Ever since their 1-4 defeat in the North London derby against Arsenal, Tottenham have been fighting relegation in the Premier League. For Igor Tudor, his debut on the sidelines brought a bitter realization.
In his first game as Tottenham coach, Igor Tudor immediately set a new negative record. On Sunday evening, the Croatian became the first Spurs coach since André Villas-Boas in 2012 to lose on his debut on the sidelines. Tudor’s nine predecessors remained unbeaten at the start, although it must be said that the task could hardly have been more thankless.
“A difficult start against a team that is in top form,” Tudor told the BBC after the bitter 1-4 defeat in the North London derby against leaders Arsenal. However, the Gunners were not in the top form Tudor referred to before the game, having previously played out a 2-2 draw with bottom-of-the-table Wolverhampton, thereby losing ground to ManCity in the title race.
Tudor’s Spurs are currently far from this region of the table. The 47-year-old took over last week from Thomas Frank, who had led Tottenham to the Champions League round of 16 but had recently slipped to 16th place in the league with the club. Instead of the title race, White Hart Lane is now embroiled in a relegation battle, with Tottenham just four points above 18th-placed West Ham United after this matchday.
“Thinking about relegation doesn’t help anyone,” Tudor said. But the fact is that Tottenham couldn’t be further away from their own expectations at the moment. “The team has a lot of problems at the moment,” acknowledged Tudor, who saw Arsenal as “on a different level physically and mentally.”
His team, which he had defend in a 5-3-2 formation, showed the “fighting spirit we wanted, but it wasn’t enough. It’s good to know where we stand at the moment.“ Tudor is calling for his team to be ”more aggressive and compact“ in the future, ”those are the keys to success.”
To work on this, Tudor has a week to prepare, which is unusual for the Premier League. At Fulham, his Spurs would do well to secure their first league win since the end of December.
