Thomas Frank spoke to the media at Hotspur Way on Monday, ahead of our Premier League clash at St James’ Park on Tuesday (8pm UK).
Here’s what he had to say…
What is the team news ahead of Newcastle?
Thomas: “Everyone ready for the Fulham squad is ready for Newcastle tomorrow.”
What is your message to supporters ahead of tomorrow’s game?
Thomas: “As I said after the game, I completely understand the frustration that if we don't win, there will always be frustration. So, that's normal, it's part of it. Also, when we haven't won as much as we want at home, not only this year but also the last long period, I don't know how long that is, maybe years, maybe more. So, of course then the frustration maybe can grow a little bit more, so that's understandable. It's my job to do what I can to make sure we are calm and look at the things in a way where we split things up in terms of performance, what is impacted and how we try to build the team. So, I think that's part of it. We are nothing without our fantastic fans, nothing. So, we need each other. There's nothing we want more than making them happy in every way. My point was that during matches, that's where we need each other. After, fair with the booing, but during that's where I want to create a fortress. I think some of you guys probably have an even more up-to-date stat in terms of how many games we won or lost to draw the last couple of years, but if any club wants to be successful, you need to create a fortress. If you want to create a fortress, it can only be together - fans, team. My job is to make sure that we do everything we can to perform, but can we do that together? That's where you create a very difficult place to play.”
You've often spoken about staying calm during difficult spells. What's the message to the players? How are you keeping them calm?
Thomas: “We, of course, have meetings yesterday and today, and yesterday, of course, like normal, debriefing the Fulham game. Today, looking more forward to Newcastle. There will be some meetings tomorrow. As I said from the beginning, we want to build something sustainable that can compete in all tournaments, and we have a squad that is learning from last year, playing Premier League and Europa League. Going into this year, we're playing in the Champions League, and I want to do well in the Premier League. That competing on both fronts, that's something that takes some time to learn physically and mentally. We're searching to find the right formula that will click while we have to rotate some players to keep freshness, keep the intensity high, look a little bit at injury risk and stuff like that. As a good example, this period we're in now, we play four games, four fantastic games in 10 days' time, so there's two, two and two days between the games. That's the only of the five Champions League clubs, probably fair to say, probably with a squad that's not as used to it as the others. No problem, that's just why we are learning along the way, and we also had a spell early in the season, I think it was Everton. It was in Newcastle as well, Chelsea and Copenhagen. Ours was also 2-2-2, it was only us and Arsenal that had that. The fact is, if you have two days between times, it's just more complicated. It's not impossible, we still need to perform, we still need to win matches, it's just facts.”
What does Xavi Simons need to show you to earn a few more minutes, and can we expect to see him starting tomorrow or in this busy period?
Thomas: “Of course. There’s a reason why we've got Xavi here, I think he's a very good player in every aspect. Xavi has trained well in the last couple of days, and in general training well. I think also that, we talked about before, it's not the first time a player is stepping into the Premier League, and they just need a little bit of adaptation to hit the ground running. That's one thing, the physical league, but also to play games every third or fourth day, and then in a team that's maybe not top in sync. How can we help each other? That's part of the process.”
How impressed have you been with Newcastle’s performances against City and Everton recently - and the timing of playing them away?
Thomas: “Yeah, I know Newcastle are good. I think they've been good for a long time since Eddie Howe took over. I said that before. I admire Eddie and his coaching staff and everything they do, massively. They're a very intense team, very aggressive and speaking about having a good home record - that's a difficult place to go to, everyone knows that. I think they've won the last six home games, so perfect timing. Good, but not unbeatable.”
How impressed have you been with (Newcastle striker) Nick Woltemade?
Thomas: “He has done very well. He's got the physicality, but also he offers something different. He's also good to drop down to link the game for them. That's why he offers something a little bit different. I think the way he attacks the box, he does that very well, finding good positions.”
Vicario spoke to the media after Fulham – how much does that shows about his personality, his character, and how important he is as a leader in your dressing room?
Thomas: “Vic is remarkable. His character is fantastic in every aspect. I think it's about how you carry yourself every day, in good times and bad times. He's very consistent in that way. I think everyone knows that everyone makes mistakes, sometimes on the football pitch, outside football or whatever we do. But the way he carries himself, that impressed me very, very much. I think his response to setbacks and mistakes, I think he does that very well.”
Should everybody not be allowed their opinion whenever they want?
Thomas: “Yes, just like I'm allowed my opinion, whenever I want. So, I think it's fair. I'm just saying what I think. I can't say it enough - we have some fantastic fans. We're nothing without the fans, we need them in every aspect. And they are very much allowed to be disappointed, no problem. I'm just saying when you play a match at home, it is not as helpful as it is when they can see they're driving the team forward, for example. It’s up to us to do everything we can to perform, so it's just going hand in hand. But the beautiful thing about football and life is it's never straightforward.”
