Hotspur HQ

There's no question that new Tottenham Hotspur manager Thomas Frank has been a considerable upgrade to this early point in the season - not just above Ange Postecoglou but above any of the managers that have been in charge since Mauricio Pochettino fell off.

Spurs fans are debating about the team's quality after three straight draws (not counting Doncaster in the League Cup), whereas, a year ago, three straight losses in the Premier League would have been the norm. Frank, though, is still learning about his new team, and he's also learning about what it means to coach Tottenham.

With all due respect to Brentford and the underdog story Frank so beautifully wrote with the local rivals, they aren't Spurs. The expectations at a club that belongs in the Champions League every year are way different, and, thus, Frank has to adjust his own outlook accordingly.

An early issue that has hampered Frank, particularly in recent matches, is taking a too negative approach against inferior competition. Tottenham should be beating Brighton, Wolves, and Bodo Glimt. They should be beating Wolves and Bodo Glimt handily, and, last season, they literally knocked Bodo Glimt out of the Europa League semifinals without breaking too much of a sweat.

Tottenham need to be more fearless

This season, Spurs couldn't beat any of them and relied on late heroics to get a point in all three cases. They started the game very slowly and lethargically against both the Seagulls and their Champions League foes on Tuesday night, and that's in large part because Frank set up his midfield and entire squad to play it safe.

Tottenham need their manager to project more confidence and select lineups that enable the team to play more fearlessly against teams when they have much better players than the opposition. There's no question that with their budget and with players of Spurs star quality, they should be owning Wolves and Bodo Glimt, even when they don't start the stars like Mohammed Kudus and Xavi Simons.

Frank didn't show fear as Brentford manager in leading players like Mikel Damsgaard, Kevin Schade, Bryan Mbeumo, Yoane Wissa, and Ivan Toney to career attacking seasons. He can, therefore, do even more with Simons, Kudus, and even Richarlison and Brennan freaking Johnson.

A club like Tottenham is only leaving valuable points on the table in the Premier League title race and Champions League place battle when they don't set their team up for attacking success against smaller sids that are, naturally, going to play to counter and make goals very difficult. You'll always make mistakes against any opponent; the key, as Hansi Flick has shown us, to beating smaller opponents is to simply outscore them via superiority.

Thomas Frank's had a few howlers in the manager's chair over the past couple of weeks, but he silver lining about three straight draws is that Tottenham Hotspur and their beloved manager can learn an awful lot from these mistakes and the unsuccessful iterations of experimentation that have gone on during these games.

Tottenham already knew coming into the 2025/26 season that new signing Mohammed Kudus from "rivals" West Ham United would be pivotal to their success under Frank, and Kudus has immediately been one of the best signings in European football and a clear focal point of the attack.

Whenever possible, Spurs have gotten Kudus involved, and he has made the right wing his home. But because of his dominance on the right side, Tottenham have found it hard to get Brennan Johnson involved. The previous right winger, who led Spurs in goals last season, actually got a chance to spread his wings on the left side of the attack against Bournemouth, but he was a total failure in that position.

So, naturally, Frank decided to do the opposite. With Spurs searching for a goal in the second half against Wolves, he brought on the Europa League Final hero Johnson as a substitute in the 62nd minute. But in order to accommodate Johnson, Frank shipped out Kudus to the left wing, and the result was predictably disastrous.

Thomas Frank saw what we already knew

Now, you'd expect Frank to have known, as a successful Premier League manager, that Kudus and the left wing don't mix. West Ham already went there and tried that last season, and Kudus was horrible on the left. Johnson isn't much better, but the drop off between Kudus on the right and left is much bigger than Johnson from the right to the left, simply because Kudus is so much more effective at baseline in his preferred position.

Frank learned something important by experimenting and seeing it for himself. Kudus isn't an option on the left wing, and in case he had any illusions about solving his post-Son Heung-min problem on the left by starting him there and then bringing in Johnson as a starting right winger, then that was all mooted in mere minutes vs. Wolves.

Tottenham Hotspur have so many young players breaking through in the 2025/26 season, and after adding Xavi Simons and Mohammed Kudus to the mix this summer transfer window, it's difficult to find minutes for everyone.

