Why Thomas Frank lost his cool at Brighton and Archie Gray's big hint to Tottenham future
This was a game that wrapped up Tottenham's past, present and hopefully future all in one manically tied package.
It's tough enough to go to Brighton at the best of times with the Seagulls unbeaten at home against the Premier League's traditional big six since the start of last season, having bested all of them apart from draws against Arsenal and now Spurs.
Yet Tottenham could be forgiven for being mentally scarred by their collapse on the south coast just under a year ago as they threw away a two-goal half-time lead that day to lose under Ange Postecoglou.
The two goals they conceded on Saturday afternoon bore a similarity to some of the high line defending witnessed that day. Yet this time the second half at the Amex Stadium brought a happier ending for Tottenham under Thomas Frank.
The visitors conceded just eight minutes into the contest at the Amex Stadium. With Brighton's first attack of the day, Georginio Rutter picked out Yankuba Minteh's run and the Gambian attacker raced behind Spurs' high line, rounded Guglielmo Vicario and poked the ball home.
The Seagulls doubled their lead half an hour in with a powerful effort from Yasin Ayari that Vicario should have dealt with from that angle and distance.
Spurs grabbed a lifeline just before the interval when Mohammed Kudus' shot struck Richarlison and the Brazilian striker spun and lashed home the loose ball in the six-yard box.
Frank's side dominated the second half with a game-changing second half cameo from Xavi Simons causing all manner of problems through the centre of the pitch. With eight minutes to go the Dutchman found Kudus on the right. The Ghanaian's curling cross hit Brighton defender Jan Paul van Hecke on the leg and flew into the hosts' net.
It was just reward for a comeback full of character. That character was also being shown on the sidelines.
Frank is a lively presence at the best of times but on Saturday he came close to boiling over at one point and channelling his inner Antonio Conte.
It came just moments before he introduced Xavi to the party on 61 minutes. Richarlison had executed what appeared to be a regulation challenge on Brighton left-back Ferdi Kadioglu only for the referee Chris Kavanagh to blow his whistle.
Frank exploded in anger on the touchline towards the man in the middle, flinging his arm around and shouting. Kavanagh just stared at him, watching as fourth official Tom Nield spoke to him to see how he reacted.
Fortunately for the Dane, his touchline temperament lies somewhere between Conte and Postecoglou, so he had already calmed down by that point and avoided any punishment from the official.
At the end of the day, his Tottenham side had 45 touches in the Brighton box compared to the hosts having 17 in theirs, with 135 successful final third passes to the Seagulls' 57.
The hard-earned point left Frank purring over what it meant and how it tied in with what he spoke to his players about before the match.
"I'm very happy with that [character]. I spoke about mentality before the game to the players. That to go down here against a good Brighton side, away from home, on the back end of our first Champions League game, it's all about mentality," the Dane told football.london.
"Of course, we need structure and tactics and game plan and all that - we like to praise ourselves as coaches! But in the end of the day, it's mentality to stay in there when it's tough.
"And I love the way we started the game. Away from home, just boom, on top of it. I don't think Brighton were over the halfway line in the early minutes. Then they scored a goal where praise to Brighton, we can do better, and it's like [this close to being] offside. We keep going, keep on it.
"And then great goal, but Vic can do better. Very happy with him, spoke to him, so I think he had a great season for us and it happens. But we keep going, we stay in the game, stick to the game plan, and I thought we looked physically strong."
He added: "I thought the players looked strong and were intense throughout the game, even though we had a midweek game, which I'm very happy with the physical preparation during pre-season and everything the team have done, with big help from the performance staff at Tottenham.
"So the mentality, the physical aspect, I thought was key, and coming here, where last year we came here and were 2-0 up, lost 3-2. Now we’re 2-0 down and come back 2-2. I think it's good.
"If there should have been a winner in my eyes, and maybe I'm slightly biased, I think it should have been us. I think the amount of crosses, the amount of touches in the opponent's box, the amount of near chances, was more than enough to win the game."
Frank's Tottenham are still a work in progress and this match brought plenty of positives and also things to work on.
There were first starts of the season for Destiny Udogie and Wilson Odobert and the two left-siders put in differing displays.
Udogie was switched on from the opening whistle, driven to reclaim his left-back spot from Djed Spence on a regular basis.
The 22-year-old Italian naturally brings balance to Spurs' play with his left foot and as powerful as he was going forward, he was equally important at the other end of the pitch in preventing a series of Brighton counter attacks.
It was Odobert who lost the ball with Udogie having overlapped him into the Brighton box, which led to the counter attack for the opening goal. With Van de Ven coming out to try to stop Rutter's pass and failing, it left Odobert to run back without the required pace and strength to catch Minteh.
That pretty much summed up Odobert's return to the starting line-up - good intentions but no real strength to act on them. His ability on the ball worried Brighton at times but never to the point that he actually posed them any real threat.
