Every word Thomas Frank said on Tottenham injuries, Solanke, Kolo Muani and Aston Villa

Thomas Frank has been previewing Tottenham's Premier League match against Aston Villa which takes place on Sunday

Thomas Frank has provided a Spurs injury update ahead of the visit of Aston Villa. Randal Kolo Muani is back in training after missing the past five matches with a dead leg.

The Frenchman has only played 13 minutes since joining the club on loan from PSG. Nonetheless, he could make his Premier League debut this weekend when Villa visit the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

The match will, however, come too soon for Dominic Solanke as he continues to step up his fitness following minor ankle surgery.

Frank also spoke about the £100million cash injection from the Lewis family plus the double appointment of Fabio Paratici and Johan Lange following the Italian's long-awaited return to the club.

Football.London is on hand to provide you with the full transcript from the press conference, which you can see below.

How's the squad looking in terms of Dom, his surgery, Kolo Muani, Bissouma, Ben Davies?

Yeah, all fine compared to last time. Kolo Muani has trained now for two weeks with the team, so that's good. He looks better and better, he'll be in contention for the squad for tomorrow, so that's positive. Dom's progressed well after the surgery, he's been on pitch I actually don't know if it was today, but it definitely was the two days before that.

So the detail is he's progressing and he's going forward, so that's good. Biss unfortunately had a situation with the national team, I think everyone saw that unfortunately, so he got a ligament injury to his ankle, they'll keep him out for weeks.

Big news this week with the return of Fabio Paratici. How will it work with all of you together?

Yeah, I'm also positive about it. Obviously Fabio worked as a consultant for the club, so I met him there a few times in the last couple of months. I'm looking forward to getting to know him more. Of course when it's more day-to-day, you'll get to know each other even better. I'm looking forward to working together. I'm not in doubt that Fabio, Johan, I and Vinai will create a very strong team.

And together I'm convinced that we can create something very good. I'm used to working with two sports directors, I've done that for nine years in Brentford. First with Phil Giles and Rasmus Ankersen, then Phil Giles and Lee Dykes. I actually think you need two these days to cover everything, because it's such a big job. And I think also the two of them complement each other. Ah, you've just answered my second question.

Did you have an input into it? Did you speak to Vinai and say you had two before and it worked really well?

Yeah, I would say there were thoughts about it, of course. It happened to me the first time I spoke about it. I was a little bit, like you said there, very positive about it. Because I think it will work very well and I think there is no one that is perfect in this world.

And I think the strong abilities both Johan and Fabio have, I think that they complement each other so well. So it's like a perfect match. So they're just like this and then we cover more together.

Vinai says he expects disagreements because everyone's different. Will you hope to have the final say? If it's a player potentially in January or the summer?

I'll always have the final say. You know that, yeah. Of course, in the end it's teamwork. I'm pretty sure if one of them, I would say three of us, because Vinai is, as he's saying, not technical or whatever you call it, of course he will have an opinion. But the three of us need to agree.

And if one lets take an exam, it doesn't matter if it's me, Fabio, and he's very, very, very strong, I should not think he's a player, then that's probably not that right. So I'm pretty sure that we will find a good way to go.

Seven games coming up in next 22 days, filled with excitement?

Oh, yeah, definitely. We love to play games. Every footballer loves to play a game instead of training. Coaches, we like to train a little bit more sometimes, but in general, no, we love to play the games.

We have a fantastic run of games ahead of us, starting with Villa on Sunday. A top team, top manager. Unai, I respect him a lot. I think what he's done in his career is amazing. What he created at Villa is fantastic in so many areas. I think they did well in the Champions League last season and almost qualified for the Champions League again, which is very impressive and I think they have a very strong team. So, yeah, looking forward to it.

Considering what you've done so far this season with injuries, does that whet the appetite for what could be achieved with players back?

I think we all have an idea in our head what could be the strongest team with all the players available. But probably the reality is that you need to create the strongest possible team of the players you have available now.

That is my task, that is my job, and get the best out of that. So, it's nice to dream a little bit, but like with all dreams, it's not reality. Reality is here now, what kind of players we have available, and then I need to perform for them. That said, of course, I would like some of them to be fit and available.

Are you surprised with what you’ve seen from Aston Villa so far, especially after last couple of years with them now down in 13th?

This is meant positive, I would say no because when I see them performing and their structure and the way they play, I see a lot of the same that I've seen from Unai Emery's team in the last three seasons. I see a lot of the same strengths, they're very, very good in the build-up and in phase two, and have a fantastic structure. They're very composed and have fantastic players. We know in Rogers, been doing fantastic.

