Thomas Frank maintains he is "very aware of" Brennan Johnson's qualities even if the Wales international has become less of a regular starter under the Tottenham head coach.

Last season, Johnsonplayed 51 times and scored 18 goals while starting the bulk of the matches he was available for and the 24-year-old popped up with the most important goal of all against Manchester United in the Europa League final victory in Bilbao in May. Despite Frank attempting to sign Johnson when he was Brentford boss, the player has struggled for starts for Spurssince the Dane's arrival in north London.

The attacker was suspended for Wednesday's Champions League defeat at PSG but before that had started just five of the 12 Premier League matches this campaign and two of the European games, with most of his appearances coming late on in the final minutes of matches from the bench.

• Tottenham set for revolution after Thomas Frank has his Mauricio Pochettino moment


• 10 players could miss Tottenham vs Fulham after Thomas Frank injury update

Johnson has still netted four goals across just 788 minutes of action this season and scored a top drawer individual goal for Wales last week.

To put Johnson's Tottenham minutes into context, teenager Lucas Bergvall has played more of them for Spurs this season (820) despite missing recent weeks through concussion and summer signing Xavi Simons, who has also struggled for starts, has still played 937 minutes.

The problem for Johnson is the £55million arrival of Mohammed Kudus from West Ham, with the Ghanaian mainly utilised down his favoured right and the new signing has played 1,274 minutes so far, scoring just once but providing five assists. That has left Johnson fighting for any minutes he can get on either flank.

"I'm very aware that Brennan's got some very good qualities. One of them is scoring goals and running in behind and arriving in the box," said Frank ahead of Saturday's Premier League match against Fulham. "I really like everything about him. He also scored goals this year as well. Four, I think, in total. So I'm very aware of them.

"So it's all about how you create that team, where we perform, how we get the best players in, where do we play them. Is it Mo to the right, is it Brennan? Who plays the 10? What kind of player do we play in a different position to make it click?

"And then we also need a little bit of depth, because we play every third or fourth day, to keep the freshness, the energy. So that's a challenge."

Johnson will be hoping to get more opportunities in the weeks ahead as the games continue to come thick and fast for struggling Spurs, who have won just three of their past 12 matches.