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Amidst questions about Tottenham’s transfer business, Thomas Frank believes that his side showed against Manchester City just how much quality they have in their squad.
The 2-0 win at the Etihad was a much-needed result for the Lilywhites amidst the negativity surrounding the club over the last few days after Spurs failed to get a deal for Eberechi Eze over the line.
In his pre-match press conference, Thomas Frank boldly asserted that he does not want any player who does not want to come to Tottenham.
It is fair to say that his side silenced their critics with the display they delivered in Manchester, with the Lilywhites managing to control large swaths of the game and preventing Pep Guardiola’s side from creating too many chances.
Thomas Frank insists Tottenham have a very strong squad
While the lead-up to the game was dominated by the players that Spurs missed out on, Frank pointed out that the two players that the club managed to get through the door – Mohammed Kudus and Joao Palinha – stood out in Manchester.
The Dane admitted that he was particularly pleased with what he saw from the former Fulham man, revealing that the 30-year-old is still working his way up to full fitness.
Frank said (via Football.London): “I think it’s fair to say that we got a few questions about the transfer market yesterday, a lot about why not and what if and all that. What is 100% sure we brought two top players into the club, Kudos and Palhinha, both of them have performed very well, which I’m very pleased with.
“And then Palhinha, yeah, wow, you know, sometimes players need confidence and they need to be on top, and I don’t think he’s fully fit yet, where I want him to be, but very pleased with his performance and he’s definitely helping the team.”
When asked if the win over City was a reminder that a success of a side is not neceassarily dependent on a club’s transfer activity, Frank responded: “Yeah, I think it’s extremely important that, a couple of things that we understand we have a good group of players, a talented group players, a group of good quality players that I’m very pleased with.
“So that’s why we brought in two good players to help. Can we improve it? Perfect. If we can’t, you know, then we have very good players and we just showed that today, so yeah, very happy with that.”
Frank wants Spurs to continue pressing high
While Spurs did defend in a mid-block for large parts of the encounter against City, they were now shy of pressing the home side high up the pitch when the opportunity presented itself.
It was their intense pressing that led to the second goal, and Frank admitted that it is one of the main tenets of his philosophy.
When asked about Jurgen Klopp’s past remark that there is no better playmaker in football than an effective press, Frank responded: “Yeah it was good, he was a clever man. I need to text him and say ‘hey, that’s awfully clever’. I definitely believe in the aggressive press, as you saw today, as you saw with my Brentford team, you know, I believe in the high pressure.
“I believe we can be front-footed. I like that mentality. I think it’s offensive, you know, it’s a more offensive way of defending and then it’s more fun to defend in the opponent’s half, and of course, today I think we were very successful also to score a goal from it.”
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