Thomas Frank defends his ability to lead Spurs after Arsenal humiliation | Tottenham Hotspur

Thomas Frank has strongly defended his credentials at Tottenham, saying he is absolutely confident in his ability to rebuild the club and lead it to success. The pressure is mounting on the manager after Spurs’ 4-1 derby humiliation at Arsenal on Sunday resulted in a further spell of trouble.

Tottenham have won three out of 11 matches in all competitions since the end of September and it is about a lack of spark and identity in many performances. This was particularly the case against Arsenal when Frank deployed a 5–4–1 formation and saw his team fail to dominate their rivals.

Frank made it clear he will not shy away from defeat after arriving in France with his players for their challenging Champions League assignment at Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday night. He has viewed its footage in forensic detail in search of inconvenient truths and answers. But now, he stressed, this is not the time for self-doubt. As Spurs entered a decisive spell, it was all about the reaction. After PSG, they face Fulham (home) and Newcastle (away) before taking on Frank’s previous club, Brentford, at home.

“Part of taking this job was facing challenges,” he said. “Part of that is managing those setbacks and learning and moving on. The one thing I’m 1,000% confident about… I know how to build a team, I know how to build a club and we’ll do that.”

“The big thing is how we learn from the bad times. That’s when we can also see when we go 1-0 down – how do we react as a team? The best teams keep pushing forward. They still work hard, they still do the same thing. There’s no doubt about that.”

Frank has reluctantly talked about how Arsenal are years ahead of Spurs because of the continuity they have enjoyed under Mikel Arteta, and he applied this point to PSG and Luis Enrique, who has faced some difficult moments during his first season at the club in 2023-24. Luis Enrique’s team also had a disappointing start in the Champions League last time but still they performed brilliantly and won the competition. “This is his third season,” Frank said.

“His first season… he had to face a lot of battles and he changed everything from playing with the biggest players in Europe to lesser stars; very determined players who play for the team.

“They made these changes to become one of the best teams in the world. Even last year, they were close to being knocked out of the Champions League. Sometimes it’s minor.”

When Frank took charge of Spurs in the summer, he said “the biggest thing to focus on” was defence. “Because no team wins anything if they can’t defend.” Frank’s sharpest criticism has been regarding the lack of opportunity creation, which he considered valid. But as he insisted his teams had always scored goals, he said the shortcomings against Arsenal were not due to formation, but to a lack of aggression in duels.

“The most disappointing thing was that we weren’t able to compete,” Frank said. “We had 53 situations where it was like a duel, (a) second-ball situation, where either Arsenal went longer or we went longer. In 17 of them we were on top and lost 36. If you don’t do that… it’s basic, it’s very difficult to win football matches.

“We weren’t aggressive enough when we went forward. We weren’t protecting the ball enough which is also a part of it.

“We weren’t getting into the right areas where the second ball landed. If you play 4-3-3, 4-4-2, 4-2-3-1, 7-9-13… it doesn’t matter if you’re not doing that.”

Frank reported no fresh injury concerns after the Arsenal game. Brennan Johnson has been suspended after being shown a red card against Copenhagen.