Thomas Frank was delighted with the competitiveness of our matches against Arsenal and Newcastle in Hong Kong and Korea as the 2025/26 season draws ever closer.
We came out on top in the first NLD played outside the UK thanks to Pape Matar Sarr's strike from 40 yards last Thursday before a 1-1 draw against the Toon at Seoul’s World Cup Stadium on Sunday.
Bundesliga champions FC Bayern are next up in Munich on Thursday (5.30pm) - watch live on SPURSPLAY - and then the countdown to 25/26 really begins in earnest with the UEFA Super Cup against UCL champions PSG in Udinese on Wednesday week (13 August, 8pm UK) and our Premier League opener at home to Burnley on Saturday 16 August (3pm).
Reflecting on the games on Tour, Thomas said: “I’m very pleased with two good competitive games. I think that gave us a lot of answers, showed us a lot of good bits, showed us also what we need to work on, some really good individual performances, that’s good. Overall, good, the only big minus is (injury to) Maddison.
“Newcastle, they were extremely competitive, a fantastic test for us. A lot of good things to take away from the game, but also a lot of things we like to like to do better and improve.
“I think we started really well, really aggressive, scored good goal through Brennan, very aggressive in our high pressure, won the ball four, five, six times high, and could have created even more out of that in the last third with a killer pass.
“Then we got a little bit too deep at times, but then also had a big chance to Mathys. Second half, I thought we were more on top again, especially towards the end of the game, the high pressure was again better after some of the stops. We scored a good goal through high pressure, conceded a goal where we were not as good with the high pressure. That’s what we need to learn from.
“There was so much to learn from this game, and I'm actually happy that Newcastle, at times, made it a little difficult for us with their high pressure, but also at times we showed we can win it high and go the other way. So, we take the positives out of it and we'll adjust some things as well.”