- 2 months ago
Tottenham Hotspurs boss Thomas Frank on facing Liverpool and Brennan Johnson's future
19/12/2025
Tottenham Hotspurs Training Ground, London, UK
19/12/2025
Tottenham Hotspurs Training Ground, London, UK
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SportsTranscript
00:00I just wanted to know, especially with this game, this elite game, which ended 6-3, is there any value in you looking at that and analysing that in preparation for tomorrow?
00:13No, I haven't done that. So, short answer, no.
00:20Thank you. My other question was, just in your words, can you just say what you liked most about the players and the squad and everything you've constructed so far?
00:29Or what have been the big takeaways? Any good ones for you?
00:34I think it's a good group of players that I think working very hard, want to improve, and you can say, for example, we focused on a lot of things, some of them said that before, some of them with, I can say, maybe a little bit low-hanging fruits that we thought that we could improve relatively quick with set pieces,
00:58which they really bought into. So, I think we've been very competitive there, defensively and offensively.
01:05I think, in most games, we look very solid and difficult to break down, and that solid and difficult breakdown seems like we have a low block.
01:16We go very high in the pressure and go mad, and the best example, of course, is, let's say, 60 minutes against PSG, and, of course, a CT game.
01:26So, I like that a lot. So, I think that's the positive ones, very positive ones.
01:32And then the bit we need to develop, you said, is the more offensive part of the game.
01:37And that's not only focus, which could be very simple when I name the set pieces and the defensive side of the game.
01:45That's also a little bit down to maybe some key players not being in the right positions.
01:51Tom.
01:52For me, that was more around the club. I think the players are, of course, that also need to be aligned and culture and all that.
02:14So, I think that's – it is everything, but it is everything. I haven't thought about that when you actually asked the question there.
02:23But, of course, I think in terms of players and the squad, of course, it's constantly adding layers in how we play.
02:34And, you know, for example, one thing we spoke about is how do we handle setbacks.
02:37So, it's clearly not only this season that the team struggled a little bit with that.
02:43So, that's definitely not something to do this with.
02:45So, how can we align that? How do we react to the setback in a game if you lose the balls five times in a row to throw our arms in the air?
02:52Or do we just get hit down and help your teammate, as an example?
02:55And then if you have a default in doing that when you're under pressure, it takes a little bit more time just to change that, as an example.
03:02Then, off the pitch, of course, it's super important to be aligned.
03:07And me, coaches, sports directors, leaders, owners, all that, and which we are, I would say.
03:18I was going to say, do you feel like the right people are in place now?
03:20Yeah.
03:21No, I think the right people are in place.
03:23As I said, we will 100% be in the market, and we will be ready.
03:42And if we can find the player or players that can improve the team, then I think we should be ready for that.
03:51If we can't, which we know general window is a super, super complex and very difficult window, which can make it complicated.
04:03So, we don't want to buy, I don't think we should use money on a player we don't really believe in, that just really can move the needle.
04:14Because, would that be a little bit helpful for maybe the next six months, but if it doesn't do anything in the long term, then I'm not interested in it.
04:24For me, we need to think, of course, now, we need to win tomorrow, or do our best to win tomorrow, and win enough football match, all that.
04:34But we need to take good decisions for the long term.
04:35If we don't do that, there's no time.
04:38There's no chance that we can fulfill the potential of this club.
04:42And just wondering, you spoke a little bit about the mentality of the team.
04:45Is that the kind of player you want to bring in now?
04:47So, leaders, experience, and that kind of profile?
04:50Yeah, experience can be many things.
04:52So, you can be a great character leader 24 years old, or you can be 28, or whatever.
04:57But I think you need a lot of different types in the football team, but, of course, character is a big thing.
05:07Ellis?
05:07You mentioned QuickFix, obviously, a few times.
05:11Is QuickFix, like, is that a football thing, or are there things around kind of environment, culture, mentality that is perhaps like a wider thing?
05:21Yeah, but I just think if you...
05:24So, what is the potential of Tottenham?
05:27That is, I would like to win trophies, and we would like to compete with the best clubs in the country, and hopefully win the championship one day.
05:36That's what all Spurs fans are dreaming about.
05:39That's what I'm dreaming about.
05:40But how do we get the reality if we finish eighth with Champions League, then we finish fifth with no European contest, then we finish 17th with Europa League, and now we're in the fourth season.
05:53And then there's been some players through the systems, and so on, so that's the reality.
05:59That's why, and then we have clever people in the room, thinking about football and asking good questions, and then if you don't win enough football matches, there's a little bit of scrutiny.
