Thomas Frank responded to a chorus of boos from Tottenham supporters after a goalless draw at Brentford with a promise to make his team more fluent and more prolific.
The Spurs boss accepted the dissent from the away end after the final whistle and asked them to appreciate the value of a clean sheet against the Bees, who have taken points from Aston Villa, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester United and Newcastle at the Gtech Community Stadium and scored four on their previous outing against Bournemouth.
Frank said: ‘They were not too satisfied and it’s fair when we don’t hit that top performance overall, but I think it’s double-sided because we need to acknowledge the defensive side of the game, which we’ve done excellent today against a team that scored three against Liverpool and Man United.
‘If you as a team are not strong defensively it’s just impossible to compete over a long season. Impossible if you want to end in the nice position you would like to end in.
‘But of course the offensive part needs to be better. There’s no two ways about that. I’m very aware that we are not where I want us to be. Very aware.
‘It’s not that we don’t want to play offensive or attacking football. We work very, very hard on that, but while you work hard on that you can’t, if you struggle scoring goals or creating enough chances, you can’t open up too much because then you need to score too many goals. It’s a fine balance.’
Thomas Frank was greeted with boos by Tottenham fans as he went over to the away end at full-time following the 0-0 draw with Brentford
Frank added: ‘I would prefer if everyone was happy and we are winning 3-0. I am confident we will make it fluent and better and scoring enough goals.’
He pointed to the limited time to work on offensive structure and missing key creative players, including Xavi Simons who is serving a three-match ban and Lucas Bergvall who was injured on Sunday at Crystal Palace.
Brennan Johnson was also missing having agreed a £35million move to Palace.
Frank said: ‘It’s fair to say Lucas and Xavi will hopefully soon be back and also (Dominic) Solanke at some stage. He is out on the pitch and part-training with the group. There’s a possibility he could be back this month. And we are in the market, looking to improve the squad but the January window is difficult and we need to be calm.’
Brentford boss Keith Andrews thought his team deserved to win and thought Spurs captain Cristian Romero should have been sent off for a last-man tackle on Igor Thiago.
Andrews said: ‘I’ve had a very clear look at it. I thought it was a red card. What makes it even more frustrating is he should have had a red card in the first game, 26 days ago, when he scissored Thiago from behind, which was a dangerous tackle. I felt Spurs were very lucky with that today.’
