Spurs vs Aston Villa, FA Cup | Every word of Thomas Frank’s pre-match press conference

Thomas Frank spoke to the media at Hotspur Way on Thursday, ahead of our FA Cup third round tie against Aston Villa at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Saturday (5.30pm UK).

Here’s what he had to say…

What’s the latest on Bergvall, Kudus and just how many players have you got available for Saturday?

Thomas: “Lucas is being assessed today – we’ll know more later today with him. Same with Rodri. Rodri has a hamstring injury, looks like a bigger one unfortunately. We don't know the time frame, that we also will know later. Kudus is unfortunately a bigger one to the tendon in the quad, so that's one where we expect him back after the March international break. The latest on Dejan Kulusevski. We know it's a complicated injury. If there's one person who can accelerate that, it's Dejan. He's a top pro and has got a top mentality. The most important thing is to remove the pain in the knee. He got an injection to help that 10 days ago. We know in three to four weeks if it's settled and when it's settled, hopefully, he’ll be on the grass and from there, we’ll see what’s happening.”

How difficult is it to turn the relationship around between players and the fans?

Thomas: “As I said last night, I think our away fans were very good throughout the game. They were backing us, singing, supporting, exactly as they should do and we hope they would do. Everyone will be happy when we win more games. It's as simple as that.”

To complicate matters, your club captain goes on social media. How much does that make your life difficult?

Thomas: “I think after Cuti became the captain, I think he's done a lot of good things right. I said it when I named him the captain, that even though he's an experienced player, he's still a young leader. I think a lot of the things he's done well on and off the pitch, I'm happy with. Actually, I'm very happy with his performance last night. I think he was a true captain in many ways throughout the game, speaking up at half-time, when we're 2-1 down, ‘keep believing, keep doing the right things’. But also when you're a young leader, sometimes you make a mistake, of course. It's good to keep it internally. Johan (Lange) and I had a good conversation with him this morning about everything, which we of course keep internally.”

I appreciate that conversation stays internal, but was it along the lines of, that really doesn't help, a message like that?

Thomas: “No, of course. I think we all know that. We had a good conversation about things.”

To turn things around, do you need to bring players in?

Thomas: “I think there's a couple of things in it. I think the last five games we've played, Liverpool, Crystal Palace, Brentford, Sunderland and Bournemouth, I think it's been consistent, good competitive performance - through the roof, no, but good competitive, consistent performances. That's what you need in a long season. Those five games should have given us more than the five points we got. Probably eight, nine, 10 points and if you get that from those games, it's different. So, that's what we're focussing on. Can we produce performances like that last night? Overall, like the performance, it's my job to deal with all the scrutiny. No problem, I can face all the questions. I'll take all the blame. I'll take all that. Also, my job is to look through everything and look through the defeat last night. Of course, it was very emotional and tough to take for everyone, but I think it was in many ways good. We deserve more from that. So, we just need to keep doing that, especially the last two games, it's a minimum of four points we should have, if not more. So, we just need to keep doing that. The next thing is, it's almost, as you say, the perfect storm - and in a storm, someone is building fences and hiding them behind it, others are building windmills and getting stronger and getting more energy and learning from it.”

In terms of bringing in players, is that imperative?

Thomas: “Oh, I forgot to answer that. I will repeat my answer. We're working very, very, very hard to see if we can improve the squad. Johan, Fabio, Vinai, everyone in and around the club, recruitment department is doing that. January is a very, very, very difficult window. Very important to get short-term success and long-term success. Everything is linked. So, players we are bringing in, it's because we think they can improve the squad and the team.”

Any positive team news on the horizon – Destiny and Dom?

Thomas: “Yeah, both of them trained. Both of them are getting closer, definitely. Dest a bit closer than Dom, obviously, because he's only been out for five weeks-ish. So, that's of course, less than six months. But both of them are positive and improving.”

Is it unhelpful to see a club captain talking out against the club or about the club?

Thomas: “I think, especially in football, the most important thing is to keep the noise out. Then you can see there's this situation with the post from Cuti and there could be others where it's maybe not that positive or a lot of people speaking. When we want to attract players, we need to tell our, as close to possible, unbiased story and a good story about this fantastic, beautiful club and why you should come to the club. I'm pretty sure that the clever players and clever agents can look through if there's a little bit of noise. I think it's very important to stress that even though there's noise, the club is very aligned. Johan, Vinai and I are very aligned, ownership is very aligned. We know it's a tough spell that we need to get through.”

Was Cuti trying to protect you as well, in a way?

Thomas: “Yeah, could be. I have a very good relationship with Cuti. He’s done very well. Long-term success is everyone is aligned - me, players, captain, leadership, everything, which we are.”

It seems from Cuti Romero’s post that he’s not aligned with certain key figures at the club…

Thomas: “I think it's, as I say, that I can't. You probably need to ask him. It's not that often he does do the press, so you need to wait until you speak to him, but what I know is he's been here for five years, that's one thing. What I just know is that I look at where I've been here for seven months and I see a very aligned club, so it's just up to us to prove that.”

You've only won 11 of 30 matches and the team are 14th in the table after 21 games - do you feel you've shown enough to deserve more time? Do you feel that you're going to get more time?

Thomas: “No doubt about that. I'm going to put it this way. Would we have loved to be higher in the table and get more points? 100 per cent. We work very hard every single day to make sure we perform well and land in the best possible position in every season. The thing we need to look at is the game on Saturday. The FA Cup is a good opportunity against Villa, a very good team is flying at this moment in time, but it's a good opportunity to progress in the FA Cup, a tournament that is very important for the club, for the fans. We've won eight times in history. I'm working hard with the staff, with the players, with the leadership. This is just a tough spell. We'll get through this.”

Have we seen enough in 30 games from an attacking point of view to justify you getting the time that you want?

Thomas: “We definitely want to do more. I think we've scored enough goals, not enough, but acceptable amount of goals.”

Is the style of football entertaining enough?

“That's absolutely right. It's a fair question. That frustration of course I share is the ethos of the club. It's something we've been working very hard on. I see myself as above average intelligence. I'm very aware of that. My teams have always produced chances and scored goals and this team will do the same. I think it's fair to say that we may be lacking a bit of some of the tough, free-floating offensive players that we had here in the last season. That's part of the challenge. Then part of all the bits that we need to work hard on every day to improve is another area.”