Leeds 1-2 Spurs | Thomas Frank’s verdict | OneFootball

Thomas Frank described our 2-1 victory against Leeds United as ‘a massive win’ after landing maximum points at Elland Road on Saturday.

Goals from Mathys Tel - his first since April - and Mo Kudus - his first for the club - secured victory at one of English football’s toughest venues. Indeed, it was United’s first home league defeat in over a year.

Meanwhile, the win also ended a sequence of losing matches before an international break, stretching back to 2023 and as the final whistle sounded on a blustery afternoon in West Yorkshire, we moved back up to second in the Premier League table – our record moving to just one defeat in seven in the league, 10 matches in all competitions under Thomas (11 including the Super Cup).

Speaking to our Review Show in the rain at Elland Road, Thomas said: “It’s a massive win, honestly, a massive win. I just felt it before the game. Every game we want to win. Every game is a big three points, but before today, I just felt, three draws (Bodo/Glimt, Wolves, Brighton), plus the game before the international break, where we haven’t been able to win for a couple of years, for whatever reason.

“Then it’s Leeds away – they hadn’t lost here for over a year. It’s a difficult, difficult away ground, fantastic fans – and our fans, by the way, how good were they? Wow. Thanks so much for that.

“I must admit, for the first 80 minutes, I think it was a very strong performance. I think we gave almost nothing away. I know we gave the goal away, but it wasn’t like we were played through. They also hit the post, but that looked more dangerous than it was. In that period as well, I think we created quite a few chances.

“We scored two great goals and we created a lot of good chances, opportunities that could have got us a little bit more. Then the last 10… that's where we, I don't know if we struggled, but they just bombarded those long balls, so,  how do we defend that? We did that well, with two good saves.”

Thomas said beforehand how important it was to react to the moments that go against you in games like this, and venues like Elland Road – that came to fruition as Leeds levelled when we were on top in the first half, but we responded to take the game back to the home side in the second half.

“I think that resilience mentality is… you lose the ball, sprint back, you lose the ball, counter press, lose the ball, you need to sprint, you know, all that. Then, we conceded the goal when I think we were completely on top, Mo had a big chance for 2-0, it’s not game over, but it’s a big step, then suddenly it’s 1-1. But to keep going, to keep doing the right things, to keep staying in the game, to keep solid, I think it's important.”