Simmons, 22, has yet to score for Spurs since securing a €60 million (£51.8 million; $70 million) deal from RB Leipzig, and has been on the bench for the last four matches.
Frank’s team host his former club Brentford on Saturday, looking for only their second home league win of the season, and the Dane says there are similarities between Simmons and Mikael Damsgaard, who spent two years producing his best football in west London.
Asked if Simmons could be as important to him at Spurs as Damsgaard was at Brentford, Frank said: “Definitely.
“That’s one of the reasons we brought him here. I think he has huge potential to be a playmaker – (a) creator but also a finisher. I think his finishing is very good, he’s very good at scoring goals and getting into the right areas. I’m sure he’ll be very good for us.
“Sometimes we have a team where you come to a club where everything is smooth, everything is working, there are no problems, there is momentum, you step in. You can see, (Florian) Wirtz, compared to what we have seen at Liverpool, is also becoming champions. And it is not that easy all the time. It takes a little bit more time all the time.
“But as long as the player trains well, has the right attitude, keeps doing the right things, step by step, we’ll see him flourish. I have no doubt about that. Just because we’re always too good to test him right now, but maybe a year or two from now, (it will be time to say), ‘Oh, how good is he?’ Now everyone is talking about Damsgaard. It took him two seasons before he really flourished in the third season.
Frank’s side struggled twice to draw 2-2 at Newcastle United in midweek, but are under pressure to improve results at home after last weekend’s 2-1 defeat to Fulham.
Frank has tinkered with his set-up in recent weeks, and admits he is still trying to prepare his best XI, but says he is looking long-term to turn Spurs into a “well-oiled engine”.
“Yes, I think that’s fair,” said Frank, when told that he didn’t know his best side yet.
“I have an idea of some positions. I also think there’s competition so it’s not so easy to say all the time, ‘Okay, it’s just those 11’ because you need more than 11 players. Normally, you look at most teams when they’re finding their strongest team, all the time they’ll have nine players, and maybe change two. Or maybe sometimes it might be ten.
“I have said from the beginning, every action, everything I do goes through two paths.
“One, we have to win tomorrow and the day after and the day after but everything is with a long-term view.
“If you don’t build anything with a long-term vision then I don’t think you are a top club.
“It shouldn’t be like, ‘Oh, we survived another game’ so there are practical options along the way (because of injuries, form). Gradually we will try to get closer to becoming a well-oiled engine that is impossible to stop.”
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