Every word Thomas Frank said on his Tel and Solanke mistake, Udogie injury, Kulusevski and Bissouma

Here's every single word Thomas Frank said on Monday ahead of Tottenham Hotspur's Champions League match against Slavia Prague

Thomas Frank faced the questions on Monday afternoon at Tottenham's press conference ahead of the Champions League clash with Slavia Prague.

Tottenham welcome Slavia on Tuesday night, with the Czech side looking to bring to an end a 22-game unbeaten home run in Europe for the north London outfit which stretches back half a decade, all the way back to 2020. Frank delivered the latest injury news with Destiny Udogie and Brennan Johnson not spotted in training, while Randal Kolo Muani had limped out of the stadium on Saturday after pulling up in the second half.

The Spurs boss was also asked about Dejan Kulusevski and spoke about Mathys Tel continuing to be out of the Champions League squad despite Dominic Solanke's absence.

Our Tottenham correspondent Alasdair Gold was among those putting the questions to Frank. Here's the full transcript from the press conference at Hotspur Way.

What's the latest team news and are you tempted to keep with the same starting XI?

Destiny picked up a hamstring injury in the end of the Newcastle game, so he’s out until January unfortunately. Bren is touch and go.

I liked the performance a lot but we are also playing a lot of games so there will be a bit of rotation, and I think that’s the right thing to do to make sure everyone is coming full of energy and freshness but also keeping a core.

Someone not involved is Yves Bissouma, is there a disciplinary process underway and have you spoken to him?

It’s an internal matter that we are dealing with at the moment and when we have dealt with that, then I will comment on it.

Dejan Kulusevski appears to be somewhere abroad, diving into a cold snowy lake at night, does that mean he's at a stage of his recovery where he can still be in a different environment for his rehab?

You know as I said I will confirm when he is available for the squad, but as part of recovery, there’s a plan for everything.

We saw James Maddison out there earlier and he'll be on the TV later, no doubt talking about it?

He'll definitely be talking.

Can you update us on where he's at and what he was doing?

It is very early stages, still a long term injury. Good to see him out there but very early stages and there is no specific time frame. It will be a long time unfortunately before he is available.

How important is it to sustain the momentum?

Definitely, it’s always good to build and get the momentum to get more consistent and good performances. We really try to build on that tomorrow night. We have a good opportunity against a good Slavia Prague team that we’ve studied a lot and they make it difficult. They play a very direct, physical style, they have more or less man to man all over the pitch.

That just makes it different you can’t relax in one state of the game and when you’re further up the pitch you also have man to man so you’re not as used to that. So that can definitely potentially make it difficult for us. It’s a game where we respect the opponent a lot but it’s about us, to make sure we perform well and continue with the forwardness and directness we had in the offensive play.

Are you still aiming for the top eight in the Champions League?

I am more for me about this next game ahead of us. We have played so many games and this is the next one in the Champions League. It’s a very important one playing at home we have a perfect record so far, can we continue that? Three points tomorrow would be a massive step in the first bit which is to qualify for thee play-off round. And then if and when hopefully we qualify for that, we can look further ahead.

With Antonin Kinsky who came last winter from Slavia, how difficult is it for a young goalkeeper when he's now playing? Is he being considered as a potential number one for Tottenham in future?

To be fair, first and foremost, I think Tony is a very good goalkeeper. I'm very happy with him here at Tottenham and I think he has a great future ahead of him in many ways.

I think it's difficult for any player, no matter if you're young or you're old, you're a goalkeeper or you're an outfield player. If you're not playing, you're not 100 per cent happy. That's unfortunately part of the game.

But when it's like that, just keep training well, head down, do everything you can to improve on the training pitch every day. That's the most important thing.

Did you or the club ever consider bringing Mathys Tel into the Champions League squad given Dominic Solanke is still injured?

Ah of course if I knew back then what I know now I maybe would have changed the decision, no doubt about that. Of course it is something we can have into consideration if you can change one player, what is the timing and when is the other player back? It is also a decision in terms of some of the long-term injuries, when can they be back? And we also need players fit and available so we have enough players to shoot with from the bench.

Would you consider putting Tel in now even if just for the next three games if Dom isn't back until January?

I think it is definitely some consideration we have, with the players we have available to make sure we have the most possible weapons to fire with.

The home form of the Champions League has been very good this season, what do you put that difference down to?

It's a bit of a coincidence sometimes. There could be various reasons. I think for me Champions League, Premier League, Carabao Cup - for me we play at home, we play home. No matter the competition. That's why it's never as good or as bad as we always think and talk about. It's not been perfect and not at the level we want but I think it was a very good step going forward Saturday. I really expect and hope and have a good feeling about tomorrow night. We know it can be very awkward and difficult against Slavia but I have a good belief that we can come out and perform well again.

One of your former coaching colleagues, Lars Friis, was at Sparta Prague, did you try to contact him to get some information about Slavia?

Lars is a good friend of mine. We also worked together in the past. Of course it's confidential what I've spoken to Lars about before the game but we keep in contact. This is a very important game for us against Slavia so we are of course very well prepared with our own analysis but also with every help we can get from good contacts or friends in the game.