Every word Thomas Frank said on Tottenham's PSG shoot-out defeat and is asked about transfers

Thomas Frank spoke to reporters after Tottenham fell to a penalty shoot-out defeat to PSG in the UEFA Super Cup on Wednesday evening in Udine.

Spurs gave everything against the Champions League winners and Club World Cup finalists and started the game strongly. They struck in the 39th minute when a deep Guglielmo Vicario free-kick caused problems in the box after new captain Cristian Romero headed it across. Joao Palhinha had his shot tipped on to the crossbar and Micky van de Ven was there to fire home the loose ball.

The north London side doubled their lead just a couple of minutes after the interval. The unmarked Romero sent a thumping header from Pedro Porro's deep free-kick towards the far post and new PSG goalkeeper Lucas Chevalier could only get fingertips on it as it went into the far corner of the net.

The French side struck a goal back in the final five minutes. Lee Kang-in smashed a low drive from outside the box into the bottom right corner of the net. Then they found a leveller in the 90th minute when Goncalo Ramos headed home from a low cross from Ousmane Dembele.

At 2-2, after normal time was up, the game went to penalties and although Dominic Solanke, Rodrigo Bentancur and Porro scored, Micky van de Ven saw his spot kick saved and Mathys Tel sent his wide, leaving Nuno Mendes to fire home to win the shoot-out 4-3 for PSG.

Our Tottenham reporter Alasdair Gold was among those putting the questions to Frank after the game. Here's the full transcript from the press conference in Udine.

You must be proud of your players for carrying out your plan for 80-85 minutes but then just running out of steam?

I absolutely agree, very, very proud of the players, the team, the club, the fans. I think the players gave everything, playing against one of the best team in the world, maybe the best, at the moment, and I think we were 75, 80 minutes perfect, almost giving nothing away against, they had four players with unbelievable individual quality on the pitch. So very, very proud of them.

When did you decide to use that 3-5-2 system and what specifically did you work on to help the players adapt to it?

Probably decided that the day after Bayern. I knew we had to do something a little bit different against PSG. It was a special operation. In medical terms, the operation succeeded but the patient died. So not that good in the end. But we worked on a gameplan that was a little bit different and (it was) very close to succeeding.

With penalties, it's all about small margins isn't it?

I agree, it’s down to the smallest of margins in the penalty shootout. It’s like the flip of a coin. First I’d like to thank all the players that stood up and were brave and took responsibility to take a penalty.

Why didn't Brennan Johnson come on, was he injured?

No no, not injured. Just decided to play with two strikers, different types. He could have come on instead of Mathys Tel of course, but just different.

What went wrong in those last ten minutes?

I wish I knew. I think sometimes football is the smallest of margins. They kept pushing, made some subs that put us under pressure at times. But it’s a shot from the edge of the box - before that we didn’t concede really any big chances. I think there was one save from Vic where he needed to save it. Then the momentum built and they scored - of course they had some crosses, some situations, and we need to dig deep. But it’s basically the next chance, it’s not like they have three chances before this goal. Small margins, small margins.

Did this show you can compete with PSG but need a stronger squad to do it for 90 minutes?

I think if you play 2-2 against PSG you take that. I think that single result is good. Then you have a penalty shootout that we lost - maybe we need to work on penalties. Maybe that’s the thing to win a final. I think if everyone said this would be a draw and we’d do some penalties, everyone would think ‘oh that’s quite impressive’. Then if you look into the performance we actually put in and the shift we put in - wow, wow, what a mentality throughout the game. A lot of things to be happy with.

With that 70, 80 minutes so early in your tenure, that kind of running, intensity and effort, and also execution, is that the standard now that those players have got to keep?

Hopefully, the intensity and aggressivity, in the pressure and in the defending and the foundation and a mentality to run hard, that needs to be the foundation every single time, and sometimes you succeed very well, other times we need to do a little bit better and I think that was good.

I think another thing that was very positive was the set pieces. Obviously we knew that was an area where we can hurt PSG and we worked very hard on it. So a big credit to the players and almost gave us a win.

Could you expand on the details that you did like in the first 60 minutes and if that is what we should expect from your team?

I think one thing is, as I said, it was a little bit of special operation because it clearly went in spells a little bit more direct, because we knew that we could hurt them there. Big, big focus on the set pieces, from all areas of the pitch, but we will have focus on set pieces no matter what.

I think the high pressure is a non-negotiable when we went man for man, all over the pitch in quite a few good times. So those bits that will be a standard.

There was a chance for you to win your first European trophy as a coach but some say this game doesn't matter?

I think every game matters. I think if you look on the face of the players and all of us, we are hugely disappointed and I have my rule for 24 hours. I can be disappointed for 24 hours. We want to compete in a lot of different tournaments and if you want to do that, you need to be ready to do a quick turnaround and go again. I’ll make sure the players are ready and come flying out on Saturday.