Tottenham: Igor Tudor calls on 'soldiers' after inheriting unique situation | OneFootball

Tottenham’s interim head coach is facing a pivotal week with the side hovering over the Premier League relegation zone

We are only one game into Igor Tudor’s reign as Tottenham head coach yet already this feels like a pivotal week in his interim stewardship.

Four points ahead of 18th place West Ham and off the back of a humbling 4-1 defeat to Arsenal in the north London Derby, Tudor is already beginning to feel the pressure.

The Croat has quickly become accustomed to the same issues that befell his predecessors.

Spurs’ players are not physically fit enough, as per Tudor’s own admission, while he believes his strong opinions regarding the club’s injury crisis, are best kept to himself.

Tudor is learning that while he has built a reputation on getting immediate results in trying circumstances at his previous clubs, he has inherited a uniquely difficult situation at Spurs.

The task on his hands is, he admits, already more difficult than he anticipated.

“Yes, (the job is) very tough, but it's what I said before, I don't change my opinion, it is how it is,” Tudor said in his pre-match press conference on Thursday.

“So, daily work, focus, raising in all things we need to do, physical condition, mental confidence, performance and waiting for the players to come back.

“So, we need to be focused on us, what we can do, less thinking about others, that's always good and it will be good.”

Igor Tudor’s first game as Tottenham head coach was a 4-1 loss in the north London derby

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This is a team missing as many as nine first team players through injury and suspension, without a league win in 2026 and coming to terms with the idea of potentially being relegated to the second division for the first time since 1977.

Tudor has so far been stern in the face of relegation talk, Spurs should not be afraid of their league standing he said in his pre match press conference on Thursday.

Underneath the bravado, though, there will be a genuine worry that if he can’t get his squad playing the aggressive high-pressing style he wants, then Spurs could be in real danger.

The return of defenders Pedro Porro and Kevin Danso ahead of today’s trip to Fulham offers Tudor some balance in defence as well as some hope that his side’s injury issues will improve over the coming weeks.

Hope more so than expectation is driving Spurs supporters right now, but they will expect to see a drastically improved performance from the one they witnessed last weekend.

Tudor says he has not made his side watch back any of the clips from their defeat to Arsenal, such is his desire to draw a line under his first game in charge and look ahead to the final 11 games of the season.

A performance as disjointed as the one they produced against Mikel Arteta’s men is not easily forgotten, though, and Tudor says the only way to remedy a run of form that has seen them win two of their last 18 league games is by training relentlessly.

So, we need to be focused on us, what we can do, less thinking about others, that's always good and it will be good

Igor Tudor

“I believe that the mentality changes by training,” Tudor added.

“By doing the right things there and then to have enough training sessions that you can transmit this thing to your team that on Sunday this can be seen from the fans on the stadium.

“So, that's the key. Hard work in other ways, there is no other possibility.”

Tudor has acknowledged that Spurs need “soldiers” and “men” if they are to steer away from the relegation zone, and he “does not know” if the club’s younger players are ready to step up as the pressure intensifies.

Tudor is steely, a clear communicator even if his English is broken, but it is clear even he has been taken aback by all the uncertainty around the club right now.

Tudor has been forthright in his assessment of Spurs’ problems, yet it seems he is still holding something back.

What Tudor truly thinks of Spurs’ situation may become clearer as the season draws to a close.

For now, though, he knows the only thing that matters is getting points on the board.