Frank: Solanke, Takai still unavailable vs. Brighton

We have now officially entered the Two Matches Per Week Phase of Tottenham’s season, something that won’t pause until the next international break in early October. The matches come thick and fast, continuing after Spurs’ Champions League win over Villarreal with a trip to Brighton this Saturday.

Thomas Frank is keeping a level head about the fixture calendar, obviously, but even he would welcome a couple extra bodies. Unfortunately, the two injured Spurs players who are closest to a return are still not ready to feature. Dominic Solanke is back training on grass, but not with the full group, while defender Kota Takai is still recovering from plantar fasciitis and has yet to return to any sort of on-pitch training.

“The positive thing is [Solanke] is back on the grass and has been for three or four days. He is progressing forward slowly, but forward. It is too early for tomorrow and Doncaster but the positive thing is that he is on the grass and progressing forward.

“[Takai] is very close to training with the group. I’m pretty sure he’ll train with the group on Monday.”

That means we really don’t know who will start at the AmEx tomrrow. Mathys Tel started last weekend’s Premier League win at West Ham, and Richarlison started the midweek Champions League fixture. Rotation is a thing, but with the mid-week match being a home tie vs. Doncaster in the League Cup, I’d guess Richy gets the nod tomorrow, with Randal Kolo Muani as a reserve. But who knows! Frank only mildly rotated the rest of the squad between West Ham and Villarreal, so perhaps we also see players like Destiny Udogie or Kevin Danso rotate in for Brighton, but it’s also just as likely that he runs his starters through this weekend’s match and then rotate heavily vs. Doncaster. We’ll find out soon.

One player who has benefited from match minutes in the early part of this season is Lucas Bergvall, who earned Premier League Player of the Week last week and also a Player of the Match award vs. Villarreal. Frank was asked about Bergvall’s early season impact and the Spurs boss talked about not only what he’s doing well, but where he can improve.

“I think it’s fair to say that [Lucas] had a good season last year. He played a lot of minutes that laid the foundation for this season, because in the beginning of the season, he came back from the ankle injury last year that he just needed time to go.

“And you can see now he’s literally going from strength to strength and has that extra confidence. You can see there was a situation in the second half [vs. Villarreal] where he got the ball from Mo [Kudus] in and around the box, just took it forward inside the box. That’s the movement you see from a player that has confidence.

“I think the coaches and I have been working with him on a couple of things. He’s got so much energy that sometimes you need to say, pause, stop, don’t run when we have the ball. And find the higher, the more dangerous positions. For example, the deep run where he scored the goal against West Ham was a big thing. The deep run where he was involved in the own goal against Villarreal. So those deep runs and arriving in a higher position up the pitch is key, I think.

“And then he’s learning to be more and more clever in the pressure. We need all his energy and enthusiasm in driving the team, but also how does he need to be goal side when he marks in the man to man and how does he need to close the angles and stuff like that.”

Tottenham kick off against Brighton Saturday at 10:00 a.m. ET / 3 p.m. BST. The match is not televised in either the USA or UK, but will be streamed on Peacock.