Interim Tottenham coach Igor Tudor has admitted he is facing a tough task in steering Spurs away from the relegation zone.
The Croatian arrived in north London with a reputation for quick turnarounds, having guided Juventus and Lazio into European places and previously kept Udinese in the top flight. But after a heavy 4-1 home defeat to Arsenal in his first game in charge, the scale of the task became clear.
Spurs sit just four points above the bottom three and have yet to win a league match in 2026.
“If I recognised the difficulties there are, probably yes,” Tudor said when asked if this was his biggest job. “It’s an even bigger motivation that we do it.”
With a trip to Fulham on Sunday, Tudor made it clear survival was the only focus.
“There’s not too much time to think about performance or style,” he explained. “Every game needs to be prepared in that way: how are we going to take the points? One way or the other way.
“The style is second because it’s a question of life and death, sportingly.”
He added that his players must adopt what in Italy is known as “the mentality of a small team” – matching bigger sides with hunger and discipline.
Tudor also admitted Spurs’ involvement in the UEFA Champions League was “not an ideal situation” given their league position, especially with a thin squad.
“If you need to play every three days with 10, 12, 13 players, it’s not only physical energy but mental energy,” he said. “Every game for us in the league is a final.”
There was positive injury news. Pedro Porro and Kevin Danso returned to training and were in contention to face Fulham, while Tudor remained hopeful Dejan Kulusevski could play again before the end of the season.
The Spurs boss also dismissed suggestions that Micky van de Ven had ignored his instructions during the Arsenal defeat.
“It was not an instruction to Micky, it was an instruction to the team to go up,” Tudor said. “We didn’t even speak about this because there’s nothing to speak about. He’s a fantastic guy, very good professional. He’d never do those things.”
For Tudor, the message was simple: hard work and points matter more than style.
