Tottenham’s lack of style points won’t concern Thomas Frank: ‘What I like is our foundation is strong’

LONDON — Tottenham’s winning return to the Champions League will earn them precious few style points, but that is hardly something that concerns Thomas Frank early in his tenure. The Dane is in building mode and is acutely aware of the importance of getting the foundations right before adding too many embellishments.

Though Spurs proved in one of Ange Postecoglou’s final games that they could dig deep and hold firm in the biggest games, you rarely saw last season’s side hold a lead as effectively as they did the one handed to them by Luiz Junior’s spilling of Lucas Bergvall’s cross three minutes in here. Gifted a one-goal lead, Spurs concluded they needed little more to hold Villarreal at bay. They backed their defense and were largely rewarded for it, El Submarino Amarillo running aground against Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven.

The attack might be a work in progress, Xavi Simons struggling to build on a bright start and Richarlison unable to register a shot in 77 minutes. There were flashes of a familiar Frank style in the rapid transitions, led by a purposeful Bergvall, but if Villarreal’s goalkeeper hadn’t done them a solid early on, their pursuit of a goal could well have been challenging. That is to be expected, however, for a team that knows where it needs to improve.

“This team, these players, we will score goals, I don’t doubt it,” said Frank. “The big thing was we needed to defend better. We worked very hard on structure, clear principles, recovery runs, doing the tough jobs. That gives you a top opportunity to win games. We’ve proven that so far.”

Having been afforded the weirdest lead they will take this season, Tottenham approached the remaining 87 minutes with a composure and caution that was not exactly their modus operandi under Postecoglou. At times in the first half, the 55,000 or so home supporters grumbled at the patience with which Spurs began their build-up, but this was not a team prepared to gamble its one-goal lead in pursuit of another.

Occasionally, at the death, you wondered if Spurs might have played it a bit too safe. Certainly, they were fortunate that, in overturning the penalty Rade Obrenovic had given for a foul outside the box by van de Ven, VAR did not remind the Slovenian referee that a last-man tackle like that ought to be punished by a red card. Nicolas Pepe flashed the resulting free kick just wide of Guglielmo Vicario’s near post.

The former Arsenal man was the biggest threat to Spurs’ lead on the night. Djed Spence did not do enough to keep Pepe from his dangerous left foot, with which he both saw one dangerous effort deflected wide and teed up Tajon Buchanan, who should have done better with his opening.

That was the sum of the threat Villarreal created. There were other openings, most notably a spell of play early in the second half where every Romero pass seemed to pick out a yellow shirt. Curious then that the visitors so rarely threatened Spurs’ distribution from deep. Villarreal were perfectly prepared to sit off. Romero was perfectly prepared to put his foot on the ball and wait. So began the most tedious of Mexican standoffs.

That means there are caveats to this win. Villarreal are made up of the cast-offs of London football, and though they might have finished fifth in La Liga last season it is hard to imagine that many of Tottenham’s domestic opponents will be as diffident as this team were, certainly not when they have just played. Then again, building a few good habits is not to be complained about, whatever the competition.

“What I like is our foundation is strong,” said Frank. “We have four clean sheets, which is massive. We are building the offensive structure more and more.”

This is now four clean sheets in the last five games for Frank; their opponents held to an average of a shade over an expected goal. That is a 50% improvement from his predecessor. The sample size is small and Frank has had nothing like the injury issues that hit Postecoglou 10 months ago, but there is a composure with which Tottenham are approaching their task which feels in keeping with their manager.

It is early days, but Frank looks to have got his process right. He has identified the issue that got him the job in the first place — admittedly, it didn’t take a seasoned Tottenham watcher to work out what was going wrong last season — and the early signs are that he is fixing it at a good pace. It might not be easy on the eye but when the improvement is as profound as it looks to have been, aesthetics can be parked for a moment.