Defender Van de Ven crashed into Isak with a sliding tackle in a failed attempt to stop the Sweden striker scoring in Liverpool\u2019s 2-1 win at Tottenham on Saturday.<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/content.foxsports.com.au\/fs\/electrode\/poster-fallback.png\"\/)
<\/p>\n
Isak, the $253m Reds signing who limped off after Van de Ven\u2019s challenge, underwent surgery on an ankle injury that included a fibula fracture.<\/p>\n
The 26-year-old is expected to be sidelined for at least two months after the injury to his left leg.<\/p>\n
Slot launched a scathing attack on the centre-back when he faced the media on Tuesday, saying he was guilty of a \u201creckless challenge\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you make that tackle 10 times, I think 10 times there\u2019s a serious chance that a player gets a serious injury,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
But Frank defended his player in his own press conference.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am obviously disagreeing in many ways,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are talking about a defender that will do everything he can to avoid the goal.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a transition, there is a ball down the side and he is doing everything he can to block the shot, so he is sliding.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnfortunately, Isak plants his foot so it makes it look worse than it is, but that is a natural action for a defender.<\/p>\n
\u201cPut it this way, if my defender does not do that, they are not true defenders.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thomas Frank fires back after Arne Slot’s comments about the ‘reckless’ incident that left Alexander Isak with a broken leg.Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
Frank said Van de Ven would not put an opponent\u2019s health at risk with a dangerous foul.<\/p>\n
\u201cReckless challenge? I don\u2019t think you see anything like that from Micky,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI see him as a very fair and competitive player. That\u2019s one thing. I know the two players have sorted it out, so that\u2019s a good sign.\u201d Tottenham\u2019s defeat against Liverpool added to the mounting pressure on Frank. The former Brentford boss has struggled since arriving in north London in the close-season to replace the sacked Ange Postecoglou.<\/p>\n
Postecoglou ended Tottenham\u2019s 17-year trophy drought by winning the Europa League, but the poor domestic form that haunted the Australian has continued under Frank\u2019s watch.<\/p>\n
Tottenham are languishing in 14th place in the Premier League ahead of this weekend\u2019s trip to Crystal Palace, but Frank remains confident he can turn the tide.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is one of the biggest clubs in the world so it makes it a bigger and different challenge,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere this makes it extra challenging is we also play Champions League and Premier League at the same time. We are trying to improve when at 100 miles per hour.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tottenham manager Thomas Frank has hit back at Arne Slot after the Liverpool boss criticised Micky van de…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":367536,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[12033,1813,199301,139452,6257,44841,6254,2057,199304,43,2022,44,3583,668,199303,104864,199302,4200,2639,41,39,42,40,3586],"class_list":["post-367535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-alexander-isak","tag-ankle-injury","tag-bosses-trade-barbs","tag-broken-leg","tag-champions-league","tag-conference-comments","tag-europa-league","tag-europe","tag-fulham-move-clear","tag-headlines","tag-london","tag-news","tag-northern-europe","tag-press-conference","tag-reckless-challenge","tag-relegation-zone","tag-striker-scoring","tag-sweden","tag-thomas-h-frank","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-united-kingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=367535"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367535\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/367536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=367535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=367535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=367535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}