Thomas Frank spoke to the media at Hotspur Way after training on Friday, ahead of our Premier League clash against Chelsea at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Saturday (5.30pm).
Here's what he had to say...
Any players returning? Romero, Udogie, Odobert?
Thomas: “Yes, positive news that Romero, Destiny and Wilson are available for selection for the squad.”
Is it fair to say it’s impossible to compete on all fronts?
Thomas: “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 games, look at the game, then we go into the next round and 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. 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. Not only Carabao Cup, they also do a little bit of Champions League, a little bit of Premier League. That's part of it, then you try to nail that perfect balance.”
Tottenham against Chelsea, the rivalry - is this kind of game one of the many reasons why you joined this club?
Thomas: “Yeah, I think you put it quite right. A game against Chelsea, especially a home game against Chelsea, under the floodlights, is going to be unique and special. I can't wait for it. The players are really 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. Can we get energy off the fans? Then it's like some positive reinforcement and that’s what we need to create tomorrow. We're really looking forward to it.”
Brilliant away, but it hasn’t clicked at home so far this season – the fans want to do more for pre-match atmosphere, is it a collective thing?
Thomas: “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. That is a collective effort.”
How special is Micky van de Ven’s skillset?
Thomas: “I think these days every player needs to both defend and attack and play the ball forward and be good in set-pieces 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, stand on the 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 takes 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?
Thomas: “Enzo's done an amazing job at Chelsea. First season, qualifying for the Champions League and won 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 was very clear what him and his staff want to achieve, how they want to play. So, yeah, 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.”
Chelsea recently received a sixth red card in nine games – is that something you can take advantage of
Thomas: “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. So, I don't know. It's about us and the game we can play. We need to perform and be intense with a cool head.”
How much do you need to start making your home a fortress?
Thomas: “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 we've seen at the end of the season that we would have had a good home form. Right now, three games home in the Premier League is 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 in terms of player welfare, and supporters to be able to go to all these games?
Thomas: “We definitely need to look into the calendar and the number of games for the players. No doubt about that. We say it's impossible to play 60 games, 90 minutes, 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. I think we need to look into it. We love football, all of us, when there's been, let's say, an international break and then we come back and start again, a little bit fresher, all of us, fresh high school, it's exciting. So, 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.”
Former Spurs goalkeeper Alfie Whiteman has retired to take a completely different career path – what you be if you hadn’t been a football manager?
Thomas: “That's a very good question. 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 like that.”
Staying on the schedule, you're not able to make as many rotations as you want right now with the injurie - are you compromised slightly with the inability to change players?
Thomas: “The best thing is a fully fit squad. I think every manager wants that. So, you can rotate the perfect amount of minutes. So, if one 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. There's no doubt that to play with the maximum intensity doesn't have to be high pressing alone. You need to play with intensity. Every team is playing with intensity if they want to compete, they can just do it in different ways. 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. It’s still early days of the season, so it's less important. But of course, when everything accumulates, it can be an issue.”
How is Dominic Solanke getting on?
Thomas: “We're very aware of when we get Dom back, touch wood, we have him back with no setbacks. 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 - that's the status right now.”
How close is Dejan Kulusevski to getting back on the grass?
Thomas: “Deki's still not on the grass. We're working very hard to get him fit as quickly as possible.”
What’s the issue with Kota Takai - the same foot problem?
Thomas: “Kota is a quad problem. He's about to be training, soon."
How difficult is to coach your style when so many players are out?
Thomas: “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. That has to have impact on relegations, Champions League qualifications and championship. 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, it's definitely hamstring, calf, quads, 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 the return to play again. So, that time from when they got injured to when they came back to training, that's the two bits you need to nail. On soft tissue muscle injuries, we were quite good, which I'm very pleased with. Now it's just with the, I wouldn't say, not odd injuries, but contact injuries and some odd injuries, we need to get the return to play time down.”
Do you remember watching some of the recent games against Chelsea?
Thomas: “We are in the entertainment business, aren't we? I remember the first one. What was that, the four? What was that? The nine men? 4-1? Yeah, 4-1, I remember that one. That was crazy. But yeah, in the past, some games we were a part of that everyone will remember for whatever reason. Hopefully, we'll be part of a game everyone will remember tomorrow when we come out on the winning side.”
How excited are you to be part of this story, this rivalry and writing your own story for this game tomorrow?
Thomas: “Very excited, really looking forward to it, a London derby between two big rivals. There's so much on it against a very good Chelsea team. It will be a very, very competitive, even game, under the floodlights, it's got everything to be a top game where you will be on the edge of your seat, hopefully, if you're a fan or a part of it. Hopefully, that's the case. We need to come flying out and get the fans with us. I'm very, very positive about us coming out and performing very well tomorrow.”
On Cristian Romero - how fit is he? Could he have played (at Newcastle) Wednesday, for example? It's not a rushed decision to bring him back to this big game...
Thomas: “"I’m very aware of trying to be able to take the best possible decisions. Of course, in the end, I'll get a lot of information from medical staff, performance staff but in the end, it's always on me. If a player breaks down, it's on me. It's not on the medical staff, it's always on me. I take decisions, I get all the information and then I need to take a difficult choice or a brave choice or an easy choice or decision. So, that's it. If he was fit enough, he would have been involved Wednesday. So, he's ready to be involved tomorrow and let's see how much.”
Has (Cuti’s return) opened up the possibility for five at the back?
Thomas: “Yeah, I would say that to have him back, it could open up for it. Also, we've got Destiny back, so that's also positive. It was a little bit more of a challenge against Newcastle with a few less options but, as I said, I think we performed well in many areas.”
