Tottenham remain without captain Cristian Romero and several key personnel for Sunday’s trip to Everton, but Thomas Frank will not use it as an excuse.

After a superb start to life at Spurs, Frank has overseen one victory from the last five matches and a smattering of boos greeted full-time after a fortunate 0-0 draw at Monaco on Wednesday.

Recent injuries to Romero (adductor) and Destiny Udogie (knee) have halted Tottenham’s momentum and especially with the likes of James Maddison and Dejan Kulusevski long-term absentees.

Yet Frank insisted: ‘Every head coach wants all the players fit and we get that, then we complain about the squad being too big! And then you need to disappoint players.

‘Anyway, I rather want that of course. It is what it is. I very, very rarely say anything about injuries because it is what it is, I need to deal with it.

Wake up to find news on your club in your inbox every morning with Metro’s Football Newsletter.

Sign up to our newsletter and then select your team in the link we’ll send you so we can get football news tailored to you.

‘It’s my job to...