Pape Matar Sarr, Lucas Bergvall, Brennan Johnson, Archie Gray, Mathys Tel, and Wilson Odobert are a handful of young players fighting for regular minutes around the main stars of the team, and all of them have the potential to be key players and among the best in their positions in the Premier League if all goes well with their developments.

But it's not just the outfield players worth keeping an eye on. Tottenham fans have been increasingly banging the table for young Antonin Kinsky to get some starts, as the 22-year-old Czech shot-stopper has impressed whenever he's been given starts in cup games for Spurs.

Kinsky's latest solid result was a clean sheet against Doncaster, and while that's not necessarily the biggest test, the composure he brings to the table is highly impressive, along with the raw skills he has.

Guglielmo Vicario is good, not great

Tottenham starter Guglielmo Vicario is someone with a lot of raw ability in terms of reflexes and shot-stopping, but Spurs fans have grown increasingly discontented with his mistakes. He drops the ball a lot, his handling overall is poor, he flails at crosses, and his distribution and security on the ball are both below what you'd expect from an otherwise good goalkeeper.

Vicario is a good goalkeeper, and his issues are often exaggerated. But even though he's prevented 1.8 more goals than expected above an average goalkeeper this season in the Premier League, his average of 0.30 goals prevented per 90 in league play would be erased by an overlay of his negative 0.40 goals above expected allowed in the Champions League.

Tottenham do need to play Kinsky more often, but it's not just about Vicario. At 28, Vicario can still be a good goalkeeper for Spurs over the next five years, but at 22, Kinsky is someone who can potentially be world-class for a decade. If he's playing this well in limited minutes at 22, then imagine what Kinsky could do with regular time and what he could become when he is in his prime at 28.

Vicario is good, but he's too flawed to be great. Because he's not a world-class goalkeeper, he's not so good that Tottenham can't afford to play Kinsky, too, and see what they have in Kinsky. Because there's a legitimate chance that Kinsky ends up being even better than Vicario, and while that's not really a slight on Vicario, Tottenham do owe Kinsky - and the club itself - a real chance to see if the Czech international can be the guy long-term. And sometimes, long-term isn't as far away as people think.

Tottenham Hotspur have obviously been boosted significantly by the summer addition of Portuguese midfielder Joao Palhinha, whose loan signing from Bayern Munich has been one of the most inspired moves of the entire Premier League summer transfer window.

The thing is, Palhinha hasn't been the only big breakout for Spurs this season in the middle of the park, and it's very easy to forget, but Senegalese international Pape Matar Sarr was equally brilliant for club and country to start the 2025/26 campaign.

Sarr was a bit of a forgotten figure under Ange Postecoglou last season, but he looked like a man revived under Thomas Frank during the highly successful initial games for Spurs. He was covering an absurd amount of ground and even showing more verve and technical quality on the attacking end than in the previous campaign.

Frank seems to have made Sarr less of a focus in recent weeks, though. He didn't get into the team against Brighton when they drew 2-2, and he only played 12 minutes for Spurs to close the fortunate 1-1 draw with Wolves, and, in fact, he was on the pitch to assist the game-tying goal.

Tottenham have been better with him

With the caveat that Sarr wasn't exactly great in his 68 minutes against Bodo Glimt, it does seem like Tottenham's best games have come with Sarr as a starter while, besides Bodo Glimt and Bournemouth in which the entire team was dreadful, some of the more disappointing outings have been without him.

Regardless, Sarr has passed the eye test this season with flying colors as a dynamic ball-winner and progessor. He's certainly been superior to Rodrigo Bentancur in the middle of the park, and beyond Palhinha, he's probably been Spurs best midfielder, showing more consistency than the young Lucas Bergvall (and we don't quite have enough of a sample size on Xavi Simons, given all the minutes wasted away with him on the left wing).

Sarr, by the way, scored in the win over West Ham, and after watching the quality of the goals he scored for Senegal in important moments in the last international break, there's more attacking firepower for Frank to harness with Sarr than Ange Postecoglou and even the fans likely thought. He's more than a box-to-box maven who defends and progresses at a high level.

Spurs best midfield involves some combination of Palhinha, Bergvall, and Sarr behind Simons in the 10 position. Going forward, Sarr has to be a regular for Tottenham, and if there's a way Spurs can start all four without shoehorning Simons into a left wing role, then that would be ideal for Tottenham. Sarr has been too immense, as Wolves can attest, to leave to rot on the bench.

