Here's every word the Tottenham Hotspur head coach said on Friday ahead of the Premier League match against Chelsea on Saturday
Tottenham boss Thomas Frank had some good news to deliver in his press conference on Friday afternoon ahead of the Premier League derby against Chelsea.
Spurs are back at home this weekend after three games on the road with the draw in Monaco, a win at Everton and the midweek Carabao Cup exit at Newcastle as they now face a hat-trick of matches now to come at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, kicking off with Saturday evening's Premier League derby against Chelsea.
Tottenham are slap bang in the middle of another injury crisis with a long list of unavailable players but there was some good news as Frank provided an update on various key stars including captain Cristian Romero, left-back Destiny Udogie and winger Wilson Odobert while delivering the latest news on striker Dominic Solanke, midfielder Dejan Kulusevski and defender Kota Takai.
Our Spurs correspondent Alasdair Gold was among those putting the questions to the head coach ahead of the derby against Chelsea. Here's the full transcript from the press conference at Hotspur Way.
Any players returning? Romero, Udogie, anyone back for Saturday?
Yes, positive is that Romero, Destiny and Wilson are available for selection for the squad.
With the number of injuries, is it fair to say that it's pretty impossible to compete on all fronts?
I like to have a challenge that it's possible to compete on all fronts. If we'd have won, which I still think we're not too far from if you look at the game, then we're into the next round and we compete for it. But there's no two ways about that in general. If you want to compete over 60 games in all, that's tough. But that's part of it. I think it's also fair to say you can see every club is doing rotation in the Carabao Cup. Everyone, everyone, they have to. But not only Carabao Cup, they also do a little bit [in the] Champions League, a little bit Premier League. So that's part of it. And then you try to nail that perfect balance.
Are games like this against Chelsea one of the reasons you joined Tottenham?
Yeah I think you put it quite right. A game against Chelsea, especially a home game against Chelsea, under the floodlights tomorrow is going to be unique and special. I can't wait for it. The players are already looking forward to it. It's a fantastic occasion. We need the fans behind us. I know they do everything they can to try to create even more noise, make it this very difficult place to play. And as I said before, it's between us and the fans. The best clubs, the best teams, they're united, they're together in good times and bad times. We need to perform. We need to create energy. If we can get the energy of the fans, then it's a positive reinforcement. And that's what we need to create tomorrow. I'm really looking forward to it.
Fans want to do more for the atmosphere - is it a collective to get things going at home?
Yeah that would be fantastic. That is the plan and the aim. As you said, 5,000 fans travelling on the road Wednesday night. That's incredible determination. We need that from the fans, we need that from the team. I'm so proud of that and pleased with that. At home, I can't see why we shouldn't be able to perform and have a very good run at home. We play maybe the best stadium in the world, definitely the best fans in the world and we know that the sound level in that stadium can be insane. So it's up to us to do that together and that is a collective effort.
How much of an advantage does Micky van de Ven give you defensively and offensively?
I think these days every player needs to both defend and attack and play the ball forward and be good in the set-piece and so on and so forth. Micky, let's start with the ball, very good composure, brilliant left foot, can go long, can go short, standard ball when we need to. Of course his pace is quite unique. Then there's the next, the cool defending in the decisive moments. I think he's doing that better and better. Then there's leadership, then there's how good are you on set-pieces, both boxes. I think he ticks a lot of boxes, it's just continuing performing at a good level week in, week out.
What do you make of Enzo Maresca's time at Chelsea so far?
Yeah of course, Enzo has done an amazing job at Chelsea. First season qualifying for the Champions League and winning the Conference League, so competing in definitely more than one front. Won the Club World Cup and had a decent start to the season. Very impressive, it's very clear what him and his staff want to achieve, how they want to play. It's going to be a nice, good challenge. Another nice, good challenge in the Premier League against a very good manager and a very good team.
Can you take advantage of Chelsea's recent lack of discipline?
I haven't looked into every single red card that they've had of the six they got. Probably different reasons. Probably not only lack of discipline, it can also be coincidence. I don't know, it's about us and the game we can play and we need to perform and be intense with a cool head.
How sustainable is it to maintain the start to season just with away form - do you need to make your home a fortress?
It's clear. I think if you want to achieve something big you need to have a good home form and a good away form. Our away form is very good, our home form I'm quite convinced that when you see at the end of the season that we would have had a good home form. Right now we've played three games home in the Premier League, it's a very small sample, but it's up to us to change it around, which I'm convinced we'll have a very good chance to do tomorrow.
In terms of fixtures, are we getting to a point now, or have we reached the point, where something needs to be done about the football calendar because we are asking players to play too many games?
No, I don't know, but I think definitely we need to look into the calendar and the amount of games for the players, no doubt about that. We say it's impossible to play 60 games, 90 minutes, at high intensity, so you need to find a balance of squad rotation and where you put your chips in terms of where you want to focus, because you can put yourself in between two chairs, but I think we need to look into it.
