Thomas Frank narrowly missed out on his first title as a coach in his first competitive game with Tottenham. Afterwards, he spoke about the “day after Bayern” – and his 24-hour rule.
Whenever Thomas Frank woke up on Thursday morning, he probably had a good 15 hours left to be annoyed. “I have my 24-hour rule,” said the new Tottenham Hotspur coach after Wednesday evening’s narrow defeat in the UEFA Super Cup against Paris Saint-Germain. “I’m allowed to be disappointed for 24 hours.”
After that, it’s time to look ahead again – and the game in Udine gave plenty of reasons to do so with optimism. The Spurs had PSG, the triple winners and Club World Cup finalists, under control until the final stages, before Paris substitutes Kang-In Lee and Goncalo Ramos made it 2-2 in the dying minutes and forced a penalty shootout. There, former Bundesliga pros Micky van de Ven (Wolfsburg) and Mathys Tel (Bayern) missed their penalties.
“We were perfect for 75, 80 minutes.”
And yet Frank was full of praise for his team’s performance in their first competitive game for Spurs. “I’m very, very proud of my players. We played against one of the best teams in the world – perhaps the best at the moment – and I think we were perfect for 75, 80 minutes. We hardly gave them a chance.”
Surprisingly, Spurs lined up with a back three and, thanks to intense running, high pressing and some man-to-man defending, prevented PSG from developing their game for long periods, while creating chances of their own from set pieces and direct play. Even Luis Enrique admitted afterwards that Tottenham “deserved it much more.”
“Wow, wow, what a mentality throughout the game,” Frank marveled, revealing that he had devised the game plan “the day after Bayern,” i.e., after the 4-0 defeat in the friendly in Munich last Thursday. “I knew we had to do something a little different against PSG. It was a special operation. Medically speaking, the operation was successful, but the patient is dead.“ He would still have signed up for a 2-2 draw against PSG in advance. ”Maybe we need to work on the penalties.”
Even the Dane, who joined the club from Brentford FC in the summer, was unable to explain the collapse in the final stages so soon after the game. “I wish I knew,” he replied when asked what had gone wrong. “In soccer, sometimes the details decide. They kept up the pressure and made some substitutions that put us under pressure at times.”
Joao Palhinha impresses right away
At Spurs, Joao Palhinha had already been substituted at this point, having made a strong impression up to that point and continuing to coach from the sidelines. The new signing from Munich had also set up van de Ven’s opening goal with a shot that PSG keeper Lucas Chevalier had tipped onto the crossbar (39).
Even though he narrowly missed out on his first title as a coach, Frank has clearly already succeeded in communicating his footballing philosophy. In this respect, Tottenham can look forward with confidence to the Premier League opener on Saturday (4 p.m.) against newly promoted Burnley, followed by an away game at Manchester City. But first, the 24 hours must pass.
