Frank defends decision to sell Johnson as Kudus injury leaves Spurs light in attack | OneFootball

Thomas Frank defended the decision to sell Brennan Johnson despite admitting his side were light on attacking options in the 1-1 draw with Sunderland.

Mohammed Kudus was forced off injured early in the first half against Sunderland, with Brian Brobbey equalising after Ben Davies had given Tottenham the lead as Frank’s side again failed to win at home.

The Spurs boss accepted his side lacked options in attack after losing Kudus, and with Xavi Simons still suspended, but insists selling Johnson to Crystal Palace early in the transfer window without getting in a replacement was still the right call.

“I think we lacked a little extra freshness,” Frank said.

“I looked at some teams last night that just put three players on like-for-like and then they run away with the win. A club you can’t speak about (Arsenal). Let me put it that way, that would have helped us. It doesn’t mean that we couldn’t have scored a 2-0 for the first 70 minutes. 

“Decisions are made, decisions I’m backing in every aspect. There’s always more bigger-picture stuff to some of those decisions. Sometimes it can look like perfect timing, sometimes it looks like not-so-perfect timing. 

“I think it’s very important we took the decision (to sell Johnson) before Mo got injured. We don’t know what it looked like, so I think that’s one thing. Sometimes when you take that decision, you can’t delay them if you want to, for example.

“Sometimes the decisions make more sense further down the line. Now, there was an opportunity to sell a player, which the club hasn’t been that good at in the past. Sometimes that window can be small if you want to do that, for example.”

Frank, however, says Spurs are actively looking to bolster in attack this month.

“We are really, how can you say, alert,” he said. “The club really want to see what we can do to strengthen the squad and the team.

“I’ve said many times, it’s a difficult window and we still need to have the short-term solution but it needs to be the long-term solution as well.

“You can say that if we had Xavi (Simons) and Mo (Kudus) for today then I think we have enough. But now for this game we didn’t have them. Mo only for what, ten minutes? So there are just some games where you’re very light and that happens for teams.”

Frank and his side were again subjected to a frustrated reaction from fans after another failure to win at home, but he insists there are positive to take from the draw with Sunderland.

“What I’ve said many times, I really liked the backing and how the fans were with the team throughout the 90-plus minutes,” he said.

“I think that was excellent. They pushed us forward, helped us in many ways. I’m sure everyone could acknowledge, especially the first half, was positive and a step in the right direction, getting in good areas, doing all the right things.

“I’m 100 percent sure everyone could acknowledge the hard work and the effort from the players. That’s all you can ask for. And then I think we all are a little bit disappointed that we couldn’t get the three points.”