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Thomas Frank has made it very clear how he wants Tottenham Hotspur to play, and Spurs fans will certainly be excited by his statement.
While Tottenham have made a solid and strong start to the Frank era, their positive results so far have been founded on a strong defensive foundation.
The Lilywhites are yet to really fire on all cylinders as an attacking force this season, which, in a way, is the polar opposite of the problem they had under Ange Postecoglou.
It is a balance that Frank is looking to get right, but the new Tottenham head coach is very clear in his mind on how he wants his side to play.
Thomas Frank wants to play the Tottenham way but with defensive solidity
The 51-year-old has insisted that he wants his side to be brave in possession of the ball and score a lot of goals.
However, he explained that the offensive flair should not necessarily come at the cost of defensive solidity, pointing out that it is important to defend well to win titles.
Frank told Football.London: “I think it’s extremely important that we are brave and we are offensive and we play forward. I think that’s crucial. Over the years, all the teams I’ve been part of, we’ve scored a lot of goals, and I’m convinced we will continue that way because that’s the way Tottenham should play and will play.
“I think playing offensively, bravely and forward is extremely important but if you want to achieve something big and consistently over the years, you also need to be pretty good at defending. I haven’t seen one team achieve something fantastic without being good at defending.
“You can just see the Europa League final, I think that Tottenham did fantastic in that game, defended very well for a long time in the game. The best teams in the world are very good in almost all phases.”
Frank is confident Tottenham’s attack will click into gear
The Dane admitted that getting the offensive phase of play correct is harder and takes more time than mastering the defensive organisation.
However, Frank insists that he has already seen promising signs that suggest that his side will click into gear in the offensive phase of the game.
He added: “I think the most difficult thing in football is to try to score a goal. It’s a low-scoring game compared to a lot of other sports or a lot of other games. To get that free-floating type of play, that relationship between people, try to put structures in [takes time].
“Unfortunately, sometimes the opponent wants to interrupt it or disrupt it. So the offensive is definitely more difficult, but absolutely not impossible.
“And I also think that I’ve seen very promising, positive signs of the offensive part of the game as well.
“I think that the second half against Burnley was extremely good, how much we created. I like the way we went about it against West Ham, took a little bit of time to get into the game to create.”
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