Sport
Igor Tudor is faring no better than Thomas Frank as the captain of Tottenham’s sinking ship
Igor Tudor wasn’t happy with what he watched from Tottenham Hotspur at Craven Cottage. How could he be? Spurs sunk to their fourth-straight defeat and never looked like beating Fulham even as they staged a fightback from two goals down in the second half. The Croatian didn’t mince his words afterwards.
“I cannot tell you anything new,” said Tudor after Tottenham’s 2-1 loss to Fulham which kept the North London side within four points of the relegation zone in the Premier League table. “We need to find the forces inside each of us. I said to the players: ‘It’s always what you’re going to do, what you want to do with yourself,’ you know?
“More personality, more wish to do before reacting, plenty of things… We are lacking when we attack, we lack the quality to score the goal. We are lacking in the middle to run and we are lacking behind to stay there to suffer and not concede the goal. So, an amazing situation. Amazing.”
Tudor is right to be dumbfounded by Tottenham’s current position. Even with so many players out through injury or suspension, Spurs should be nowhere near the bottom three. Their budget ranks them firmly inside the Premier League’s top eight, but years of mismanagement have taken them to the point of relegation being a genuine threat.
Against Fulham, Tottenham were all over the place. They allowed the Cottagers to control the game in the first half, standing off the hosts in a way that suggested Spurs never truly believed in Tudor’s game plan. Fulham found it far too easy to get to the edge of the opposition box under no pressure.
The hope was that a back three would help steady Spurs at the back. Instead, it resulted in a disconnect between the defensive line and the rest of the team with Fulham able to get in between the lines where they could do damage through the likes of Harry Wilson, Alex Iwobi and Emile Smith Rowe.
With Yves Bissouma and Joao Palhinha in central midfield, Tottenham lacked a natural ball progresser to construct passing sequences from deep. They got bogged down. This has been an issue for Spurs all season, but Tudor has shown he is no closer to finding a solution than Thomas Frank ever was when he was in the job.
Tottenham are ranked 17th in the Premier League for Expected Goal Difference, suggesting their current position in the table might actually be an over-performance on where they could be. There is no other explanation for Spurs’ situation other than they’re a bad team that deserves to be facing a fight against the drop.
They have no attacking plan. Against Arsenal, Randal Kolo Muani showed signs of being an effective threat in behind, scoring one and having another disallowed for a questionable foul. At Craven Cottage on Sunday, though, the Frenchman struggled to have any sort of impact as one half of a front two alongside Dominic Solanke.
Tudor could soon have some players available again. Romero will return from suspension soon, meaning Spurs will be able to field a back three without dropping Archie Gray or Palhinha into the defensive line. It is also hoped that Destiny Udogie, Lucas Bergvall and Mohammed Kudus will return before too long.
On the basis of their recent performances, though, there has been no meaningful uptick since Tudor replaced Frank. The same issues that took down Frank as Tottenham manager are already frustrating his successor and the clock is ticking loudly for the Croatian to find solutions. The stakes could hardly be any higher.