06:09That's part of it.
06:10I just know this will just take a little bit of time to where we want to be.
06:16Of course we need to win enough games, and of course it doesn't help that we played a bad game against Forrest.
06:21That doesn't help.
06:24So we just need to do what we believe in, do the right thing, and keep going.
06:29And culture that mentioned around this world is...
06:33Who mentioned that?
06:34I think generally I think people mentioned it earlier.
06:36Okay.
06:37What kind of do you see from a culture perspective that you like at this club, and perhaps could be even better?
06:46Oh, I see a lot of people, and that is players, staff, a lot of cares about this club.
06:53They want the best for this club, and I think that's a top thing.
06:57How do we then move from cares and be happy to make it an elite mindset consistently every single day?
07:02That is small bits, good habits, every day.
07:08And obviously last week you mentioned about perhaps looking back at the Spence incident when he came on as a substitute.
07:15Have you looked back on that and I suppose have a conversation with him?
07:18Yeah, I spoke to him.
07:19So, he was disappointed because he thought because of an injury he was stopped off, and it wasn't.
07:27That we thought he had an injury because of a dead leg.
07:31And he's fine, by the way.
07:32I think he's been highlighted twice, which of course is never perfect, because then we need to use time on it here in a press conference.
07:50So, it's best if he hasn't, it's two situations where he's very aware of it didn't look the best.
07:57And we are dealing with young people, I would say.
08:03He's, what, 24, 25 years old?
08:06And under, how can you say, big focus and pressure.
08:12And sometimes you don't do exactly what is the perfect way.
08:17You learn from it, and you should learn from it, and do it better in the future.
08:22On goalkeeper, do you think he's a top goalkeeper?
08:26I think he's a very good goalkeeper.
08:29I think he's a fantastic shortstopper.
08:31I think he's saved us a lot of times this season where we need it the most.
08:36Then, like with any goalkeeper, there's a few development areas or any player that we need to do our best we can to improve.
08:44Were you able to say the layoff?
08:46Yeah, I think he had a good level in distribution, but I think it's a level he could work on and get even better at.
08:54But that's something we're working on.
08:56And just finding out, I've actually looked at his data for this season is better than his previous two seasons at Tottenham,
09:05which slightly surprised me because the narrative around him, because of the mistakes,
09:10is that he's probably not having a great season.
09:12Do you see more than maybe who you see with him?
09:18Can you see that he's actually maybe performing better than the narrative around him?
09:22Yeah, yeah, but also I think you can say there was, I think every keeper will always be highlighted that that was a problem.
09:32I've experienced that with David Ryer when he was with Brentford in the beginning with some crosses or some distribution where he went to something.
09:41We worked on it, it became better.
09:42And then he was sold to a club we can't name.
09:46And then Mark Flecken, when he came to us in Brentford, the first six months also took a little bit of time,
09:55but developed over time, which is natural.
09:58And I think Vic, some of the key areas, Fabian, the goalkeeper coach, and I identified from the beginning,
10:08I think he worked very hard on it, but I think he showed some excellent things in terms of shortstopping.
10:13Tom.
10:13I would say I don't like when I'm irritated because I don't think it's a good feeling to have,
10:40but it's probably good when I'm irritated because then there is, how can you say,
10:49more focus on, there's always focus to improve and always focus to high standards, all that,
10:55but probably when we need to bounce back or we need to do something more,
11:00you need to have an extra edge, and that's definitely been this week.
11:05What do you sense the reaction from the guys?
11:08I think they train well.
11:11They've been good overall.
11:14The players are not stupid.
11:16They want to do well.
11:17They want to perform well.
11:18I don't think there's any of those players that think it's super tough, nice to be in that dressing room
11:24after losing 3-0 in a game where they didn't do well.
11:27So they just, on a personal, professional pride, they want to do better.
11:31And then it's up to me to make sure we are coming up together with the players and flying tomorrow.
11:39You've been asked a few times this season about Brennan Johnson.
11:42Is there a possibility in January if the right deal came along in one of the best or more parties?
11:52Overall, I'm happy with Brennan.
11:54He trained well today.
11:55I think we mentioned before that he has played some very good games on the right
12:01and good has come in, so that's been a little bit of a bigger competition there.
12:05Not that he can't play to the left.
12:09In general, I'm happy with Brennan.
12:11We haven't, how can you say, done too much in terms of players out.
12:16And I think he's a big part of what we have and we're playing a lot of games.
12:22Yeah, I think he's been playing a lot of games, so I think it's important to have enough to shoot with.
