Every word Thomas Frank said on new striker transfer, Xavi Simons and Solanke injury

Thomas Frank had plenty to discuss after Tottenham's 1-0 defeat at home against Bournemouth on Saturday afternoon in the Premier League.

Spurs' new £52million signing Xavi Simonswas unveiled to the fans before the kick-off but the party atmosphere in north London was spoiled when Bournemouth attacker Evanilson scored just four minutes in.

The Brazilian was given too much space in the Spurs box and his shot on the run deflected off the sliding Cristian Romero and over Guglielmo Vicario's dive. The Cherries could have scored more goals with Vicario called upon to make a string of acrobatic saves in both halves to keep the home side in the game until a later flurry from Tottenham brought plenty of huffing and puffing in front of goal but no equaliser.

Our Spurs correspondent Alasdair Gold was among those putting the questions to Frank after the game. Here's the full transcript from the press conference at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

What was the team missing today?

We clearly didn’t perform well today. We played against a very good Bournemouth team that we know can make it difficult for any team in the league. They played to their strengths. They did that very well and we didn’t handle it well. We knew exactly what they came with and we trained for it. We just didn’t handle it well enough in terms of the balls in behind, the second balls, duels in the middle of the park.

That’s the defensive side and on the offensive side we struggled to find good enough solutions to get through phase one and two so we could get up there and put a bit of pressure on them. We only did that in the last 15 where we put on good pressure and could have equalised. I think over the game it was fair that Bournemouth won.

The lack of creativity will be partially addressed by Xavi Simons, but do you need any more signings to address it in the final days of the window?

It’s fair to say we didn’t defend as well as we should do and we have done in the first three games. That I am quite confident we will come back to defend well again but that could have helped massively.

The creativity, yes, that’s why we signed Simons to have an extra offensive player but I also think on the day with all due respect to our offensive players none of them hit a high level and that happens sometimes. I’m very aware. I don’t want to say it’s okay but it’s natural.

Are you concerned about Dominic Solanke’s ankle injury?

I’m hopeful he will be back after the international break.

Due to Solanke’s injury, will you consider signing a centre-forward? You didn’t have a natural striker to bring off the bench today?

No. I would say not particularly. To have the three strikers in the squad can also cause a problem as you can only play one at a time. It’s a fine balance. I’m not saying we will never go for another striker at another time but I’m happy with Dom and Richarlison.

The Spurs fans booed at half-time and full time, could you understand that?

I prefer them not to boo, but I understand. It was not a good performance today and they have high expectations, which is absolutely fair. I think let's say if we perform even better and still lose the football match today, I don't think we hit the level we should. I think the players gave everything and then that's the foundation and put the heart out there, but football wise we didn't hit our top level today.

Does today show that there is work to do to get the squad to the level that you want?

Yeah, but it's not about only making the squad the level. It's also for us to not manage, but play different games. There's one game against City, one kind of football, different kind of football against Burnley. Bournemouth completely different third kind of football and all kinds of footballs you need to be able to perform against, and we struggled with it.

How excited are you to sign Xavi Simons?

Yeah, yeah, very excited, very happy that we signed him. I think it was a great signing from the club. He can play 10 or left winger, those are the two main positions.

On Dominic Solanke's injury, is there any reason why it's resurfaced?

Sometimes, you know, we just take a little bit longer time. It's easier. It's not like he re-injured it again, so you can say if you have a muscle injury, then you can maybe reinjure, it's nothing to do with that. It's not progressing as quick as we hoped for, but we are still positive that it can be solved in the next two weeks.

How do you reflect on your first three league games in charge and have you got any plans for the international break?

I think two good performances and one bad, so I would like to avoid bad performances. I think the lower level was too low today, so that's what we need to raise. I think again, work ethic and character in the team was good, but I think we lacked some football bits.

When you've got a game like that where you're struggling to break them down, what can Xavi bring with his skill set?

I think he can bring on a day where I can say our structure building up and all that because it's not only about that, then sometimes you need a player that can do something (clicks his fingers) a little bit out of nothing, go past the player, produce a cross, a shot, a pass, with that extra quality that you need on the day, and that's what I think he can bring.