The fact that Thomas Frank did not use a back five and sit back and let Manchester City attack in their own half spoke to the confidence he has in the quality of Tottenham’s side. The thing that surprised me was that both center backs were active.

In preseason after watching them play, I talked about how they were going to set up. I talked about how when they use a back four, one center-back is passive covering and the other center-back is active pressing when the ball is in the opposition’s half. This speaks to Thomas Frank’s flexibility in his approach. He adapts to the opponent.

Everyone operated in the same way as they did before, but the right center-back, Cristian Romero, tightly man-marked Erling Haaland and followed him wherever he went, and the midfielders dropped back to help cover.

You would think that’s an obvious thing to do. Don’t let Haaland breathe; mark him tightly. But with how aggressively Tottenham pressure teams in the build-up, man-to-man everywhere, it was a massive risk that paid off because Manchester City couldn’t finish their chances, but a risk that paid off.

Numerous times, Cristian Romero was all the way up close to the front line when Manchester City was building up, following Haaland. And then you’d see Mickey Van de Ven simultaneously actively pressuring all the way to the wings, to the touchline.

It is a risk because it can be manipulated. If the man-marking assignments don’t change, with defenders handing off responsibility to the next defender depending on where the ball is, the attacking team can use players as decoys to pull critical defenders out of position, to the wings, for example.

But the problem is that Thomas Frank is going to build a tactical base that is strong, and then he’s going to make one change like that. That one change to make Cristian Romero active changed the game. Manchester City had massive issues passing out short from the back because of that one change. And then they capitalized on Manchester City’s mistakes to score and win.

I was expecting a game like they had against PSG. Kevin Danso comes on, and they defend deep in their own half to counter. It would have been hell for Manchester City, but when Thomas Frank believes in his players, he’s not afraid to take a risk. We saw that at Brentford, as they punched above their weight on several occasions.

Pep Guardiola is known for being hard to predict with his tactics and lineup choices. I’d argue Frank roulette is as unpredictable as Pep roulette.

I wasn’t worried about Tottenham defensively. The foundation was paved by Frank quickly in preseason. Impressively quick, but the individual quality of their defenders was top before he came in.

The reason I’m fascinated by them right now is that I like following managers that improve the players they have. Managers cry out for new players, new players, new players, but Thomas Frank improves what he has. He must be kicking his feet and giggling every day at the amount of depth he has compared to what he had at Brentford.