The teams had not been in play for a full three minutes when the first signal of Thomas Frank’s arrival at Tottenham Hotspur became clear for all to see. Kevin Danso surveyed the crowd in Paris Saint-Germain’s penalty area, took a few backward steps and ran back towards the touchline to complete the throw-in, not a single player in a radius of a few yards. The distance was no issue at all – Cristian Romero nearly connected with Danso’s throw-in as he leaped from the edge of the six-yard box to give Spurs a very early lead.
Spurs may not have scored on that opportunity, but they did on two others later in the match, even if they relinquished their 2-0 lead by conceding twice after the 84th minute, and went on to lose to the UEFA Super Cup in a penalty shootout on Wednesday. Frank may have made a complicated first impression with the Super Cup, but he also offered a sense of instant gratification, be it through Danso’s long throw-ins or the set-piece goals scored by center backs Micky van de Ven and Romero. The uncertainties that a new-look Tottenham entered Wednesday’s match with are not quite there anymore, the trip to Udine offering a first genuine glimpse at Frank’s plans for his new team.
UEFA Super Cup score, highlights, takeaways: PSG beat Tottenham after dramatic comeback, penalty shootout
Chuck Booth
It was perhaps the easiest prediction to make when Frank officially got the job, but Spurs look a lot like a premium version of his Brentford side, prioritizing opportunities out of possession to punch above their weight. A singular game, especially one against arguably the best team in the world, can only fill in so many gaps about a side under new management, but Tottenham’s Super Cup performance showcased some of the team’s new strengths – and the problems that Frank and company will need to fix over the course of the season.
Set pieces and long throw-ins for the win
Spurs were happy to cede possession to PSG on Wednesday, holding just 26.3% of the ball when all was said and done in the hopes of making up the difference in other categories. The strategy nearly worked – Tottenham kept busy by running for second balls and were very effective doing so, taking 13 shots to PSG’s 12 and generating 1.38 expected goals to the opposition’s 1.17. They were a perfect contrast and effectively neutralized an understaffed and underprepared PSG, getting the better of them for 84 minutes.
The most noticeable part of Frank’s strategy came through set pieces and throw-ins, no learning curve apparent for the players despite the fact that these skills were rarely a feature of Ange Postecoglou’s version of the team. It helps that Frank has identified players who are natural fits for their new responsibilities – Danso perhaps passed Spurs’ long throw-in auditions because he was a skilled rugby player for his school team, while van de Ven and Romero join a long list of center backs who are known for their set-piece prowess.
A set-piece-focused strategy also feels like a natural first impression for Frank’s version of Spurs, especially after the Postecoglou years. Postecoglou caught a lot of flak for Tottenham’s set-piece defending but his team was not particularly effective at scoring from them, either. Spurs were still one of the Premier League’s best attacking teams last season despite that, but Brentford actually outdid them in goals scored and expected goals using this approach, which offers reliable goalscoring opportunities regardless of the game state.
The cost of playing against PSG
PSG may not have had a real preseason and are less than a month removed from their loss to Chelsea in the Club World Cup final, but there’s a reason they won the UEFA Champions League in the spring. Luis Enrique’s system is their greatest strength but theirs is a squad of players with impressive individual talent, as Lee Kang-in’s 85th-minute goal demonstrates. It also exposes the great downside of Spurs’ approach against a team like PSG, or other similar opponents – it risks running the players ragged before the final whistle blows.
Spurs’ starters looked fatigued well before the 85th minute, a natural consequence of nonstop running for the entirety of the match. Pape Matar Sarr, who exemplified the strategy with an active display for much of the match, seemed out of energy about 10 minutes before Lee’s goal and Romero pulled up with a cramp – perhaps a timely one – right before the final whistle blew. It left Tottenham unable to respond to PSG’s inherent qualities, Frank’s side spending much more time in their own box than any team would like to in the dying minutes of a match. Against Enrique’s side, it was a costly strategy, and Frank summarized it uniquely after the match.
“I knew we had to do something a little bit different against PSG,” Frank said. “It was a special operation. In medical terms, the operation succeeded but the patient died. So not that good in the end. But we worked on a game plan that was a little bit different and [it was] very close to succeeding.”
How flexible will Spurs be?
Wednesday’s performance shares some commonalities with Spurs’ other preseason performances, but the throw-ins and set pieces offered something new in the early weeks of Frank’s tenure, demonstrating a persisting sense of unpredictability that is not entirely unusual as a manager settles into his new job. Considering the caliber of Tottenham’s preseason opponents, a list that includes Arsenal, Newcastle United and Bayern Munich, it is actually hard to say how Frank will approach every match on the schedule this season.
Despite last season’s 17th-place finish, Spurs will be the favorites in more of their domestic matches than not in the months ahead. This is the great unknown of Frank’s jump from Brentford – his experience is with a midtable team, which is not disqualifying but simply means that a new set of managerial situations and decisions await. An aggressive off-the-ball approach will likely not be required for a large chunk of the games on their schedule, which are likely to afford more opportunities for possession and creativity in midfield. What exactly Frank does with that will be worth keeping an eye on, especially since Spurs may not be done in the transfer market just yet, links to Manchester City’s Savinho and Crystal Palace’s Eberechi Eze popping up in recent days.
Frank and company are still, understandably, playing their cards close to their chest, but Ben Davies may have provided a small hint in his pre-Super Cup remarks on Tuesday. “I think we’re definitely going to have a different game plan depending on the opposition this season,” he said.
