are going the right way, but we are not consistent enough to do that every third or fourth day. No matter how much I hate saying it, that’s an ongoing thing we need to work on. Small bits and good habits for every player."