Thomas Frank admits something about Micky van de Ven and explains Tottenham's struggles in Bodo

Thomas Frank has plenty of questions to answer at his press conference after Tottenham's fortunate 2-2 draw at Bodo/Glimt on Tuesday evening in the Champions League.

A Jens Petter Hauge double was exactly what the Norwegian hosts deserved as they overwhelmed an error-strewn Spurs side for much of the encounter only for Tottenham captain for the day Micky van de Ven to head a goal back. Then in the 89th minute an Archie Gray shot was saved by the goalkeeper only to bounce into the net off Bodo defender Jostein Gundersen to spare Thomas Frank's team's blushes.

It was another late comeback after Saturday's draw against Wolves and it was nowhere near the physical levels shown by the north London side when they first came to the small Norwegian town by the sea in their 2-0 victory at the Aspmyra Stadion in the Europa League semi-final second leg back in May.

• Tottenham player ratings vs Bodo/Glimt - Brennan Johnson poor, Porro mixed as Van de Ven leads
• Thomas Frank press conference LIVE - Tottenham boss on scrappy draw at Bodo and missing Romero

Our Tottenham correspondent Alasdair Gold was among those putting the questions to Frank after this latest game on Tuesday night. Here's the full transcript from the press conference at the Aspmyra Stadion.

How do you analyse that one? Obviously the character to battle back, but maybe fortunate to still be in that position to do so?

I think definitely big character to fight back. I think that's hugely important in any team that they have that and keep running, keep fighting, keep doing the right thing.

And I also think we, even that I think after the 2-0 I think we were in a strange way better. Maybe because Bodo dropped back maybe we took more initiative, you know sometimes that's the momentum of the game. But I felt that we kept doing the right thing, we kept moving the ball, kept reducing the situation from the side.

And showed great character to come back into the game, which I'm very, very pleased with. But big praise to Bodo. I think until the 2-0 they were the best team today.

I think after that the game changed a bit and I think we got more on top. And of course scored the 2-1 and then changed the equaliser. So they just showed exactly what I expected from them today.

Of course I hope we could have done a little bit more first half. Got a little bit more into the high pressure in situations. And I would say especially on the ball I felt we could and should have kept the ball better in situations.

Both a little bit of structure, a little bit brave. A little bit on the day where you just need better touches, better decisions, better passes.

I think that's the third time in the last four games you've conceded first and then come back and stage these dramatic equalisers. Why do you think you're struggling to control games in the beginning at the moment?

That can be various reasons. I think against Wolves we had no problem controlling in the beginning. I think we were by far the best team against Wolves in the first half.

I think Brighton was a different game. I think also we were by far the best team in the first half. Just conceded one fairly well played goal and as we talk about a game, a goal that should have been conceded. Today I felt we struggled in the first half. So I think that's the only time we struggled in the three games against a very good Bodo team. Up here, a lot of teams will struggle when they play against them here. So it's just fair play to Bodo.

Was it the plan in the first half to sit back and try to get them on the counter or was that kind of imposed upon you by the way that they played?

I think that was what we wanted. Hopefully also you saw that we went high pressure sometimes. It was not that we never went high pressure.

So the plan was both to go into the high pressure, which we did on several occasions, and also succeed with those situations, and then there were times when we were a little bit more banked in.

You know, exactly that we were four months ago, because they're very, very good at what they're doing. And then I think the counters should have been a little bit better. But I think the main bit was that when we were on the ball, we threw the ball away too quick.

There's been a lot of discussions about VAR in Norwegian football in the last couple of years, what's your reflection on today's situation and the use of VAR overall?

That's a good question. I'm of this opinion that VAR, it's here, and definitely I know there was a vote in Norway that you tried to vote against it and get rid of it.

I don't think that's possible in Premier League and Champions League. So when it's not possible to get rid of it, I'm a little bit 'OK, I deal with it'. It is what it is, and I think in some occasions it's good. Because you get hopefully the correct decisions when you don't get it normally.

But of course there's others where it's too... you can actually discuss that one goal got disallowed. And actually the other one, they also looked into the equaliser. Both of them without VAR had just been goals. So we would have scored two goals, so that would have been favouring us. Because they were so 50-50 even. But I think the one where you oversee a clear penalty or a clear red card, that's where I think VAR is very good.

Bodo were quite dominant, especially in the first half, maybe until the second goal. Were there any parts of the game that surprised you?

I think they did exactly what I expected them to do in terms of how they wanted to play out, what they wanted to do, how they wanted to put our pressure.

I think the only little tweak was they were a little bit more flexible in the midfield rotation and a little bit more with the wingers coming inside. So that was a little bit more flexible compared to, let's say, last game. So that was a tweak that maybe created a few problems in the first half, I think a little less in the second half.

Even that they scored the goals, there were various reasons. Because actually the way we wanted to press, we just decided not to do at the 1-0 goal, even if it's a fantastic finish from Hogh.

With no Romero today, you picked Micky van de Ven as your captain. Can you talk us through your reasoning behind that, how you felt he performed, and also is he now part of the leadership group? Have you made a decision on that?

Thank you for that. Yes, I have made a decision. I haven't told the players yet, and that will be on Thursday. So I made the decision, but it's probably pretty obvious he will be. He has impressed me a lot as a player, but also as a communicator on the pitch. And a little bit of show of character. I think he was good today.

Last time Tottenham came here and they dominated in a physical way. Today we didn't see that same physical domination. What do you think went wrong in that sense of the game?

It's a good question, but I agree. We didn't see it in the same way. Bodo were a little bit more aggressive in the duels than we were. Were we less? I don't know. That I probably need to revisit the game to see. But what I would say is that visually, looking with my eyes, it looked more even, tending to Bodo being more strong in certain duels.

You've got so many games coming up thick and fast, and you're having to juggle a lot of different players and missing players, are you maybe struggling to find the right blend and balance between certain starting XIs?

I think that's too early to judge, in my opinion. You can say we didn't play our best first half today, but I think I made it very clear from the beginning I have a big respect for Bodo, and everyone should have for what they do and what Kjetil Knutsen is doing.

I think it's also fair to say that we didn't touch the ball in the first half last year either, and it was still 0-0 at that half. I think they were slightly better today in the first half, Bodo, so I think that's more respect to them.

I think it's also fair to say that it went quite well against Wolves in the first half, so I know that's a bigger perspective. I think it's overall, you can say with a lot of games, that go-to starting XI you like to find at a certain stage, that's something I'm looking into, which is normal. New coach, new players, and we still need to do a little bit of rotation.