Sport
Three Tips for Tudor to turn Tottenham around
Tottenham Hotspur moved on quickly from the sacking of Thomas Frank by appointing Igor Tudor as interim manager until the end of the season.
The Croatian arrives in North London with no previous Premier League coaching experience and already has some work ahead of him to prove he is the right man to turn around Tottenham’s season.
Spurs are at risk of being sucked into a relegation fight. Here are three things Tudor must do to make an immediate positive impact.
Find a way to create more
While a long list of injured players certainly didn’t help Frank impose his own ideas on the Tottenham Hotspur squad, the Dane’s lack of attacking and creative innovation was one of the biggest reasons he failed in the job.
Spurs are ranked 17th in the Premier League for Expected Goals (xG) this season with only Wolves, Sunderland and Burnley below them. They are also ranked 13th for Big Chances.
The fact Dejan Kulusevski and James Maddison have been unable to start a single game this season is a factor behind these struggles, but Tudor must come up with some ideas to create more in the final third.
This could involve the use of wing backs to add some width. Might Randal Kolo Muani work as part of a strike partnership alongside Dominic Solanke?
Tottenham can’t count on the poor results of others around them to stop them from sliding into the bottom three. They need to save themselves and that will only happen if they can do more to activate their attacking players.
Sort out the defensive troubles
On paper, Tottenham’s defence looks like being the strongest area of the whole team, mainly because they have Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven as a centre back pairing.
At their best, Romero and van de Ven are among the best pure defenders in the Premier League. The issue for Spurs, however, is that they have rarely been at their best in recent times. They have been a big part of the problem.
Tudor will be without Romero for the next three games after the Argentine’s mindless red card against Manchester United. When he returns, the new Spurs boss needs a positive reaction from one of his best players.
The former Juventus and Marseille boss could shift his new team into a back three to give Tottenham a more solid foundation. This could be tricky, however, with so many defenders injured.
Arsenal are guaranteed to pose a threat in Sunday’s North London Derby and so Tudor’s defensive approach will be tested immediately against the best team in the league.
Get the supporters back onside
The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium was such a toxic environment towards the end of Frank’s time in charge that booing had become a regular part of the matchday routine.
Spurs fans have good reason to be unhappy. They pay the most of any fans in the Premier League to watch their team on a weekly basis and are being shortchanged by the dismal fare being served up to them.
A series of bad decisions over several years have culminated in Tottenham’s current situation. If Spurs are relegated to the Championship, it’ll be because of the lack of leadership at executive level.
Tudor is a relative unknown to Premier League fans, but he must strike up a relationship with the Tottenham support to get them back onside. He needs their backing.
Tottenham’s fans can’t win games on their own. They need the players on the pitch to do that, but a more positive atmosphere would surely help everyone at the club move forwards together.