Frank was happy enough with his contribution though across his 72 minutes and to be fair to the young Frenchman, Brennan Johnson offered nothing more when he replaced him, touching the ball just eight times in his 20 minutes or so.
"Happy with [his performance], I thought he looked lively," said the Spurs boss of Odobert. "Clearly, it looked like they were a little bit afraid of him. So he got time to turn and run forward. I think he produced some crosses, some good opportunities. He was also involved in a goal, worked hard. So a good first start."
The Dane utterly raved about Udogie though when asked about the Italian's performance by football.london.
"Exceptional. Destiny was exceptional. He was almost unstoppable going forward," he said. "I think also it was a bit unfortunate it was Wilson who had to track him on the situation, because it was a little bit of a high-pressure situation, the Brighton goal and he just completely took him out going forward. Very good [from Udogie], just top.
"I've got three extremely good full-backs. I think Djed Spence's been fantastic for us. So when another player is doing so well, there's no reason to throw Destiny in too early. I'm pretty sure we'll need all three throughout the season. That is crucial.
"We are playing, hopefully, around 60 games this season. That's a lot. I think Liverpool changed both their full-backs from midweek to Saturday. It's a big thing. We want full-backs to come bombing up and down. So we need everyone, but I'm very happy with Destiny."
On the right-hand side, Kudus was involved in both goals. Such are the way assists are counted, he will get one for a shot that Richarlison controlled and scored from but not one for the dangerous cross that Van Hecke inadvertently touched home.
Kudus is a huge threat for Tottenham and if Frank and his staff can improve his decision-making in certain moments then the 25-year-old has the potential to be their star man this season.
He is impossible to knock off the ball. Even when the winger seems like he's falling, he's continuing to dribble and he left Brighton full-back Kadioglu dizzy with his twists and turns in the second half in particular at the Amex Stadium.
The key for Kudus is just picking the right moments to cross the ball, take a shot or try to beat another man for he leans towards the latter just too often.
For instance, there was a great opportunity in the game's final moments when he could have put in an early low cross into the six-yard box as Richarlison and Johnson were sprinting into it but instead the Ghana international cut inside, beat another and hit a shot from outside the box that was deflected over the crossbar.
Yet he did make an impact again on the scoreline and an important one. Kudus has three assists from his first five Premier League games for Tottenham and he helped the north London side grab a point against the club that came close to signing him from Ajax back in 2023 before he joined West Ham.
Frank named three things about Kudus that he believes have helped the attacker settle so quickly in N17.
"One, his work ethic has been really good. It's big for me, how hard he works in the counter-press, high pressure, defensive side of it," he said. "But his hold-up play, when it goes into him, it just sticks. You can't get it off him! So he just keeps it, he doesn't lose a 50-50 ball.
"And then the third thing is his one-on-one ability is crazy. He's so strong, he's so explosive. He just dominated the right-hand side."
That Xavi and Kudus linked up for the 82nd minute equaliser hopefully points towards a key relationship going forward rather than wasting the Dutchman on the other side of the pitch.
Spurs needed the 22-year-old's creativity through the middle and when he entered the fray they suddenly looked like a completely different team to the one in midweek against Villarreal.
They looked like a real attacking threat, with Xavi able to drift past opponents and create space for others but also able to thread the through balls that have been missing in James Maddison's absence.
Tottenham's midfield before Xavi's arrival on Saturday was all about the industry, as would be expected with both Joao Palhinha and Rodrigo Bentancur in the engine room and Lucas Bergvall trying to be more of a 10 than the eight he will excel as.
It was noticeable that the Swede improved vastly in the second half after an over-eager opening 45 minutes which included a poor clearance Ayari seized upon to score, albeit with the help of that iffy goalkeeping from Vicario.
With Xavi's arrival so Palhinha sat at the base of the midfield with the younger Dutchman and Swede playing as two 8/10 hybrids and it was that which unlocked Bergvall.
One brilliant piece of play, with two crunching tackles in the midfield set Tottenham away and had Bergvall left a Xavi pass to Richarlison rather than trying to take it into his own stride, the equaliser would have come earlier.
Frank told football.london on Friday that his reasoning behind using Xavi on the left is because in an attack with plenty of new partnerships still looking to gel, the midfield was the one area where people knew each other's game, such as Bergvall, Bentancur and Pape Matar Sarr and that brought stability at this early stage of his tenure.
This performance from Xavi hopefully is the end of that need. In certain tough away games, playing the 22-year-old of the left will make sense, but like Maddison, he can impact those matches Spurs want to dominate far more centrally and open up stubborn defences.
"I'm very, very pleased with [his impact]," Frank told football.london after Saturday's game. "I think Xavi came in and did exactly what we thought he could do in that 10 position. Of course he had a good pre-season and he played two games in Germany and all that, but he's still coming into a team.
