Spurs vs Villarreal | Every word of Thomas Frank's pre-match press conference | OneFootball

Thomas Frank spoke to the media at Hotspur Way on Monday afternoon, ahead of our UEFA Champions League MD1 clash against Villarreal at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Tuesday evening (8pm UK).

Here's what he had to say...

After all your years of management, what does it mean to you personally to be managing your first Champions League game?

Thomas: "It's a big thing, I'm hugely looking forward to it. I know it will be special when the Champions League anthem is playing, that will be the moment. Now, it's preparation, a few more cameras but business as usual, but when we walk out onto the pitch tomorrow, that will be special."

This group of players know how to win in Europe - do you believe you have a squad here that can go all the way in this competition?

"I believe I have a fantastic squad and we would like to go as far as possible. If you enter any competition, you ultimately want to try to win it. The most important thing is one game at a time. We have a game against Villarreal tomorrow, a very good team, very impressed when I've studied them, but we'll do everything we can to get a good start."

It's a huge moment for you in the Champions League - what do you know about Villarreal?

"I've huge respect for Marcelino, he's done a top job. You can see his team is well structured, well orgaised, the way they play - they like to dominate as much as possible on the ball. I've been impressed with what I've seen. It's going to be a good challenge."

Are you a fan of the new Champions League format?

"I'm a person who is open for different things. I saw it from the outside last season, now I need to try it and live it. For now, I think it looks interesting, no matter what the format, it's a Champions League game tomorrow and we look forward to that and we'll do everything we can to win."

Do you have an idea on how many points it might take to get through (the league phase)?

"I'm not focused on that, I'm focused on one thing - let's see if we can beat Villarreal tomorrow. That's most important. After that, we play Brighton - one game at a time."

Tell us about your journey from Griffin Park to the very top of your profession...

"Of course, it's a fantastic opportunity and experience tomorrow. In many ways, as you say, we played at Brentford in the Championship at Griffin Park, a small, compact stadium, tomorrow we're playing in one of the best stadiums in the world, maybe the best, in front of our fantastic fans, a European night, you know they will be absolutely on it, so special, so really looking forward to the first two minutes and the Champions League anthem, then it's focus on the game."

Do you have any early memories of the European Cup or Champions League?

"Of course, I remember 1992, Barcelona against Sampdoria, Michael Laudrup played and Ronald Koeman scored a fantastic free-kick. There have been some stand-out games - we all remember the 1999 Man United treble, the crazy win against Bayern Munich, the Liverpool-Milan 3-3, so many memories, so many big games."

On team news... how close is Dominic Solanke? We didn't see him out there (training). Also, Randal Kolo Muani, how long could he play if you needed him?

"Dom is taking steps in the right direction, that's positive, but he's not ready to be involved tomorrow. Randal is ready. How many minutes? You know, they can always play more minutes than we think. If we needed him to play, he could play 90 minutes, but it's getting him to play at the intensity and level we want. He's ready and he's involved tomorrow and that's the main thing."

We've seen quite a few tactical plans for specific opponents this season - how do you do that when there is such a reduced turn around between games, sometimes only 24 hours to prepare?

"That's a good question! The main thing is way have guiding principles in how we want to defend, for example. It's relatively clear to everyone that we want to go with high pressure, that's no secret, but that may need to be tweaked depending on the opponent, a small adjustment there, the middle pressure, low pressure, but we have guiding principles that hopefully helps the players. Then, it's the same with the offensive side of the game, how we want to break through, how we want to build up, depending on the opponent, they may press in different ways, then we may have to tweak it a little if we end up in a 4-1, 4-2, what solutions we try to find. Then, we try to get that across to the players with videos, 11 vs 11, different ways to do it. I'm a big believer in can we get the right details across in the right amount (of time) because I don't believe in being out there two hours, or having a meeting for one hour, so it's how can we get that balance? Then, they are top players, so we give them guidelines, they make the decisions on the pitch - they are very good at that."