Thomas Frank hit back at Arne Slot‘s accusation that Micky van de Ven’s tackle on Alexander Isak was reckless and guaranteed to risk injury 10 times out of 10.
Isak suffered a broken leg while scoring the first goal of Liverpool‘s 2-1 win at Tottenham on Sunday.
He was injured by Van de Ven’s desperate attempt to make a block and his leg became twisted under the momentum of the tackle.
‘It was a reckless challenge,’ fumed Slot. ‘If you make a tackle like that 10 times, 10 times there is a serious chance the player gets a serious injury.’
But Frank defended his centre-half and said if he did not make the challenge he would not be a ‘true defender’.
‘I’m obviously disagreeing in many ways,’ said the Spurs boss. ‘We are talking about a defender in Micky van de Ven that will do everything he can to avoid the goal.
Alexander Isak suffered a broken leg from this tackle by Micky van de Ven on Saturday
‘So it’s a transition. So he’s sprinting back in. There’s a ball slid down the side and he does everything he can to see if he can block that shot. So he’s sliding.
‘Unfortunately, Isak plants his foot straight there and that makes it look worse than it is. I think that would be a natural reaction for any defender.
‘I’ll put it this way, if my defenders don’t do that, then I don’t think they are true defenders. So I don’t see that at all.
‘Normally, you haven’t seen any reckless challenges from Micky. As I remember it, he’s a very fair and competitive player.
‘So that’s one thing. The other thing, you also know that the two players have sorted it out. They have spoken. So that’s a good sign of how they sorted it out. A good sign.’
The Spurs centre-back insisted there was no ill-intent after the tackle and explained after the game: ‘I just walked up to him because I saw he was hurt.
‘Obviously I go for the ball and then I hit him at that moment. I don’t know exactly what happens at that point.
‘But for me, of course, I just wanted to play the ball and it was to block the shot that he was going to try to shoot. I hit him unfortunately and I haven’t seen him afterwards.
Thomas Frank disagreed with Arne Slot’s verdict on the reckless challenge
‘But exactly at that moment I walked up to him and asked him, “are you OK?” Obviously I want to try to block the ball and I don’t want to hurt the person.’
Meanwhile, Spurs have confirmed Matt Wells is leaving Frank’s coaching team to take up a role as head coach of Colorado Rapids. The club will replace Wells but not make an immediate decision about his successor.
Frank refused to comment on Fiorentina’s interest in sporting director Fabio Paratici, dismissing it as ‘rumours’.