"And I think on any other day, he'd score a goal. He got a great finish on the first one, great save from Verbruggen. And the other one, he mistimes. And I think maybe he could have got an assist to Richy, where Lucas takes the ball, he doesn't see him."
On his best position, he added: "I think he can play both. I think he can easily play the left winger, that can go more inside. I also think he'd have the right position too. Sometimes the playmakers, they drift to the side because there's no space in the middle. So I think he can do that. But 10, obviously he can play that as well."
Xavi's performance did make you wonder what result Spurs might have managed had he come on for the start of the second half or even begun the game in that central role.
There was also a bright little cameo from Archie Gray. There wasn't much to it as he only came on in the 89th minute but it contained plenty of running and one delightful no-look pass - arguably the pass of the match - to Kudus which sent him away for that late deflected shot over.
Gray has the technical ability to make passes like that and he has as much chance of developing into an eight as a six.
Ahead of the game, Frank had raved to football.london about the 19-year-old's reaction to being left out of the squad against West Ham.
"I see him more as a midfielder, as an eight or a centre-back, I think he can play both, and sometimes you need that little run of games like Lucas gets now and you take the next steps," said the head coach.
"I must admit Archie really impressed me. He played a very good pre-season friendly against Newcastle and he really grew into the game against Burnley, he was really good in the second half and I like his mentality.
"He was not in the squad for West Ham and the day after he trained fantastically. Of course I tried to speak to him and encourage him to train fantastically. Yesterday [in training], fantastic, so that is what you do.
"He does the bit I like from a midfielder where he can twist and turn to go forward, he is very mobile, he is reliable, so I really like Archie. Unfortunately you can only play 11. Can we change the rules? Get a few more on the pitch, it would help a little bit."
Gray and a number of others will get their chance on Wednesday night against Doncaster Rovers in the Carabao Cup.
Frank has already ruled out Dominic Solanke with the striker finally back on the grass individually this week, while summer signing Kota Takai is expected to join in training with the team on Monday but that might come too early for any game time against the League One visitors two days later.
Randal Kolo Muani and Ben Davies both missed the draw at the Amex Stadium with different issues.
"Hopefully [Kolo Muani will miss just one game], it was a dead leg," Frank told football.london. "He's actually been struggling with it for four or five days. It's just not settling as we hoped for. So hopefully Wednesday."
The PSG man had missed only one single game through injury in his senior career before arriving at Tottenham, according to the stats on Transfermarkt. Hopefully it's another two-and-a-half years until his next one rather than the beginning of the Tottenham curse.
Davies had a slight twist to his knee in training and should be available for the midweek cup game.
Others like the Welshman, Kolo Muani and Gray in need of minutes are Antonin Kinsky, Kevin Danso, Mathys Tel, Johnson and perhaps even Dane Scarlett. All eyes in the academy will be on whether either of their highly-rated 16-year-olds Jun'ai Byfield or Luca Williams-Barnett get included in the squad.
Centre-back Byfield was in the UEFA Super Cup and most recent Champions League matchday squads. Attacker Williams-Barnett has had a great week with a match-turning involvement in the UEFA Youth League win against Villarreal before a first half hat-trick for the U21s at Leicester on Friday night.
If he does not get called up to what will be a busy squad on Wednesday then his time will come this season at some point. The teenager has got that little bit of magic in his feet. He just needs to keep working hard and show all the attributes on and off the pitch that Frank looks for.
The Tottenham ship is sailing in the right direction at the moment even with change aplenty on deck and at the helm. The Lilywhites currently sit second in the fledgling table with just one defeat to their name and having won their opening Champions League encounter.
This latest game was one that showed a lot of what Frank wants to see moving forward and he called it Spurs' most complete performance of the season so far, despite those first half setbacks.
"I know we conceded two goals, and it's never that black and white. The first one where we will say I should take it. The second one is, OK, we conceded a goal, that can happen. It's just the Premier League, it's good. But besides that, I thought we defended well," he said.
"Overall, I think the high pressure was very aggressive, and we were winning the ball back all the time, which we like to do. I think in phase one, we got out every time, more or less. We controlled it up there.
"We created so many good opportunities, and had to counter-press and then defending crosses. So there was a lot of the bits we like to do, because of that, and then on top of that, the mentality to come back from 2-0 down is so important."
Frank is leaving a good impression throughout the club, both behind the scenes with staff as well as with the players in his dressing room. He knows he is building something new on top of existing foundations and he is respectful of the bonds that were born before while trying to add value to them.
The battling point on Saturday might only be a small thing in the table but it represented something more in that the Spurs players all fought together, new players and old, to deliver what he asked of them.
That trophy win will help Frank even if he was not involved, because it forged this group together and now he can build upon that.
The Dane has admitted as much and it feels like he is working with Tottenham 2.0. The club has had the taste of success and now everyone involved wants more. Frank has all the tools to help them get it.
