If Tottenham’s players were shocked enough by Daniel Levy sacking the manager that brought a first trophy for 17 years, they have another thing coming when they pitch up to training for next season. Levy could barely have chosen a bigger stylistic change in the dugout.
‘The best managers adapt,’ said new Spurs manager Thomas Frank earlier this year. That’s very much not: ‘It’s just who we are, mate.’
In plumping for Flexible Frank, Spurs chairman Daniel Levy has switched one of the Premier League’s most unshakably principled managers in Ange Postecoglou for one of the most adaptable.
‘I am extremely proud that we have been pragmatic because that gave us the best foundation to stand on,’ Frank has said of his philosophy. ‘Then we added layers.’
It’s not that Frank is without his principles. ‘Aggressive and front-footed,’ were the two words he came up with when asked in an interview on Brentford’s website what he wants his teams to be. It’s just he has shown throughout his managerial career that he’s willing to adapt them, tweak them, sometimes put them to one side to win football matches.
What can Spurs fans expect from the 51-year-old Dane? Will the goals continue to flow? And can he shore up the shaky back line? Here, we investigate the trends and tactics that Frank is bringing with him on his 17-mile journey from west to north London.
In swapping Ange Postecoglou for Thomas Frank, Spurs chairman Daniel Levy has switched one of the Premier League’s most principled managers for one of the most adaptable
But what can Spurs fans expect from the 51-year-old Dane?
SYSTEM SWITCHES
In Brentford’s final two Championship seasons, finishing as the division’s top scorers both times, Frank started the vast majority of matches with a back four. As soon Brentford went up, he switched to a five.
Frank, seemingly unlike Vincent Kompany at Burnley or Russell Martin at Southampton, knew Brentford could no longer dominate opponents in the way they once did. They were a possession-based team in the Championship, something Frank also won huge plaudits and a ‘tiki-taka’ reputation for at Brondby in his homeland.
But Brentford couldn’t be that in the top flight, so the Bees started 29 of their 38 matches in a back three or five. And it worked. It allowed Brentford to be solid at the back but still hurt teams with pace when they attacked. Even the top teams struggled.
In Brentford’s second Premier League they won six and lost just three of their games against the ‘Big Six’. They did the double over Treble winners Manchester City.
The longer Brentford stayed in the Premier League, the more settled and confident they they became, the more ‘layers’ Frank added to their play, the more he’s reverted to a back four. This season, Brentford started 34 of their 38 league games in a back four, only using a three against Man City, Tottenham, Chelsea and Newcastle. At Spurs, that figure was 37 of 38, so the transition should be smooth.
It’s because, over time, Frank’s side have kept improving. They have more possession now – though still not bundles of it – play more passes, create better chances and score more goals.
Their numbers are almost back to when they were scoring goals for fun in the Championship. Brentford’s 66 goals this season were fewer than only Liverpool, Man City, Arsenal and Newcastle, and two more than Ange’s all-out-attack Spurs.
When Frank had Ivan Toney up front, he had a target man to hit, who could drop deep and link play. When Toney headed for Saudi Arabia, the team’s focus was on Yoane Wissa making darting runs past defences and Bryan Mbeumo cutting in off the right, scoring nearly 40 goals between them.
Frank’s Brentford are back to a back four, after primarily getting through their first three seasons in the top flight with a back three or back five (Chart: Opta/Datawrapper)
Brentford consolidated their top-flight status for three seasons, then pushed on in 2024-25 (Chart: Opta via FBRef/Datawrapper)
Bryan Mbeumo and Yoane Wissa scored a combined 40 goals in all competitions this season
HORSES FOR COURSES
Brentford finished 10th last season with the second-lowest wage bill in the division, and having just sold their star player, Toney. Having a manager who overperforms the budget is the stuff of Levy’s dreams.
Frank gets the best out of his players, not through preaching some abstract philosophy passed down on stone tablet, but from squeezing out every drop of his players’ ability in a formation that suits them and implementing whatever tactical plan he feels best to beat the opponent in front of him.
Brentford allowed Southampton, the worst side in the division, more than 63 per cent possession in their victory in August because Frank knew the best approach was to let Martin’s Saints have the ball, but press them high. Brentford pressured their opponent 105 times in the final third, won the ball back there 11 times, and all three of their goals in a 3-1 win came from errors they forced Southampton to make.
By contrast, when beating Bournemouth 3-2 in November, Brentford had 52 per cent possession but barely attempted to win possession high up the field to ensure they weren’t caught out by the Cherries’ rapid attacks that rely on firing the ball in behind defences for their wingers to run onto. Frank’s team won possession back in the final third just once from only 28 pressures.
They beat lowly Ipswich by dominating nearly 65 per cent of possession in a game during which they attempted 20 crosses from open play. In their draw at Arsenal, who pride themselves on excellent penalty-box defenders and a goalkeeper in former Brentford star David Raya that is among the best in the world at claiming high balls, they attempted only six.