Most of the time, positive analysis is the best way to go. Who is Tottenham Hotspur's best center back partnership? Well, that's obviously Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven. Who is the best option on the left wing? Which midfield is the best for Thomas Frank to use in the big games and which is the best against teams that park the bus?

But sometimes, it's good to go the opposite direction - albeit doing this more sparingly and without running the risk of exaggeration. That is to say, sometimes it's useful to think about the "worst" case and discuss why that is and how to avoid it.

Against Bodo Glimt, I couldn't help but think to myself that Tottenham stumbled upon the worst possible attacking partnership, and it's one they've used before this season. In order to spell Mohammed Kudus some rest, Tottenham gave him the night off against Bodo Glimt (or so they thought...he came in for the final 30 minutes anyway).

In his place, Spurs started Brennan Johnson again on the right wing, and while he was the team's leading goal-scorer last season in the Premier League, there's a reason why Tottenham look so much better in 2025/26 with Kudus on the right wing.

A bad night for Tottenham vs. Bodo Glimt

Johnson and striker Richarlison were beyond belief in the attack. They were horrendous. Tottenham were fortunate to have gotten a point against Bodo Glimt, because these two looked in no way, shape, or form capable of creating anything meaningful beyond that late own goal.

Richarlison's hot start to the 2025/26 campaign seems like a thing of the past, as this was his latest dud of a performance up top with no other alternative available due to injuries to Randal Kolo Muani and Dominic Solanke. The Brazilian international did nothing statistically meaningful besides one shot on target and one foul drawn.

Honestly, Johnson was even worse. He didn't even draw a foul or muster a shot on target, and as the adage goes, if he isn't scoring goals for Tottenham, he isn't helping the team. Even in his favored position on the right wing, Johnson was a total nonfactor, and it's so hard to build as a unit at the Champions League level when you have a winger who is doing that little.

Neither Richarlison nor Johnson mesh well. They are on the opposite wavelength. Johnson is a poacher who can't create for the striker, while Richarlison is someone who needs a player to play off of, like a Kudus. Frank has to take what we saw against Bodo Glimt seriously and realize that Johnson and Richarlison cannot start together as the main threats up top because neither will score or create as a pair.

Tottenham Hotspur are now winless in their last three games after just eking out a draw against Bodo Glimt in the Champions League, days after they suffered another last-minute draw to an inferior opponent in Wolves in the Premier League.

Now, there's nothing disastrous about drawing three matches in a row. Technically, that's the continuation of an undefeated streak for Tottenham, and it's a much better "slump" than what would have qualified as a slump under Ange Postecoglou last season when Spurs finished 17th in the Premier League.

That being said, the standard is now higher at Tottenham under Thomas Frank, which is a good thing. And so there's going to be more of a focus on improvement and what Frank can do to keep making Tottenham better and better.

One recent change he's been experimenting with that needs to be stopped is the usage of young Lucas Bergvall as a No. 10. There's been some rhetoric about Bergvall being converted into an attacking playmaker from a box-to-box midfielder, and it's evident after these recent games that this would be a mistake.

Lucas Bergvall isn't a No. 10

To wit, Tottenham started Bergvall as an attacking midfielder against Wolves, and he was terrible. It was, in conjunction with his performance against Brighton in a more advanced role, his worst start of the season. Bergvall was ineffective at playmaking in both of these Premier League encounters, failing to register a single key pass.

What's worse for Tottenham is that against Wolves, Bergvall wasn't even able to impact the game as a ball-winner or progressor either in this role. Sometimes, managers outsmart themselves by saying, "Hey, I have a great young midfielder, why don't I just play him closer to the goal and we'll score more!"

That's overly simplistic, because the entire team scores less when you take a great athlete on both ends of the pitch away from an area where they can impact the game defensively and offensively in terms of covering ground. Bergvall hasn't been able to exert his full influence in a more advanced role, and he honestly doesn't have the same creation or technical quality to thrive as a pure 10 like a Xavi Simons or James Maddison.

Bergvall is good at creating chances, but he's better at carrying the ball and winning duels. He's able to do so much more for Tottenham in a deeper, box-to-box role where he can cover half the pitch, rather than being stuck second-guessing himself and often on the periphery of the game when he's further ahead.

