Thomas Frank examined the offensive weapons in the armoury for Tottenham.
Dejan Kulusevski and James Maddison are massive misses as they recover from knee injuries. To add to the absence of their creativity, Dominic Solanke (out with an ankle injury) and Son Heung-min (now at LAFC) are two other pillars of the offensive unit who guaranteed goals for the team.
Building the foundations from the back, Frank has also had to embrace the inconsistencies of trusting in younger players to be the difference makers at the top end of the field. Set-pieces are an extra tool he wishes to use, but he feels that the attack can only click when the team have time to get chemistry.
“Every Head Coach, manager wants all the players fit, and we get that when we complain about the score being too big! That leads to disappointed players, but in a way I’d rather have that. It is what it is. You're right, I very rarely have said anything about injuries, because it is what it is, I need to deal with it, and it's my job to put the best possible available team on the pitch and get it clicking.
“There's some of these, especially Kulusevski and Maddison, proven players that have proven this club for goals and assists and creating things, so they would have been lovely to be able to use, but I think we have talented players who are growing – Wilson Odobert, Xavi Simons, Mohammed Kudus has been very good for us as well, and Richy had a good start to the season trying to get up to pace.
“The reality is that we are working very hard on getting the flow with the front four, and hopefully it will be better bit by bit. I think it's fair to say, I can't remember the amount of games we played, but there have definitely been some good games and good spells where we have been looking very good, so we'll keep working.”
“Randal Kolo Muani is definitely getting closer. I think now it's the first time he had an okay sustained block of training and also some minutes. I think it's also fair to say that he's not there 100% physically to just be bombarding (him with) 90 minutes, go again and again and again, but he's in a place where he can be used, and that's good news.
“I like it. I think it's whatever you can do to create an advantage in your team or create an extra weapon, extra threat, I think you need to look into it. I know there can be styles and what you believe in and all that, I'm just thinking, ‘how can I make sure that we hopefully maximise the opportunities to try and score a goal?’ To score a goal is the most difficult thing to do in football.”
