Thomas Frank will be pleased with how much Tottenham Hotspur have progressed during his first four months in charge.
There has been a lot of drama off the field with Daniel Levy’s departure as executive chairman, interest from multiple parties in a potential sale and the official return of Fabio Paratici, but results have been mostly positive apart from a penalty shootout defeat to Paris Saint-Germain in the UEFA Super Cup and a 1-0 loss to Bournemouth in the Premier League.
Spurs are third in the Premier League table after seven games and have the joint-second best defensive record. They have taken four points from their opening two Champions League games and reached the fourth round of the Carabao Cup. Late equalisers against Wolverhampton Wanderers and Brighton & Hove Albion hint at a newfound resilience.
As a bonus, they broke their international break curse by beating Leeds United. Frank is making the slightly awkward task of replacing Ange Postecoglou look easy.
However, the next seven weeks will give us a better idea of what Spurs could achieve in the Dane’s first year. They have a daunting fixture list which includes a north London derby, two trips to St. James Park, home matches against Chelsea and Manchester United, plus a reunion with PSG (in the Champions League).
How can they emerge from this brutal period unscathed?
According to Frank, the last time Spurs challenged for multiple trophies in the same season was in 2018-19. Back then, Maurico Pochettino’s side lost the Champions League final to Liverpool, finished fourth in the Premier League and reached the semi-finals of the Carabao Cup.
After a decent start to the 2024-25 campaign under Postecoglou, things unravelled after the October international break. Spurs lost four of their next eight league matches and went on a three-game winless run in the Europa League. As the fixtures piled up, so did their injury list.
During the hiring process, Frank enquired about why Spurs suffered so many injuries last season. In his first press conference, he spoke about the importance of rotation.
“There’s a lot of talk about the games players are playing and the tempo and the intensity, but hopefully the way we train — building layers, building robustness into the players — is going to be a big part in making them more available throughout the season,” Frank said.
“Hopefully, we can make good decisions, with feeling, with knowledge, with numbers. When to rotate and when to rest is a big thing as well.”
He expanded on this before they beat Doncaster Rovers in the Carabao Cup last month. “If you want to compete in all four tournaments, you need to be good enough to pick the right team every single time,” the 52-year-old said.
“We’re also aware that no player can play 60 games times 90 minutes. So, it’s that balance we need to hit throughout the season, not only because we are facing Doncaster. It could be Brighton, last week it was Villarreal. We made some changes and we need to hit that perfect number of players that rotate and then a strong team.”
Frank managed Brentford for two full seasons in the Championship and had to juggle 46 league games along with cup competitions. In the 2020-21 campaign, they finished third and lost to Spurs in a one-legged semi-final in the Carabao Cup. On average, he made 2.1 changes to the starting XI for every game in an attempt to keep the squad fresh.
Brentford recorded their best points total (59) in the Premier League in 2022-23 — and Frank did not name an unchanged line-up once. Ivan Toney started every game when fully fit but Frank would switch between Bryan Mbeumo and Yoane Wissa. Ethan Pinnock, Ben Mee and Pontus Jansson rotated at centre-back.
Last season, he tweaked his approach because Wissa, Mbeumo, Kevin Schade and Mikkel Damsgaard were consistently performing at a high level. Brentford made 45 changes to their starting XI — fewer than any other team in the division. That indicates Frank recognises when to keep using the same players to maintain momentum. Brentford were also out of the Carabao Cup and FA Cup come mid-January, so they were only in one competition from then on.
Frank’s selection decisions since he was appointed at Spurs suggest load management has been at the forefront of his mind. Richarlison missed their first pre-season game against Reading as the staff were “building him.” The Brazilian was replaced in the starting XI by Mathys Tel for the victories over West Ham United and Leeds. Spurs’ careful handling of Richarlison is working because he has already started more league games (five) than he managed last season (four).
Joao Palhinha and Rodrigo Bentancur were dropped for the opening game against Burnley, three days after the UEFA Super Cup, which allowed Archie Gray, Lucas Bergvall and Pape Matar Sarr to excel. Micky van de Ven and Cristian Romero have started every league game but were rested for last month’s win over Doncaster. Romero missed the 2-2 draw against Bodo/Glimt with a knock and returned to face Leeds. Djed Spence and Destiny Udogie have alternated at left-back. Spence replaced Pedro Porro on the right for the 1-1 draw with Wolves.
