It was a bittersweet night for Frank on his competitive managerial debut in the Spurs dugout as he saw his side go 2-0 up with a pair of set-piece goals before PSG stunned Spurs with two goals in the final 10 minutes of the game.
For the first 80 minutes, it wasn’t much of a contest, as his charges contained the Champions League winners, and the 51-year-old described the night up to PSG’s opener as “perfect”.
Speaking to the media after the game, he explained: “I am very, very proud of the team, the players gave everything against the best team in the world. I think for 75-80 minutes we were perfect, we gave nothing away.”
Asked why he went for a back three, instead of the back four he had used during pre-season, he explained: “We decided that the day after the Bayern game. We knew we had to do something that little bit different against PSG.
“It was a special operation, it was, in medical terms, the operation was successful, but the patient died. We worked on a gameplan that was different, and it nearly succeeded.”
Frank’s ‘special operation’ almost worked, only losing on penalties against a side that Opta believed before kick-off had a 68.4% chance of winning.
Brave takers
A loss like that is cruel, given Micky van de Ven, an earlier goalscorer in normal time, and Mathys Tel failed to find the net, but their manager was full of praise for that stepped up to take a spot kick.
He added: “I would like to thank my players who stepped up and were brave and took responsibility.”
Tottenham now will need to reset ahead of the Premier League opener this weekend. They face newly-promoted Burnley on Sunday, and Frank hopes the standard his players set for those first 80 minutes will continue as he moulds his side into his image.
Speaking about the standard of his side, and whether this is the new norm, he quipped: “Hopefully, the intensity and aggressiveness in the press, when we’re defending, the mentality to run hard, that needs to be the foundation every single time.
“Sometimes you succeed very well, sometimes you need to do a little bit better.
“One positive was the set pieces, we knew it was an area we could hurt PSG and we worked hard on it. It is a credit to the players and it almost gave us the win.”
Read more analysis from the UEFA Super Cup with Flashscore.
