Igor Tudor has insisted that he is not about “all this bull***” when speaking about Tottenham’s woeful form and has urged his players to “stand up” ahead of Sunday’s trip to Liverpool.
Tudor, 47, has suffered a nightmare start to his reign in north London, losing all of his opening four fixtures since succeeding Thomas Frank as the club’s head coach. The Croatian penned a deal until the end of the season but he faces immense pressure after failing to reverse Tottenham‘s fortunes.
Losses against Arsenal, Fulham and Crystal Palace have left Spurs in deep relegation danger near the foot of the Premier League table, with Tudor’s side sitting 16th and one point above Nottingham Forest in 17th and 18th-place West Ham, who sit inside the bottom three. Focus then switched to the Champions League on Tuesday, but Spurs’ abysmal form persisted as they were hammered 5-2 at Atletico Madrid.
When questioned about how challenging this week has been following the loss to Atletico, Tudor said his team must roll their sleeves up and battle with Liverpool to come on Sunday afternoon. “Tough,” the former Marseille and Juventus boss said.
“For sure. Not just because of the last game but because of the period. Not easy situation, not easy moment. Big challenge to change things. Like everything in life, you can choose how to see the situation.
“You can cry or you can fight. You can be the victim or you can change something. This is the message I communicated to the players. The bottle is either half empty or half full.
“Those who stand up with the courage to change these things will become better people and players afterwards.I said it’s about all of us. Not about all this bull****.”
Tudor then confirmed a double injury setback with Cristian Romero and Joao Palhinha ruled out for the journey to Anfield this weekend. “No they’re out,” Tudor said, when asked about Romero and Palhinha.
“Micky is out. Bissouma has a problem and Conor has a fever but we hope he will be ok. Always something happen. Very rare and I’ve never seen this in my career.”
Romero and Palhinha compound Tottenham’s injury crisis with Wilson Odobert, James Maddison, Dejan Kulusevski, Rodrigo Bentancur, Mohammed Kudus, Ben Davies, Lucas Bergvall, Destiny Udogie the others unavailable.
Following Tottenham’s Premier League trip to Liverpool on Sunday, they subsequently welcome Atletico in the Champions League Round of 16 second leg three days afterwards.