Tottenham Hotspur sold Oliver Skipp to Leicester City in August 2024, and it is laughable that the decision faced criticism back then. Many fans were sceptical, believing Skipp had more to offer than just a transfer fee.

Well, they have been proven wrong now that their opinion has not stood the test of time. Skipp was never extraordinary for Tottenham. He simply wasn’t that special and he hasn't been great for Leicester City either. The decision to sell him for a decent fee of £20 million was one of the best the club ever made.

In the Championship clash between Leicester City and Wrexham yesterday, the Foxes were comfortably winning thanks to a first-half goal, until Skipp decided otherwise and pocketed two easy points off their table.

He inexplicably left Nathan Broadhead unmarked, giving him the space to score a 77th-minute equaliser. That goal, though brilliant, never should have happened. But Skipp had to do it. And yes, it is totally on Skipp to have allowed that much space in the first place.

Ange Postecoglou was 100 percent right about Oliver Skipp

It is unbelievable that Postecoglou was criticised for selling Skipp. In hindsight, it was a brilliant decision. The Englishman was up to no good, and the manager had realised it back then.

Skipp was inconsistent and offered no real solution during Tottenham’s injury crisis in the 2023-24 season. He spent most of his time on the bench, which is why the club made the sensible choice to cash in on a player of his quality. And he gave some good returns, not on the field but on the balance sheet.

That inconsistency because of which he was sold is continuing at Leicester City. In about five appearances for the Foxes, the defensive midfielder has done very little. Averaging 1.6 tackles per game and winning no possession, his numbers are frankly awful.

He also loses possession an average of 3.6 times per game, hardly new to his record.

Even though he performed reasonably well last season for Leicester, he has started the current campaign poorly. This, unfortunately, is typical for him. There should be no doubt now that he was not worth keeping at Tottenham, and selling him was the club’s best decision regarding him.

Tottenham’s current options in his position are far superior to what Skipp could ever have become. Looking back, two years on, the sale was smart, and Postecoglou was completely right to let him go.

Tottenham Hotspur dropped their first points of the 2025/26 Champions League season on Tuesday night in Norway, drawing Bodo Glimt 2-2. For the third straight game, Spurs drew their opponents and needed a late flurry to avoid a loss to a team with a smaller budget than theirs.

It's been a disappointing run of games for Thomas Frank as Tottenham manager, though, tacitly, that's technically a positive for Spurs, because three draws on the trot is much better than the level of disappointment Spurs were accustomed to under any of his predecessors.

In each of these games, Tottenham have had an overarching problem that they've been able to take away wtih them, and against Bodo Glimt, the most glaring issue is their overreliance on a certain player who was not in the starting lineup.

Mohammed Kudus wasn't the only important player who entered the match in the second half - Xavi Simons also came into the game in the 59th minute - but watching how much Spurs struggled out wide without him was truly jarring.

Brennan Johnson was horrible again

You'd figure that Kudus, one of the best signings of the summer transfer window and a top-class Premier League winer, missing the game would obviously hurt Tottenham. But the extent to which his absence hurt the team was alarming.

Brennan Johnson totally botched any chance he had of getting an extended run of games on the right wing, and it's going to be even harder for Frank to justify resting Kudus when the drop off between the two players all-around is that vast.

Whereas Johnson looked completely incapable of carrying the ball or creating chances, Kudus had five dribbles completed in only around 30 minutes of action, totally transforming the way Spurs played and offering far more positive actions that then opened up the rest of the pitch for his teammates.

Tottenham don't have a single winger they can rely on to create chances, carry the ball into the final third, or penetrate the box off the dribble besides Kudus. He means absolutely everything to this offense, and Spurs biggest challenge in the coming January transfer window is going to be signing another player who can do that.

At least Mathys Tel can offer dynamism and direct play going forward, and Wilson Odobert has flashes of brilliance with his technical quality in tight spaces. But Tel is too inconsistent and Odobert is too weak, so they cannot offer even a fraction of what Kudus does. On the right wing itself, Johnson is a poacher whose all-around struggles as a true winger are well-documented. Kudus is going to continue to be the ride-or-die for this entire Tottenham offense out wide.

