Thomas Frank gives 88-word verdict on Jun’ai Byfield’s ‘calm’ Tottenham debut

Thomas Frank has spoken about his decision to hand Jun’ai Byfield his Tottenham Hotspur debut and has revealed what he thought of the teenager’s performance against Borussia Dortmund.

Frank only had 11 first-team players available to him against Dortmund, with the squad down to its bare bones.

However, despite being ravaged by injury and the ongoing speculation about Frank’s future at Tottenham, the Spurs players pulled a fantastic performance out of the bag.

They emerged 2-0 winners against a 10-man Dortmund side, and one Spurs academy graduate will never forget the night.

Thomas Frank admits Jun’ai Byfield has impressed in Tottenham training

The lack of options on the bench meant that Frank turned to Byfield when Lucas Bergvall was forced off with an injury on 63 minutes.

The 17-year-old gave a more than decent announcement of himself to help the home side see out the game, and the Tottenham boss was not surprised by the youngster’s performance.

When asked about the fact that Byfield did not look out of place, Frank told Football.London: “No, no, not at all. Jun’ai has impressed throughout the training. The players trust him. Clearly, they rate him highly. I rate him highly. One thing is to get your debut for Tottenham, the last five minutes, 4-0 up and everything is smooth.

“Another thing is to get your debut in the Champions League, a big night against Dortmund and we needed to win the game. And he just came in, composed, calm, on top of this. Wow. I hope his parents are very proud. They should be.”

Frank is impressed with Spurs’ midfield against Dortmund

Tottenham’s injury situation also forced Frank into a strange selection call, with Djed Spence starting at left-wing, and the England international was a constant threat going forward.

Frank was impressed with the way Spence, Xavi Simons and Wilson Odobert combined in attack to pose Dortmund all sorts of problems.

When asked about Tottenham’s creative hub against the Bundesliga side, the Dane responded: “I think they did very well. So we played that, how can you say? It was a little bit of a 3-4-3, both to match it up, but also to do it a little bit, taking care of it.

“And Djed, I think, did exceptionally well, especially first half. Xavi produced a lot of good moments and found good positions, and I think Wilson was electric at times. So I’m happy with that.”

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