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Thomas Frank had the Carabao Cup on his mind on Tuesday at his press conference ahead of Tottenham's third round clash with League One side Doncaster Rovers.
Spurs reached the semi-finals of the competition last season and will now begin their Carabao Cup journey under a new head coach in Frank after a strong start to life under the 51-year-old. The Dane also reached the semi-finals of the tournament where they lost to Tottenham in January 2021 .
At this press conference at Hotspur, Frank delivered injury updates on Dominic Solanke, Kota Takai, Randal Kolo Muani and Ben Davies and discussed what kind of team he will put out against the Football League visitors at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Wednesday night.
Our Spurs 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? How is the squad looking?
It looks good. Everyone available last time is available again.
What's the Dejan Kulusevski return timeline, do you know a month yet?
Of course Kulusevski is a top player, I always liked him when I saw him from afar. He is a key player for us, a key player for me. Instead of putting an exact month, I just want him back as soon as possible. The medical guys and Kulusevski are working very hard on that. It’s not tomorrow but hopefully not too far away.
What's your ambition for the season with the cups?
I don’t know any coach or manager or players or club that don’t want to compete and try to win. It’s the same with me, same with the club. Going into the Carabao Cup tomorrow, really looking forward to it. We will do everything we can to try to win it.
You are in a tournament, we play for that so of course we will do that. Naturally, there will be a little bit of rotation. There should be with all respect to Doncaster who will most likely play a fantastic game. Graeme McCann I know him very well as a coach.
I faced him in the Championship. He is a very good guy, done well with the team. Plays very offensive football. It’s a team we need to respect but we need to our highest level and get into the next round.
How much would it mean to lift a trophy and is that one of the reasons you joined?
Of course I'd like to win. No doubt about that. For me, I think we probably need to take one game at a time, make sure we get past Doncaster tomorrow. And then if we continue progressing then ask me that question when we get to the final. Before that, it's about winning the next one because if we don't win the next one, there's no reason to speak about what's happening maybe in the future.
Are Kolo Muani and Ben Davies available?
They will both not be available for selection tomorrow. It's minor injuries, both of them. It's just too short a turnaround unfortunately.
And Kota Takai and Dominic Solanke, how are they getting on?
Progressing. Both trained today with the team, so that's good.
How difficult is it keeping Antonin Kinsky happy as he came in as a starter at Slavia Prague and is he likely to play tomorrow?
Antonin will start tomorrow, so I'm very happy with him as a goalkeeper. I think he's a very good goalkeeper and I think he's got very good potential. For any player that is not starting, they're not happy. Some probably understand it a bit more, or outfielder sometimes. If you're young, you try to get your way into it, but at a certain stage you always want to play. The same a bit with the goalkeeper. The easy thing for Antonin was to stay at his former club and now it's a bigger stage, a bigger challenge. I think he's got a great future here at Tottenham. I like what I see from him. He just needs to keep training well and doing well.
Damola Ajayi can play tomorrow after Spurs gave permission - what do you make of that rule? Obviously there's a chance for him to cause an upset against his own team.
I think it's OK. He's on loan at another club. I know the Premier League have this if you're on loan from a club, you're not allowed to play [rule]. We decided to loan him out because it was good for his development. I've done that a thousand times. Maybe not a thousand times, a lot of times at Brentford, but we haven't been that lucky to face one of our own players. It is what it is. I think it's a great opportunity for him.
On the injury front, is there any chance we can see Kulusevski before the end of the year?
Yes, there's a good chance for that.
I just wanted to ask you about set-pieces, how often do you train them and do you have specific routines or do you adapt to the opposition?
We have specific principles and also specific routines. No doubt about that. I think it's very important, open play and set-pieces. It's very important to have those principles in place and then tweak them a little bit towards the opponent, depending on their system, how they defend, let's say corners or wide free kicks. Then we can tweak it a little bit. But we can't change it too much because then we need to be consistent in the messages.
During your time at Brentford and different cup competitions, sorry to bring up Gillingham and Plymouth, have you learned anything from those experiences?
Did we lose to Gillingham, we did. It was another team we beat. It definitely taught me that cup tournaments are cup tournaments and everything is possible both ways. Before those two games you referenced, I went into them very focused, very aware of what could happen. I clearly remember Gillingham, as you said, I remember we put a very strong team out there.
But it can happen, it's football. That's why we love it, it's a low-scoring game. But tomorrow we'll put a strong team out there. We face an opponent, Doncaster, that are doing well in League One. We need to be on it and it's all about us. Just a final one for me.
What's your relationship with Vinai Venkatesham been like?
I really like working together with Vinai. Obviously I didn't know him before I joined Spurs. From day one he comes across like a fantastic person. Really a person that I think understands people and is very approachable. As far as I learned or experienced his processes, calm, good processes, listen, and from that he takes good, calm decisions. That's a strength in this sometimes a tiny bit emotional football world.
You have had Jun’ai Byfield on the bench a few times this season, with Ben Davies and Randal Kolo Muani out, could we see a couple more younger players on the bench and could they potentially get on if scenario allows?
I think it would be a great opportunity to have some of the younger players on the bench and I always think it's a privileged position to be in if you can give anyone a debut, especially a young player. That's always special and a big moment, so definitely I'm open for that. Of course they need to show it in the Under-18s, Under-21s, national-team, our trainings and of course if they deserve it, yeah that could be an opportunity.
With Mathys Tel, he's played mainly down the middle but are you eager to try him on the left?
Yeah, I would say he plays all his games for the French Under-21s down the middle, he played for us down the middle. I'm definitely aware that he can play to the side as well, also to the left and maybe that is his best position. Maybe, I would like to say, so that's definitely something I have in mind to use as well. It's always that you need to juggle everything. There's a few players also quite good down the left! And that's not that they maybe are better than Mathys, it can just be how do you construct a team.
Ange Postecoglou and Antonio Conte made sweeping changes in the cups and were heavily criticised. You will have to make changes but how aware are you of the expectation of Tottenham fans to take this seriously and try to go all the way?
I'm very aware (of the expectation). I think it's that balance that how can I say it transparently, as I said, I would like us to get there where we can compete in all four tournaments throughout the year. If you want to compete in all four tournaments, you need to be good enough to pick the right team every single time. And I promise you before I pick the team, it looks like an unbelievably good plan and also to be brave enough sometimes with the selection both ways to I think every single time we put a team out there,
I think it goes super strong, but I think we're also aware that no players can play 60 games x 90 minutes. So, it's that balance we need to hit throughout the season, not only because we are facing Doncaster. It could be Brighton last week, it was Villarreal, you know, we made some changes and we need to hit that perfect number of players that rotates and then a strong team. And it will be a strong team tomorrow.
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