We love football, all of us, but I think when there's been an international break and then we come back and oooh, start again, a little bit more fresh, all of us, fresh eyes, it's exciting.
I think there's something that we need to look into, I don't know the answer to it, because it's a pretty popular sport and there's a few quid in it, so probably a little bit of demand from the broadcasters.
One person who won't be playing football anymore is a former goalkeeper here, Alfie Whiteman, I know you never met him, but he's retired now and become a director and photographer. If you hadn't been a football manager, what would you have been?
I think I would have been some kind of a teacher, in PE in a school or in a sports school or something like that, I think I probably would have done something down the line of that.
A key part of your team's play is pressing, with the injuries meaning you can't rotate as much, does that compromise how much you ask of your players to press and run?
I think the best thing is if you've a fully fit squad, I think every manager wants that, so you can put the tyres up you want for each game and you can rotate the perfect amount of minutes, so everyone can be fresh, but that's not reality, that's very rarely reality for any manager or head coach, so it's about for each period or each game to find the right balance with everything, but there's no doubt that to play with the maximum intensity doesn't have to be high pressing, you need to play with intensity, every team needs to play with intensity, if they want to compete they can just do it in different ways.
But there's definitely something to look into, no complaints, but now we have two days, two days, two days between games, there's a massive difference to three days, but we will find a way and a lot of times it's just mental, and I think we're still in the early days of the season, so it's less important, but of course when everything accumulates it can be an issue.
Can I just check on Dom Solanke?
We're very aware of when we get Dom back, we hope - touch wood - we have him back and no setbacks, so we are very aware of doing it the right way, so it's going in the right direction, he will not be available before the international break, so that's the status right now.
Two of the longer-term ones, how close is Dejan Kulusevski to getting back on the grass?
That's a good question, he's still not on the grass and we're working very hard to get him fit as quick as possible, I think my message is that he's not on the grass yet.
With Kota Takai, what's the problem, is it the same foot issue?
Quad, and he is about to be training soon.
How hard is it to coach your style with so many players out?
Of course you want especially the key players to be available for as many matches as possible, I think I'll go that far that the availability is probably one of the areas that you need to nail if you want to have success in a season, and especially availability for your top players.
I think that definitely has to have an impact on relegations, Champions League qualifications and championships. I think that Liverpool more or less had no injuries last year, struggling a bit more now. Arsenal had a lot of injuries last year, a little less this year, so that can be the decisive factor at times.
What I would say is that there's two things I think you need to look into. The first thing is that if you can avoid muscle injuries, definitely hamstring, calf, quad, stuff like that, if you can avoid that because of a good gym programme, recovery, the right way to train, the right processes, then I think you're halfway there.
Then there is the contact injuries that you really can't avoid, and then that's a return to play again. So that time from when they got injured to when they come back to training, that's the two bits you need to nail. I think on soft tissue muscle injuries we are quite good, which I'm very pleased with.
Now it's just with, I'm going to say, not odd injuries, but contact injuries and some odd injuries, we need to get the return to play time down.
Spurs' record against Chelsea hasn't been very good of late. I think it's four straight losses, but in particular two of the games at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium have just been absolutely crazy, I just wondered if you remember watching some of them in recent years?
It's entertaining. We are in the entertainment business, aren't we? I remember the first one. What was that? The 4-1? What was that? The nine-man one? Yeah, 4-1. I remember that one. That was crazy. In the past, some games we were part of that everyone will remember for whatever reason. I hope we'll be part of a game everyone will remember tomorrow when we come out on the winning side.
But it won't be that crazy?
Yeah, you never know in football. So you never know, you never know.
Each of these Tottenham games against Chelsea have a story of their own, those two for Ange, Pochettino's first season it was a 5-3 win which kicked started his reign, how excited are you to write your own story?
Yeah very excited, really looking forward to it and it’s a London derby between two big rivals, there is so much on it and against a very good Chelsea team. It will be a very, very competitive and even game. Under the floodlights, it has got everything to be a top game where you will be on the edge of your seat hopefully if you are a fan and hopefully that is the case. We need to come flying out and get the fans with us. And I am very, very positive about us coming out and performing very well tomorrow.
With Romero, it was this game last season where he came back and got injured and missed three months, how fit is he? Could he have played on Wednesday?
I am very aware of trying to be able to take the best possible decisions. Of course in the end I will get a lot of information from medical staff, performance staff, but in the end it is always on me. If a player breaks down, it is on me. It is not on the medical staff, not on the performance staff, always me. I take decisions, I get all the information and then I have to take a difficult choice or a braver choice or an easy choice, so that is it. If he was fit enough, he would have been involved on Wednesday but he is ready to be involved and let’s see how he is.
With Romero's availability, does it open up the possibility for five at the back?
Yeah, I would say that to have him back opens the door for it. We also have Destiny back, so that is also positive. It was a little more of a challenge against Newcastle where we had a few less options, but I thought we performed well in many areas.