Ollie Watkins, Donyell Malen who scored goals, Onana in midfield, Kamara, I know Tielesman is injured, but that’s a top team. The back four is very good as well. So, it's a team and you can see they're growing and I expect an unbelievable, tight game on Sunday, that we're very positive about and that we will do everything to edge. And I hope and believe we can, but that will be a strong test on Sunday.

On BBC website, we have an interesting article about XG – how much influence does it have on you as a manager with data and how much do you use XG with squads on a match day?

Not too much on match days, I would say. I use data of course. I've done that for a long time to how can I say? To create the right narrative that I want to maybe get across to the players, or to you (media) guys to make sure we get the right message out there. That's one thing.

Secondly, I think it's good to have another indicator or benchmark that you could look towards that’s analysing performance, but my eyes and my knowledge or principles of what I believe in is always the most important thing. I think it's very important to have the stats to back up the performance either way, good or bad because sometimes we put it to the top corner two times, won 2-0 and everything is beautiful, but actually you were absolutely s*** in terms of XG and shots against, so, we need to use both.

Sticking with XG, Vicario has done very well, you’re over-performing in front of goal, do the stats match up what you’re seeing?

Yeah, I think there's yes and no. I think there's some areas I've been very happy with, so it's not only XG. Both things, that's very simple to look at. I look at that as well. Of course, I always want it to be top than the other end, but I think seven games is a very small sample in general. So, there's elements and part of our game I've been very pleased with. For example, the high pressure, a bit of the phase one as well. I think our middle pressure is getting better and better for example. And then a big thing for me, the number of crosses and arriving in the box we are in the top and I think that's key for me because if we put a lot of crosses in, hopefully more with quality, have enough players arriving in there in the right gaps in the right areas, that will give us a big opportunity for scoring goals. So, that's another bit I'm looking into.

Do you think we’ll see Dom Solanke in this 22-day period before November international break and when he is training, will you need to be cautious with him?

I think the good thing is it’s positive that he's progressing now, but he's still training on his own, so I don't want to be too excited or too negative either way. So, I'm actually taking a little bit day-by-day and week-by-week to see how quickly he progresses. Dom is a natural fit player. There's some players that naturally get that fitness up to a high level, but of course we also need to take into consideration he basically hasn't trained with the team since July, but that's not to say it will take three months to get up to pace. It’s just it will take a little bit of time to get up to pace. How long? I don't know.

How excited are you to get Kolo Muani out on the pitch now he’s fit?

I think it's very important to have him fit and available. I think he looks better and better. I think it's also fair to say that he has trained two weeks with the team and when he came on the 1st of September? Oh my God, that's six, seven weeks ago. Time flies! But he still needed a bit to go up to the higher level, but it's not to say that he can't be involved tomorrow and maybe can play minutes. I think it's fair to say he needs a little bit of time to get up to fully firing.

Do you relish a tough run of fixtures to try and improve the poor home record?

Yeah I think in general every team, and I can speak for us Tottenham Hotspur, we would like our home to be a fortress. That is the ultimate aim. Can we make our home an unbelievably difficult place to come to? Then you know the job is half done in terms of what you like to try to achieve. And that is like an unbelievable, how can I say, cohesion between the team and the fans. And that needs to go hand in hand. It cannot only be the team, it cannot only be the fans. It needs to be both.

And we need to bring energy to each other. And I think that is absolutely key. And we need to do everything that we can to work unbelievably hard, perform well, try to be positive, all that, but also need a little bit of help.

Because, you know, football in every game goes a little bit up and down. You have good spells, bad spells. The Premier League is the most relentless league in the world. It's so difficult to compete in. So we need the fans, especially, especially in the tough moments. The better they can be behind the team, not easy, because it's not easy, the better it will be and they will have, feel more success for the team. So we need that. But when our fans are behind the team and the stadium is rocking, I think it's one of the best places in the world.

Great international break from Mathys Tel and Wilson Odobert? Two hugely talented young players, keen to get them to fulfil potential?

Yeah I agree. I think it was so nice to see both of them perform well for their country and I watched all their assists and goals and actions from their games. And it's nice. I think sometimes you are in momentum and you're in a good rhythm and clearly both of them are in a good rhythm, scoring goals, performing well, having good actions. So I think that's key.

I'm pleased with both players in general. I think they are developing and taking steps in the right direction. So I think it's positive

Have you spoken to Randal Kolo Muani about the World Cup and how long will it be before we see the player that Spurs signed?

I don't know. I think the World Cup is far away in general and I understand that the players are thinking about it. I haven't spoken to him about it if I'm honest because I think for any player to want to be involved in the World Cup, you need to play.

And for whatever reason he hasn't been able to do it yet. What I'm focussing on is to make sure that he is in a good place and try to get him into his best possible performance level. And when he is in that best possible performance level, he'll hopefully do very well for us and then the rest will take care of themselves."