Thomas Frank admits one Tottenham star 'struggled a bit' against Man United and gives Romero update

Thomas Frank had mixed emotions to get out at his press conference after Tottenham's 2-2 draw against Manchester United in the Premier League on Saturday afternoon.

Ruben Amorim's men opened the scoring 32 minutes in. Pape Matar Sarr hit an unnecessary pass to Micky van de Ven in the Spurs box rather than clearing the ball and the Dutchman hurriedly passed it against a United player. The ball was worked back in and Bryan Mbeumo headed past the static Guglielmo Vicario.

It took until the 84th minute for Spurs to find a leveller when a strong run from substitute Wilson Odobert ended with a pass to Destiny Udogie. The Italian left-back picked out another sub in the box, Mathys Tel, who turned and hit a deflected shot into the net.

Tottenham looked to have won the match in added time when Richarlison flicked his head at Odobert's curling shot and guided it into the bottom corner of the net.

The drama was done though as 10-man United, who lost Benjamin Sesko to injury after using all their substitutes, found a last-gasp equaliser in the 96th minute when Matthijs de Ligt headed home, free at the back post and the ball crossed the line before Vicario could palm it back.

Our Spurs correspondent Alasdair Gold was among those putting the questions to Frank after the game. Here's the full transcript from the press conference at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Do you have mixed emotions after that, with your team fighting back but then throwing it away at the end?

Of course, the emotions inside me are high but I take the positives out of this game. That’s what I believe and how I believe in building a good team and keep adding layers to it.

Overall, a fine/good performance against a good Man Utd team which is definitely in flow. We are talking a bit about our, how can you say, level of defensive/attacking threats and to play against a Man Utd side that play with confidence with Cunha, Mbeumo, Amad and Sesko coming on and we kept them to five shots. It’s just another example on the other way around that it’s not that easy to create in the Premier League even though they had all their big boys out there.

Second half I was extremely happy with our response. We are playing at home and of course we all want to win and don’t talk too much about (Tottenham’s bad) home form and all that. I know we need to win before we don’t talk about it. The way we turned it around to stay in the game, kept doing the right thing throughout the second half very happy with that. So close to winning it. On any other day, we win it.

The fans booed one of your substitutions but they worked?

Yeah sometimes you are lucky but of course every single time I take a decision to sub a player it’s with one aim. To make the team win or get back into the game or try to see the game out. It’s with only one aim. To try to win the game. Mathys did well, great goal, great involvement and in general I think Xavi did a fine game. A positive but also you need a bit of freshness.

Did you hear the fans boo Xavi Simons coming off?

I just say every time I make a decision it is with one aim. To make the team better.

What did you want specifically from Mathys, was it the movement up front that you just wanted to change?

Score a goal.

Did the Europa League final play into your thinking today? Can you see how United have improved since then?

I think I saw this game as one game ahead of us, to try to do everything we could to try to win it. That was the aim of the game. I spoke before the game about it's clear they have improved this season. They look, how can you say, more in sync together. But I think especially going forward they look like a big threat. That's why I actually think, I know we conceded two goals, but if you said to me before the game you concede five shots, I would take that. So we're all happy."

Did you expect Mbeumo to start on the left?

I think it's not the first time Ruben has, how can you say, played around with the front three. I think no matter where Bryan plays he's a threat, which he showed again today.

You said your defence played well, but it didn't do particularly well from the first goal, it seemed to struggle to get the ball away, and then you weren't as much of a threat with your offensive players as you might have been until the end of the game, are you still a work in progress?

OK, I don't think I said that they played well, the defence. I think I said if you concede five shots, then before the game you probably would have taken that.

That's not the same as the two shots they had, maybe even on target, was two situations we probably could have done better in, and we will of course look through that and go through the details, so that's of course a fair point. Then we play a game against a team where both teams try to cancel each other a little bit out, and we always want to create a little bit more, but you can then flip that and say, hey, we scored two goals in a situation where it was difficult to create.

You made changes at half-time, then more with 20 minutes to go, which obviously worked brilliantly, are you still trying to find the right combination in attack? It feels like you're still searching for the right blend.

Yeah, I think that's fair. We are searching to find the right balance up front, and I think when we look at the game back, I think there was positive bits going forward also from the game. I think we created one of the biggest chances was Richarlison from a cross from Brennan after, what, five, ten minutes.

Sometimes the small things. He scores on that instead of Bryan then it changes a little bit and opened up the game a tiny bit more, but we constantly work on the relationship and try to improve it with the players and try to find what is exactly the right blend, but I think there were small steps in the right direction.

Was Kolo Muani coming off a physical thing?

He actually struggled a little bit, but nothing big.

Cristian Romero came off with a couple of minutes left....

Yeah, he was just done physically. He just came back from that injury. He's fine.

So he'll be OK for the international games?

Yeah.

How much of a blow is having him come off, given the manner of the goal you conceded?

Yeah, but I think his position, he wouldn't have been near the goal anyway, so it's a cross on the side, and then he would have been in the middle zone, so this was back post, so that wouldn't have affected anything.

Wilson Odobert was good today, what did you think of him and why did you feel it was right to not start him today?

I think we tried to work around what is the best way to attack the opponent in front of us, and at the same time still keep a little bit of flow.

But I think we wanted two strikers, Kolo Muani and Richarlison, for the crosses, which we thought was an area where we potentially could hurt United. I think it worked perfectly with the first one, where Richarlison got a big chance, so that could have been an unbelievable, fantastic game plan from us. So that was part of it, and we need different personalities and types for different games.

And how impressed were you with Wilson?

Oh, sorry, and Wilson, yeah, sorry. I think, again, he's positive. I think he's stepping forward, or stepping up, and doing things that look right.