12:27I think that is very important.
12:57that we aim high and I think it's very important that we go into every game and do everything we can to win it.
13:03But I also think to think 22, I can't remember, 22, 22, I don't know, a lot of games ahead in the Premier League.
13:11That is too far away.
13:13My first and foremost focus is that we bounce back and come up with a good performance against Liverpool.
13:19And then we take it bit by bit.
13:20So, I think that's not too far up.
13:25Big beliefs that we can improve and be even better.
13:29And we always aim to be, that will always be the aim.
13:33Is it fair to say, over this period, when there's so many games in this festive period, we might see the table start to open out.
13:41And it's really important to get as many points as possible during this period if you want to stay in touch and distance.
13:46Yeah, of course.
13:47I think that's been, that's the aim the whole time.
13:51And, of course, we have one game now, then we think we have eight days, and then we play five games in 13 days.
13:57I'm like, quite hectic.
14:00So, it's about how we manage that, of course.
14:04Welcome.
14:05I'm sorry.
14:07Would you understand if Brennan wanted to move?
14:09I will not speak about Brennan, but I think any player that maybe not play all the time will probably always have a thought about that.
14:24But we need more than 11 players.
14:28Hopefully you have Kulishev coming back in place.
14:31What's the play that side as well?
14:34Yeah, yeah, of course.
14:36That's definitely the plan.
14:37So, but right now, I think we've shown that we need players and said, I'm happy with Brennan, you know.
14:45I'm happy with everyone in the squad.
14:47It's just, I can only play 11, unfortunately.
14:49I know there are confidences that you were going to break, but has he expressed his frustration at not playing more?
14:57He had such a good season for goals.
14:59Last season, he scored in the ball in the game of the final.
15:02It feels like he can't get past Kulishev or Kulishev to go back in.
15:05Have you had to say anything to him as he said he did it now?
15:09No, he didn't say anything.
15:10Just training well.
15:11I think he had a spell for quite a while.
15:15He trained well and today, he trained very well today, again.
15:18Is there any intention of bringing Mikey Moore back?
15:26That's a good question.
15:28I think for Mikey Moore, I think it's very important for him to play minutes.
15:31I think that's very important.
15:32We definitely look into the squad, of course, who should maybe go out to play minutes and who do we need to keep and how do we make sure the squad is big enough.
15:47Talking about, let's say, Brennan, whatever case, or others also need to or not to have too many players.
15:53So, there's a fine balance.
15:54Can I ask you just one on Liverpool?
15:56The whole Mo Salah store, has it galvanised them in a strange way?
16:02And is that the sort of thing you're talking about when you're talking about culture and dealing with setbacks?
16:09It's a situation, of course, only seen from the outside and it's not really to me to speak about what it's done to the squad of Liverpool, of galvanised them.
16:22I don't know that.
16:24It's a team and a squad that's been together for quite a while.
16:28We're also refreshing a few players two or three years ago.
16:31So, I think they have had a good group together that's been fantastic over the last, what, six years or something like that.
16:37So, that says a lot.
16:40Finish with Ryan, please.
16:42Hi, Thomas.
16:43Is there any concern in terms of, if you look to strengthen the squad in January, that players might turn their nose up at maybe coming here if the squad, if you can't offer regular Champions League football?
16:57Say again, sorry.
16:58You're probably poorly worded.
17:00In terms of players that you might look to bring in to strengthen the squad, if you want quality.
17:05At the moment, obviously, the team is very up and down.
17:08Is there any concern that might impact your ability to sign some of these players, given there's likely going to be vast competition?
17:16Yeah, but there will be big competition.
17:19No matter if it's Champions League, there's the market, Europa League, or whatever it is, there's just big competition.
17:25There's probably eight clubs or something like that that's competing for the same players.
17:31There's some clubs that are probably a bit of head more consistent.
17:35We talked about that.
17:36See, City, Arsenal, Liverpool, maybe also Chelsea, unfortunately.
17:40So that, of course, is a challenge.
17:44But hey, that's a challenge every year.
17:47They will compete about players.
17:48And just lastly, just a quick one on Sarp.
17:51I assume he's now gone to Afgan.
17:53So I've seen Javi Fiora from Sunderland, but said to be in Baltimore, even though he's in the Senegal squad.
17:59Okay, yeah, he's gone.
18:00Yeah, he's gone to Afgan, yeah.
18:02Yeah.
18:03Okay, thank you.
18:04Thank you, guys.
18:04Thank you, guys.
18:05Thank you, Blackface.
18:07Thank you, guys.
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