Thomas Frank on his new Tottenham adventure, building on Europa League success and leadership

As first competitive games go, it doesn't get much tougher than taking on the reigning UEFA Champions League winners. But that is the baptism of fire facing new Tottenham Hotspur manager Thomas Frank as he makes his competitive bow with the UEFA Europa League holders in an intriguing UEFA Super Cup encounter against Paris Saint-Germain in Udine on Wednesday.

Speaking to UEFA.com, the former Brentford coach discussed his excitement about what is to come in north London and the key factors that he believes make a great leader.

On what attracted him to Tottenham Hotspur

Tottenham are a massive club. It's a fantastic challenge to be involved in, and I'm really, really excited about it. The team is good, the players have good potential and I'm really looking forward to the season.

It feels very natural to step into the role. Of course, I'm aware that there's a difference between coaching Brentford and Tottenham in terms of – most likely – we will hopefully dominate more games. That means there'll be phases of the game and principles in the way I see the game that we need to be more focused [on].

It's clearly a squad that, over the last few years, has been very, very offensive and very all-in on the ball. There's big strengths in that and I'd like to keep and build on it, but maybe add a bit more balance throughout the game in terms of how we attack, but also be able to defend well.

On his style

As a person, I'm pretty down to earth. I'm just a normal guy who loves football and always loved the game. As a coach, I would say I'm very focused on details. I have got all the details and principles for all phases of the game, all situations. I've figured out over the years how I want to do it, but I also constantly get inspired.

I like to play offensive, but I'm also pragmatic enough that I know we need to defend as well. Most games, you need to defend [for] half of it, so that's important as well.

On Spurs' Europa League success

It's a fantastic experience the team and the club got. We need to build on the fact they won a massive trophy in Europe. We would like to win a trophy again.

I would say we need to be better at competing in more than one competition, so that's the biggest challenge. I'm not in doubt that we can compete, but we need to do that preferably in four different competitions.

On the Super Cup

We're playing in a final; it's fantastic. Hopefully we can use some of the experience we have from the last final that the team played against Manchester United. [Paris] are the best team in Europe. They won the treble and it looks like they are extremely strong in all 11 starting positions.

It's a fantastic challenge to have in the first game but, of course, we believe in ourselves. We're going to a final and there will be one objective – try to win it. We don't see it as a test; we see it as two good teams against each other, and we want to win.

On coaching in the Champions League for the first time

I'm looking forward to it and very excited about it. In the Champions League, with all the extra focus and all the extra emotions, that's something we need to experience. But I have good people around me and I'm pretty sure that we have brought some good processes in around all that to make sure we can do our best to perform.

First and foremost, we need to compete in it. Our objective will always be that we can go from the league phase to the knockout phase. That will be the objective, but there are eight games in the league phase, so that will definitely be one game at a time.

On leadership

The most important characteristic for a leader, I would say, is you need to have good values. You also need to be very good at communicating because if you communicate well, you can hopefully guide people in the direction you want to walk.

I would like a captain that can bring the group together and can set standards – so, for the captain to be one of the best trainers, if not the best trainer. Also that he, hopefully, can get around the squad, just be with everyone.