What did you think of Pedro Porro’s social media post – should he have done it?
Thomas: “I think it's fair. I think it's fair in that sense. Again, the players are individual people that can have their own opinions. I think what he put out there was fair in every aspect.”
How do you try and keep things on an even keel?
Thomas: “I'm searching to, how can I say, find the winning formula. Let's say it's three different games. Arsena awayl, that was a bad performance. Away to Paris, that was a good performance. We lost both. Then we play a freak game against Fulham where we're 2-0 down after six minutes. But especially in the PSG and especially in Fulham, there were some good performances. It's all about keep going back to that, keep going back to what we can affect. The process of how we train, the principles and then keep the energy for the players and then go again. That's the only way out of it. Of course, in a tough period, it's easier when you win. But when you don't, you do the same.”
You said you would speak to Vic after Fulham – how did that go? How do you speak to someone who has experienced what he went through?
Thomas: “I spoke with him after the game and I said, how are you? He said he was okay. You can say there's different types. Vic is a relatively, how can I say, good player to deal with setbacks like that and move forward. Others maybe it would have hit harder. I always think if you are a goalkeeper, unfortunately, I don't think there's any goalkeeper in the world except, and I can say that because I know Peter Schmeichel - I never thought he made a mistake, but probably he did, sometimes. hat can also be a way of dealing with it. You know you make mistakes and how you deal with that is a big part of how good you become as a goalkeeper, also a player.”
Do you want your players to take risks? How important is it that they feel that they can make mistakes and not suffer a reaction like that?
Thomas: “I think it's hugely important because every game, every player makes small mistakes. Some can be the crucial goal-defining mistakes that everyone can see, but there's always small mistakes in the game where you lose the ball, where you miss a touch, where you miss a clearance, where you miss a one-on-one. You sometimes don't get punished, but how can you keep going no matter what in a game?”
You and Pedro both used the same expression about true Spurs fans. Do you have any kind of fear that that might fire up fans, or those frustrated to be told they're not true Spurs fans?
Thomas: “I don't know. You can say, how do you define a true Spurs fan? I think all the fantastic fans we have, I believe they're true Spurs fans. Some react in one way, some react in another, some are a little bit in between. No matter what, we need all of them.”
You mentioned four games in 10 days - how much does that impact what you and the coaching staff can teach the players about what you're trying to do?
Thomas: “Yeah, of course, extremely. Even if you have that extra day, that just gives you a day more to recover. Of course, with 2-2-2 (days between games), it's very limited what you can coach and how many meetings, how much individual time you can have with the players, because it's just pure recovery as well. It's just the way it is. We need to find a way. I think every good team, they found out they have seven, eight, nine players that plays when it's the top matches, if that makes sense. That, of course, we are searching to find what is the thing that can click. And we can't do it all the time, because we also need to rotate to make sure we have enough intensity and practise.”
Is the plan to eventually settle, focus and develop one particular system?
Thomas: “For me, it's always the guiding principles that is the most important thing. How we build up. If it's, you know, what do we do when we split centre-backs? What do we do when we have a sitter or two sitters? What do we do with the position in front of that? How do we attack when playing the one on the side? How do we press? That will always more or less be the same, no matter if we play 4-2-3-1, 4-4-2, 4-3-3, 3-4-3, whatever, it's always the guiding principles. It's about how we can get the best players on the pitch that make the team's best way.”
It's 13 goals conceded in the last four games - is there anything you've noticed why it's maybe not looking as good at the moment, the defence?
Thomas: “You can say the four goals we conceded against Man United and Fulham, some of the goals I would like to avoid a bit more. Also, those two games, if you can see the actual amount of shots we conceded, I think we conceded five shots and seven shots. It's very low. If you can see at the XG, you can see those games are very low. So, the other stats behind it were good. Then there's two other results where we conceded too much against two, unfortunately, of the best teams in the world.”
How do you mend the relationship with the fans?
Thomas: “I think if we were going to every game, I'm pretty sure every fan wants to win and wants to support and wants to do everything. Then, if we're not going to plan, then maybe some get more frustrated than others. And again, there's always some that shout louder than others. So, I don't think fans, when you say you lose the fans, how many is that, 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%? How much is it? I don't know. We would like to get all 100% on board. And there's only, you know, two things we can do - we can perform and keep connecting.”
Would you consider speaking to fan groups?
Thomas: “I would consider a lot of things. I think there's two ways - performing and connecting. Connecting is a lot of things. In general, always believe in dialogue, but we're privileged we have a lot of fans, so there'll be a lot we need to reach out to.”
