Gibbs-White, Kudus and the Tottenham team Thomas Frank should pick vs PSG in the UEFA Super Cup

Thomas Frank faces as big a first competitive game in charge of Tottenham Hotspur as you could possibly get.

On the evening of August 13, Spurs will take to the pitch in Italy in Udinese's Stadio Friuli to compete with Luis Enrique's Paris Saint-Germain in the UEFA Super Cup. The game presents Frank with the chance to immediately win a trophy as the new Tottenham head coach.

However, the Europa League winners must do battle with the Champions League holders and overcome the best side in the game right now if they are to lift another piece of silverware next month. PSG are through to the Club World Cup final against Chelsea on Sunday evening and could continue their juggernaut of a season with that trophy.

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Even with the need for a three-week break after the game in New York, which means PSG will only return to training days before the game against Spurs in Udine, Frank's side will need to play to their very best if they are to be competitive in the game.

Tottenham have brought Mohammed Kudus and Kota Takai through the door so far from West Ham United and Kawasaki Frontale respectively after making Mathys Tel's loan move from Bayern Munich a permanent one. Spurs are hoping to add Morgan Gibbs-White to that list if Nottingham Forest's complaints over the triggering of the England international's secret release clause end up being no more than that.

So what starting XI should Frank pick to take on the French giants? We're going to name the team - in Frank's most regular 4-2-3-1 - that we would select if the window closed tomorrow and Spurs managed to get that Gibbs-White deal done.

The decision in goal is simple enough with Italy international Guglielmo Vicario back in his hometown. The back four still picks itself for now in Pedro Porro, Cristian Romero, Micky van de Ven and Destiny Udogie. It's a back four we certainly didn't see enough of last season.

The midfield duo in front of them would likely be taken up by Rodrigo Bentancur, who Frank mentioned in his first interview about being a player he wanted to fit into his team, and Tottenham's player of the season last time out Lucas Bergvall would likely take the other spot in such a formation.

The more difficult choices come in the three players in front. First off though, let's not forget some of those bad injuries suffered towards the end of last season. James Maddison has only just returned to working outdoors alone on the training pitches following his knee injury in May and Dejan Kulusevski could be longer following his patella surgery in the same month.

So we're going to assume that neither will be sharp enough or fit enough to start such a big match in exactly a month's time. That may be wrong nearer the time but we'll predict that for now.

We know Son Heung-min's future is unclear at this moment but don't forget we closed the transfer window early for this story so we think a fully fit and fresh Tottenham captain would start on the left with his experience. Gibbs-White would take up the number 10 role and then the decision to be made comes on the right.

Would Frank go with new £55milion signing Kudus or would he turn to last season's top scorer Brennan Johnson, signed for £47.5million from Nottingham Forest two years ago?

Everyone loves a new arrival but at this point we're going to go for Johnson starting the first competitive game and there's a couple of reasons why.

The first is that Frank really likes Johnson and had tried to sign him at Brentford and the move was at an advanced stage when Tottenham came in for the player.

Secondly, don't discount the fact that Gibbs-White and Johnson played together at Forest. The duo often played in the same team in the 2022/23 season after the Tottenham target moved to Forest from Wolves and they struck up a friendship during their time together in Nottingham. When Johnson announced his departure to Spurs on Instagram, his former team-mate declared that he was still going to pass to him.

So there will be that chemistry there ready to go. Johnson is also used to tracking back and working hard defensively to help Porro in big games and did so in that final in Bilbao. The Wales international can fly up the field on the break, which is how Spurs are likely to have to play.

You could argue that Kudus' ability to carry the ball is equally helpful but we're going to have the Ghana international coming off the bench in this first competitive game before starting a couple of days later against Burnley in the Premier League for his home debut. There is the other option of playing Gibbs-White alongside Bentancur with Kudus in the number 10 role in front of them, but we think Bergvall gets the nod in the centre of the park on this occasion.

Up front is Dominic Solanke, who will benefit from the increased attacking options available compared to last season at Tottenham.

So here's our team to face the most difficult side on the planet and don't forget in reality there are likely to be a number of new faces and departures before that game in Italy which would change it further.

(4-2-3-1) Vicario; Porro, Romero, Van de Ven, Udogie; Bentancur, Bergvall; Johnson, Gibbs-White, Son; Solanke.

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