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Thomas Frank has admitted that he has taken Tottenham’s injury crisis over the last two years into account when planning for the transfer window and the upcoming season.
In both of Ange Postecoglou’s seasons at Tottenham, the club went through a major injury crisis, with double-digit absentees at certain times.
The situation was particularly bad last campaign, with the Australian having to cope without the spine of his team for several months.
Some feel that was partly down to the demands that the former Spurs boss’s style put on the players, with Tottenham completing more sprints per game than any Premier League side under Postecoglou.
Thomas Frank admits Tottenham need a big squad
The calendar is even more hectic for the Lilywhites this term, since they are in the Champions League as opposed to the Europa League, which means they can no longer get away with playing weakened sides in the league phase.
Thomas Frank admitted that Spurs need a large squad to cope with the rigours of multiple competitions, but he also revealed that some processes have been put in place to avoid a repeat of last year’s injury crisis.
The Dane told Football.London: “The perfect picture, unfortunately it’s not often perfect, is that you have 20 plus three players. Two in each position. All of them robust.
“Of course, you get injuries and then you probably don’t need 20 top players because they also need the balance of getting enough minutes to feed their ego, where they are in the stage of their career. So that’s the perfect scenario but it’s not often you get that.
“[Injuries are] 100 per cent in the planning. We had too many injuries last year. You can’t get around that. Hopefully, we solve the problem with the process we put in place.
“That can help, but we need to be aware there is a long season, hopefully with 60-plus games so we need to be good enough at building the players, rotating at the right time, which is an art and very difficult, and good enough to have the right amount of players. You can’t have too many because that’s also not good.”
Frank admits Tottenham are choosing from a smaller player pool than Brentford
While Spurs have managed to get some good signings through the door, the transfer window has not been without its challenges for the Lilywhites, who have also missed out on some high-profile players.
Frank admitted that at Tottenham, the pool of players that they are looking at is much smaller than at Brentford since the North London club is shopping at the top end of the market.
When asked about the main difference he has found in terms of recruitment after his move to Spurs, he said: “A smaller pool (of players) I would say, similar but a couple of levels above in terms of what you are looking for, but when you are looking for better players there are not that many and you all want the best and that perfect number 10 there are very few of them out there.
“So when you do that there are always some doubts in some things, but it has been good learning. It’s the same processes, but I needed to get to know the people who work here and what the processes are so there has been more work this summer than the other years at Brentford, except the first couple of years, of course.”
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