Spurs suffered a lot of problems last season when fringe players were thrust into the starting XI because of injuries to key figures. They were usually undercooked due to a lack of playing time and often picked up their own fitness issues. Radu Dragusin only started one of Tottenham’s opening nine matches. He then started their next 14 top-flight fixtures before suffering an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury in January’s Europa League tie against Elfsborg. Timo Werner sustained a hamstring injury in the same month following a 3-0 win over Tamworth in the FA Cup.
Frank has tried to give everybody game time to ensure they are sharp. Tel was left out of the Champions League squad but has started two league games. Kevin Danso and second-choice goalkeeper Antonin Kinsky are the only players who have featured in every Premier League squad who have not started a game yet.
Danso, though, played the full 90 minutes against PSG, Doncaster and Bodo/Glimt. The Austria international should feature more in this busy period when Van de Ven or Romero are rested. Dragusin returned to first-team training in September and is an alternative when fully fit. Frank wanted to sign another senior centre-back in the summer to protect Van de Ven and Romero, who both missed large chunks of last season with muscle issues. Sharing the minutes around will hopefully reduce the strain on key players so they are only pushed to the limit in exceptional circumstances.
Before last month’s encounter with Wolves, Frank spoke about how they keep evolving the squad’s recovery routines. “We have a very good coaching group and good staff where we have a clear idea and process of how we want to do it, but we constantly discuss the small details,” he said.
“For example, we had some that played a lot of minutes on Wednesday (against Doncaster). They are on the second day (of training). We still want to get a little bit out of them. Also, some that didn’t play, they need to get a little bit more out. So how do we get that physical load bang on? Plus, we want to get all the details in. So that is the ongoing discussion constantly and there’s no one-size-fits-all kind of matchday minus one (approach). It’s a constant, small little bit of development.”
Hopefully, all of these decisions will pay off when Spurs face five games in 13 days, including trips to Monaco, Everton and Newcastle, and the players are not exhausted.
The other issue which Frank needs to address ahead of this challenging period is their chance creation from open play. Spurs have been over-reliant on Mohammed Kudus beating defenders in one-v-one situations before shooting or crossing the ball into the box.
Kudus has started nine of Tottenham’s 11 games and has forged a promising partnership with Porro on the right wing. Frank has not found a permanent solution for the opposite flank. Wilson Odobert, Brennan Johnson and Xavi Simons have been trialled on the left. Tel is another option.
Spurs might not be creating a lot of high-quality chances but they have scored 13 times, which puts them level with Chelsea and Liverpool. Only Arsenal (14) and Manchester City (15) have more goals. The concern is that Frank’s side are significantly overperforming their xG (which measures the quality of their chances) of 7.5.
Tottenham have historically overperformed in this regard because they possessed two elite finishers in Harry Kane and Son Heung-min, but they have both left.
The low-quality chances that Spurs are converting, including Bergvall’s header in the win over West Ham and Richarlison’s scissor kick against Burnley, suggest this is a lucky streak and not sustainable.
It was always going to take time for Frank to implement his ideas and for new signings to settle. Dominic Solanke, Tottenham’s club-record signing, has not started a single game due to an ankle injury which required surgery. Randal Kolo Muani, who is on a season-long loan from PSG, has been struggling with a dead leg.
There is a “good chance” Dejan Kulusevski will return from a knee injury before the end of 2025, but James Maddison will miss the majority of the season following an operation on his ACL. They are four quality and experienced attacking players who will give Spurs an extra dimension when they are available. It will be a massive boost if Kulusevski, Kolo Muani and Solanke are available for at least some of these games over the next two months.
Frank's ability to juggle the Premier League and the Champions League was one of the biggest questions hanging over him after making the step up from Brentford. All of the evidence suggests he is well prepared for the challenges ahead.
If Spurs reach December still in the top four and in a strong position to qualify for the Champions League knockout stages, maybe it will be time to readjust our expectations of what they could accomplish.