Tottenham Hotspur are on a bit of a slide now. The draw with Brighton on the road was one thing, but being the first team in the Premier League to drop points to Wolves was honestly a disastrous outcome immediately afterwards. Then, Spurs continued their slide of not beating an inferior opponent, drawing Bodo Glimt 2-2 in the Champions League, having knocked out the Norwegian side in last year's Europa League semifinals.

Now, three straight draws isn't a cause for catastrophe, and it certainly doesn't mean that Thomas Frank is doing a poor job as Tottenham manager. If anything, it's exposed what Spurs supporters should have already known, and that is the fact that the squad is deeply flawed right now.

A way of erasing one of those flaws is by taking seriously the events of the Bodo Glimt game. Rodrigo Bentancur may be closing in on a contract extension with Tottenham, but that doesn't mean Spurs should feel compelled to start the Uruguayan, just because he is a proven veteran player.

Bentancur was woeful against Bodo Glimt. He was completely overrun by a more athletic and energetic midfield. The former Juventus man worked hard for the team defensively and was accurate with his passing, but he was a ghost in terms of his actual influence on the ball. He couldn't create anything meaningful for the team and wasn't able to impose himself on the game in possession.

A higher upside option is available for Tottenham

Meanwhile, young Archie Gray has stood out as being capable of providing those exact things to the Tottenham midfield. Whenever Spurs have played him, even in games where they haven't been impressive as a team, Gray has been a positive because of his athleticism, command of the ball, and ability to progress play positively whlie in possession as a passer or a dribbler.

For Tottenham, the future is now, and that's a very important statement for Spurs to carry with them throughout the 2025/26 season. Bentancur offers no real upside to Tottenham as a team, whereas the U21 standout Gray is someone who can be one of the best in the Premier League over the next decade under Frank if his development goes as planned.

And it is going as planned, based on what we are literally seeing before us. Gray, in 10 minutes against Bodo Glimt, helped changed the game for Spurs and provided more urgency on the ball than Bentancur did. It's time to give Gray some more minutes and more trust, and if it is at the expense of Bentancur, who is a perfectly decent player, then so be it. Because Gray might just be a whole lot better than decent already.

Djed Spence has had quite the 2025.

He's added an array of Premier League wingers (and Doncaster Rovers' Damola Ajayi) to his penitentiary and represented his country, but he'll perhaps take the most pride in being listed as the fastest player of the opening Champions League gameweek of 2025/26.

You'll never sing that.

Spence has come on leaps and bounds over the past year, and the faith Ange Postecoglou eventually showed in the previously maligned full-back has been mirrored by new manager Thomas Frank. The Englishman has recorded five Premier League starts through six games, and also appeared in Europe's premier club competition for the very first time, as Spurs edged past Villarreal 1-0.

Spence started at left-back that night, and was tasked with supporting summer addition Xavi Simons on the overlap. It was perhaps during one of these forays when the 25-year-old recorded his record speed.

Djed Spence was the fastest player of Champions League Gameweek 1

Many wouldn't have been overly surprised had a Lilywhite topped the speed charts during Gameweek 1 of the league phase. Micky van de Ven played 90 minutes against the Yellow Submarine, and the imperious Dutchman's burners are well-documented.

In fact, Van de Ven is the fastest recorded player in Premier League history, reaching a top speed of 37.38 km/h. Since this data has been recorded, the Spurs centre-back has notched three of the five highest speeds in the competition.

However, Spence has so far stolen his thunder in Europe, with FotMob rating the full-back as the fastest operator in the Champions League so far this term. His top speed of 33.4 km/h ranked the highest among all players in Gameweek 1.

Spence just edged out Paris Saint-Germain's Bradley Barcola (33.2 km/h) and Atalanta's Raoul Bellanova (33.0 km/h). Van de Ven's 32 km/h was the 15th fastest.

The Englishman's speed doubtless contributes to his impressive ability to lock opposing wingers up one-on-one. While there's a nonchalance to his game that can be exploited, Spence is one of the very best at what he does when he's what you might describe as "locked in". His capacity to reach top speed in an instant means wingers struggle to beat him on the outside, and his long legs aid his ability to pinch the ball off his opponent, even if they create a yard of space.

He'll continue to lead the Champions League speed charts until Van de Ven completes his first midweek recovery run.