Thomas Frank hails Tottenham’s character after they dig in to beat Leeds | OneFootball

Thomas Frank said he was delighted with his side’s battling qualities after they dug in for a hard-fought 2-1 Premier League win at Leeds.

Mohammed Kudus struck Tottenham’s winner just before the hour-mark after Leeds winger Noah Okafor had cancelled out Mathys Tel’s opener.

The Londoners made it four top-flight wins under Frank this season and inflicted on Leeds their first league defeat at Elland Road in over a year.

Frank said: “I think if you want to build any successful team you need mentality and character and cohesion and togetherness.

“No matter if you play like Inter or Barcelona or whatever style of play, you need that willingness to do everything to win, and I think we are building that more and more in the team.”

Both sides created plenty of chances, while Tottenham were never comfortable despite twice taking the lead, with goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario denying Joel Piroe in stoppage time with a fine one-handed save.

But Frank’s side, who fought back to draw 2-2 in Norway against Bodo/Glimt in the Champions League in midweek, have now lost only one of their 11 matches in all competitions since the Dane replaced Ange Postecoglou in June.

When asked if he was pleased with his start to life as Spurs boss, Frank said:“Yes of course I am. I think 14 points in seven. You know, that’s very good.

“So that’s all it is, a start. I’m extremely happy that we now on the road have won three and (got) a draw, which I think that’s part of that.

“If you want to achieve anything, you need to do that.”

Although Leeds fought back to level through Okafor’s second goal of the season and hit a post through Joe Rodon’s first-half header, Frank felt his side carried the greater threat.

He added: “We created two goals and (had) all the very good and dangerous situations and chances. So I’m very happy with that.”

Leeds were last beaten at home in the league by Burnley in September last year and head coach Daniel Farke disagreed with Franks’s assessment.

“I have to say, just many compliments to my players for this performance, because after this game, I would be normally disappointed with drawing, not even to speak about a loss,” Farke said.

“We were the better side today. We were the better side in all aspects. We had more possession, we had more passes, we had more expected goals. We had more shots. We had more big chances.”

Leeds, undone by stoppage-time goals in recent hard-fought games against Fulham and Bournemouth, slipped to their third league defeat of the season.

“If you always dominate games and don’t win points it will be difficult,” Farke added.

“But I can’t just pray for results. What I can do with my lads is deliver performances and this is what we did today – but we have to take our chances.”