Calm Spurs boss offers more pointers about the formula that is laying such solid foundations
- By Yann Tear
- 42 minutes ago
- 4 min read
Spurs fans will know all too well about the folly of getting carried away.
Remember those first heady weeks of the Ange Postecoglou regime? Tottenham were carrying all before them and threatening to be counted among the serious title contenders.
Well we all know what happened to that pipe dream. Undefeated in their first 11 matches of the 2023/24 campaign they then crashed 4-1 to Chelsea at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and lost three of their next four games after that, two more of them on home soil. Reality checks and all that.
The start under Thomas Frank seems slightly more modest and home defeats to Bournemouth and Aston Villa have ensured no-one is getting over-excited at this stage.
And yet, and yet....
Sunday's 3-0 win at Everton, making Spurs the first visitors to win at the brand new Hill Dickinson Stadium, carried the unmistakeable whiff of progress. Of solid foundations. Of serious months ahead.
After the chaos of Ange's second season, Tottenham's Danish boss is sprinkling a formula for calm and measured progress that seems less prone to the wild fluctuations of Ange's second domestic season.
The differences are obvious. Being mindful of the need to shore up a leaky defence and to plug the space in front of his back four with reliable defensive midfielders. It is interesting that after the win on Merseyside, Frank was keen to flag up the contributions of Joao Palhinha and Rodrigo Bentancur in shutting down dangerous avenues.
And of course he has directly imported the set-piece excellence that characterised his Brentford teams. Here Micky van de Ven's first half headers from corners set the match on its course towards a fourth away win in five Premier League trips.
Add in the shot-stopping dependability of Guglielmo Vicario, the right-flank menace of Mo Kudus, the growing maturity of Djed Spence and the unexpectedly sound showings from Kevin Danso in Cristian Romero's absence and the belief grows that Frank is not only bringing greater organisation to the party but is also improving individual players. That is the factor that always marks out the best coaches.
So does the man himself think we are right to get excited? The answer is no, not just yet.
"I think we are in the beginning of building something and I'm very happy with a lot of things," Frank said. "The defensive side of it, the mentality and set pieces, but I think there are things we need to work on, especially offensively to be more free-flowing and for me, there's a long season ahead. To continue performing day in, day out, is a challenge we embrace.
"Who knows, but I need to take it one game at a time. Do I see us as title contenders? No, I think there's probably a few teams ahead of us and I'm only thinking one game at a time .Let's see where we are in April."
Talking about the match, Frank said: "I think overall it was a very solid performance. I was especially pleased with our first half, where I think we were good in phase one, good in phase two, with more passes, and controlled the game more. The second half was a bit more of a dogfight at times but against a very good team well set up with a very good home crowd and where they'd been unbeaten here so far.
"To go to any Premier League ground and win 3-0 is a very good result. We are obviously happy with the set pieces as well and the clean sheet mentality is a very good foundation to stand on."
Frank also alluded to how his team is having to adjust to the twin demands of Champions League football and domestic football and he believes they are learning fast. They were not at their best in the 0-0 midweek draw in Monaco ahead of the trip to Merseyside, but the Dane thinks that aspect of their progress will evolve too.
"To keep the focus, the energy, the intensity - I'm very pleased with the players how they've handled that," Frank said. "It shows a lot about that mentality."
As for Bentancur and Palhinha in the engine room, Frank said: "I think both of them today [at Everton] were excellent. I think they were very good on the ball and were excellent defensively - landing on the second balls when they needed to and controlled the game more. At a time when we are building and going to the next level, I think they are extremely important."
As for van der Ven, who has now netted five times, having not troubled the scoreboard throughout the whole of last season, Frank has another huge reason to be cheerful.
"I think Micky is really growing and taking some big steps," e said. "Overall I think he's taking more leadership, he's defending better and better - using not only his pace but also more clever positions.
"I said before the season 'You need to score more headed goals' and we have worked on it and that's big praise to Micky in the way he attacks the ball and gets in where it hurts. Hopefully it can continue."