There’s no rigid template. Only five teams averaged less possession than Brentford this season yet no side touched the ball more often in their own penalty area, while Mark Flekken topped the touch charts for goalkeepers. They showed patience when needed. Only four sides player a higher percentage of their passes long, though they were much more than a team just playing kick-chase.
Sometimes they pressed high man-to-man. Sometimes they sat in a low block. Brentford adapted. You imagine Tottenham, a team who played nearly all of their passes short under Postecoglou and averaged more possession than every team but City, Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea, will start adapting too.
Where Brentford won the ball back v Southampton (won 3-1 in August). Chart: Opta
Where Brentford won the ball back v Bournemouth (won 3-2 in November). Chart: Opta
No goalkeeper had more touches of the ball in the Premier League last season than Brentford’s Mark Flekken
PLAYING SMART
When your club’s owner is Matthew Bentham, a data-driven gambling mogul, everything you do is looking to find an edge – and Frank did that better than most.
His Brentford side maximised the chances they created and minimised the ones of their opponents. ‘Make the chance bigger,’ as Frank once put it. This season, the Bees averaged the highest Expected Goal (xG) per shot – a measure of how likely a player is to score from each area on the pitch – and conceded the lowest xG per shot faced. Only Brentford and Liverpool ranked higher than Spurs in xG per shot taken, but they were 16th for xG per shot faced.
It doesn’t take a data genius to tell you a player is less likely to score the further away they get from goal so it should come as no surprise that Frank’s Brentford attempted the highest percentage of shots inside the area of anyone in the division. No side took their shots from closer to goal on average than them (14.9 yards).
Meanwhile, only Arsenal and Liverpool allowed a lower percentage of opposition shots to come from inside their own box. Brentford may have faced more shots than any other side this season, but most of them came from a harmless distance. That’s one of the main things Frank will have to fix at Spurs, who allowed opponents to get closer to their goal for shots than every team except Man City and Brighton.
It’s also why Frank focused on perfecting Brentford’s set-pieces. Arsenal’s specialist coach Nicolas Jover, whose face is painted on a wall near the Emirates Stadium, previously worked at Brentford. Only Arsenal, Liverpool and Man City have scored more goals from set-pieces than Brentford’s 59 since their promotion. Spurs have scored 47.
Interestingly, it’s not just free-kicks and corners where Frank’s men have pressed home an advantage, scoring 12 goals from throw-ins in that time, with six this season. No one else has managed more than four.
They pressed smart, too, certainly smarter than Postecoglou’s harum-scarum bunch of headless chickens.
Brentford sat 14th for the number of times they pressed an opponent in the final third yet only Bournemouth and Manchester United won the ball back there more often. They applied 500 fewer pressures than Spurs but won possession in the final third on four more occasions.
Chart: Opta/Datawrapper
Brentford have excelled from set-pieces under Frank, both in defence and attack
Brentford have scored three times as many goals from throw-ins since their promotion than any other side
PLANS, PLANS, PLANS
It was not until the final stages of the Europa League campaign that Postecoglou finally changed tack and parked the bus. Before then, it was Plan A or nothing at all, regardless of how many Spurs plays fell lame in the process.
For Frank, it’s never been this way. ‘I have a plan A, which is when everything going perfectly,’ said Frank in an interview with Sky Sports last year.
‘In that Plan A, I have got five subs planned. Then there is a plan A-B, if it’s a draw and we want to push a bit more.
‘Then I have a Plan B if we are a goal down and it’s not going the right way. There will be more offensive players on the pitch.’
HOW WILL IT TRANSLATE?
Tottenham’s first-choice XI looks a good fit for how Frank’s Brentford often lined up. James Maddison can create from No 10 in the same way that Mikel Damsgaard became so important for Brentford, picking the ball up and looking to find the runs of those in front of him like Brennan Johnson and Son Heung-min.
James Maddison should thrive in Frank’s system, hoping to recreate the success Mikkel Damsgaard had at No 10
Destiny Udogie (second left) and Pedro Porro (second right) could be perfect for Frank’s style of using full backs as attacking options
Dominic Solanke is a tireless runner up front, who made the same number of off-the-ball runs as Wissa this season, and can lead a press when the game dictates it. Keane Lewis-Potter is a winger that Frank used at left back, so he will love to get his hands on the likes of attacking full backs like Pedro Porro and Destiny Udogie.
The issue for Frank now, though, will be how much time he will have to implement those specific tactical plans at a club in Spurs with Champions League football.
At Brentford, with no European football, Frank and his staff would conjure their tactical plan at the start of the week before drip-feed tactical instructions through the sessions before setting the overall game plan on the Friday before the game. He won’t have that luxury with Spurs in the Champions League.
It’s a huge step up for Frank and a complete change of direction for Spurs. Luckily for them, the core of the Tottenham side – young and coachable, full of quick, tireless runners – is just what Frank loves to work with. And they have got the man best placed to adapt.