Tottenham boss Thomas Frank told to change his behaviour as 'behind closed doors' comment made

Thomas Frank has come under scrutiny due to Tottenham's recent performances

Thomas Frank has been urged to lay down the law to his Tottenham players and stop being "nice" about their poor performances.

Spurs suffered a humbling defeat in the north London derby against Arsenal on Sunday. Frank was only appointed as Tottenham's head coach in June after making the move from Brentford.

However, there is a growing sense of unrest among the club's fanbase over the Lilywhites' sub-par displays after falling to their fourth league defeat of the season. The Danish manager stopped short of blaming his players after the loss against the Gunners and said he took full responsibility for the result.

However, former Manchester United and Wrexham goalkeeper Ben Foster reckons Frank needs to be more forthright in delivering his assessment of his team to the press, despite expressing doubts over whether he shows the same calmness in the dressing room.

Speaking on his Fozcast podcast, Foster said: "You don't know what he's like behind closed doors, but he is very nice in the media. I don't think that performance warrants nice. I think he's got to come out all guns blazing there, because the Spurs fans are fuming.

"They were abysmal and they were miles off it. From the get go, you knew how the game was going to go because Spurs just straight away went, 'We're just going to sit here and we're not really going to give this a go.'"

Spurs officials are reportedly keen to give Frank time to turn things around despite the run of poor results. According to The Telegraph, the club's owners, the Lewis family, are steadfast in their belief that Frank's appointment should be seen as a long-term project.

Tottenham are currently in Paris ahead of the Champions League clash against champions PSG on Wednesday night. Frank will be without the suspended Brennan Johnson, taking the total number of unavailable players for Spurs up to eight.

Speaking before the game, Frank said: "Part of taking this job was to sit here and have the challenges. Of course, I would have loved to sit here and we've beaten Arsenal and then face Paris. We lost and we lost badly. Part of this is to manage those setbacks and learn from it and move on from here.

"One thing I'm 1,000 per cent sure of is that I know how to build a team. I know how to build a club and we will do that. Along the way, we'll learn and the big thing is how we learn from the bad spells.

"The first four months, I learned a lot about the team. I learned a lot about the individual players and all that learning needs to materialise in how we find the right formula, with the right players on the pitch and with some players coming back."

Spurs paid £10million in compensation to Brentford after Frank was appointed to replace Ange Postecoglou during the summer. The 52-year-old penned a three-year deal in North London, with the club said to be eager to avoid making a knee-jerk decision on his future.