Spurs are sinking towards relegation and, after a disastrous night at Atlético Madrid, are all but out of the Champions League. There is little reason to believe Igor Tudor can save them.
It would be harsh, and frankly wrong, to blame Igor Tudor for the mess at Tottenham.
The problems run far deeper than an interim head coach who, after Tuesday night’s Champions League disaster in Madrid, has become the first manager in the club’s history to lose his first four games in charge.
But with four miserable performances to go with four dreadful results, he has given us little reason to think he is the man to stop this sinking ship from going under.
Perhaps nobody would have been able to avoid defeat against four decent teams with this injury-hit, confidence-stricken and poorly-built squad, but there has been no improvement, in any area, under him.
When he came in, Spurs needed, first and foremost, someone to instil belief in the players, but after four games under him, they now look completely bereft of confidence. The 5-2 defeat at Atlético Madrid this week was the latest – and biggest – nadir in a series of lows for the club, and Tudor has been a central reason for each of them in his time in north London.
As well as clearly failing in his attempts to have the players channel their emotions and motivation into something productive, he has consistently made decisions that have made the task facing them more difficult.
His insistence on sticking with his favoured 3-4-2-1 has been baffling given it so obviously isn’t working. Spurs have scored five goals and conceded 14 in his four games.
And while insisting on playing that shape, he has made plenty of confusing decisions in his team selection. The choice, for example, to field Tottenham’s youngest ever starting XI in a Champions League knockout game (25 years, 24 days) appeared a strange one before kick-off, and the result and performance confirmed as much.
This was a time for experience and nous, but Dominic Solanke (28 years old), Conor Gallagher (26), João Palhinha (30) and, significantly, first-choice goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario (29), all started on the bench.
Those players are far from flawless, but this was not an occasion for experimentation. And experiment is exactly what Tudor did with his selection in goal, with catastrophic consequences.
There was some justification for dropping Vicario, who has endured a poor run of form of late, but bringing in Antonín Kinsky for his Champions League debut in what was his first appearance in five months, in the challenge circumstances of playing away to Atlético Madrid in a knockout game, was indefensible.
Kinsky lasted just 17 minutes, in which time he made two calamitous errors to gift the hosts two entirely avoidable goals, before being hooked by Tudor. The manager did not acknowledge the youngster as he walked off the pitch and down the tunnel, where he was consoled by his teammates.
Kinsky now has the second-worst rate of minutes per error leading to an opposition goal on record in the Champions League (since 2007-08), with one every 8.5 minutes. He is only behind Celtic’s Dane Murray, who played just seven minutes in one appearance in the competition and committed one error (vs Aston Villa last season).
After this loss in Madrid, Tudor insisted his team selection had been justified. “It was, before the game, the right choice to do in the moment like we are, with the pressure on Vicario, another competition. Tony is a very good goalkeeper. It was for me the right decision. After this, of course, it’s easy to say that it was not the right decision.”
He is right in that it’s easy to criticise him after the event. Kinsky’s performance was so disastrous that there is no defending him. It was so far from the quality needed in the Champions League that he almost single-handedly lost Spurs this tie despite playing just 17 out of the 180 minutes.
But his mistakes also weren’t a complete shock. Kinsky has played enough football at Spurs for it to be known that he is a significant downgrade on Vicario. He is better with the ball at his feet – at least, he is supposed to be – but he is also a much, much worse shot-stopper.
Most importantly, though, he was entirely untested at this level, and he came into this game without any kind of warm-up. His previous appearance was in September’s EFL Cup defeat at Newcastle, a game in which, as it happens, he made another mistake by misjudging a cross to gift Nick Woltemade a goal. Vicario started Tottenham’s next 26 games in all competitions after that night.
This trip to Atlético in the Champions League round of 16 was not the occasion to chuck Kinsky in at the deep end, and that was obvious before the event.
Beyond what this result has done to Tottenham, Tudor’s decision to play the 22-year-old may well have set his career back irreversibly. It’s now difficult to imagine him ever playing for Spurs again.
The fate of former Liverpool goalkeeper Loris Karius, who made two huge errors to lose the 2018 Champions League final, comes to mind. The German never played for Liverpool again and is now playing 2. Bundesliga football for Schalke. Kinsky will do well to recover from this low, and while he is far from blameless, it would also be reasonable for him to feel aggrieved that Tudor threw him in for such a tough game completely undercooked.
However, Kinsky’s nightmare has ended up being an afterthought. There is no time for anyone to dwell of the youngster’s future, because Tottenham have a relegation battle to fight. The fact they are in one is not Tudor’s fault, but having guided Spurs to three defeats in three Premier League games in charge, he has provided no indications that he can steer the team out of trouble.
Perhaps nobody will be able to. This team has been on a poor run since long before Tudor arrived. They currently have the worst points-per-game average over any 38-game period in their entire history, with 0.87. It is by far their worst in the Premier League era, as the below graphic shows.
On the evidence of his four matches, it is difficult to make any argument that Tudor has a chance of turning this around. Making a managerial change after so few games might seem drastic, but there is surely more hope of somebody else steadying the ship than there appears to be under him.
Spurs have winnable games in the run-in, though they should not feel that their fate is already decided. They host Nottingham Forest, Leeds, Brighton and Everton, while also travelling to Wolves and Sunderland. On paper, they should hope to get something from any one of those games. According to the Opta Power Rankings, Tottenham have the sixth-easiest remaining fixtures of all Premier League teams.
But unless something drastic changes in their performances, Spurs will be playing in the Championship next season, and they may well need a new manager to improve their form and avoid the unthinkable.
They are one of only six ever-present Premier League clubs, having last played second-tier football back in 1977-78. That is the only season they have played outside the top flight since 1950. Spurs’ history suggests they belong in the top flight, but under Tudor, relegation is looking increasingly and worryingly likely. They have now lost six consecutive games for the first time in their entire history.
Their nightmare in Madrid needs to be forgotten, consigned to the past. There is very, very little chance of progressing past Atlético now – just 3.2% according to the Opta supercomputer – but in all honesty, that is the least of their worries.
Tottenham need to focus on avoiding relegation, and Tudor has given little reason to believe he is the man to help them steer clear of yet more catastrophe. It looks very much like it is time for another managerial change.
Enjoy this? Subscribe to our football newsletter to receive exclusive weekly content. You should also follow our social accounts over on X, Instagram, TikTok and Facebook.
Maybe Nobody Can Fix Tottenham, But Igor Tudor Definitely Can’t Opta Analyst.
Hence then, the article about maybe nobody can fix tottenham but igor tudor definitely can t was published today ( ) and is available on The Analyst ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Maybe Nobody Can Fix Tottenham, But Igor Tudor Definitely Can’t )
Also on site :
- Telford man to face trial after denying multiple child sex charges
- Bam Adebayo has massive night for Miami Heat, scoring 2nd-most points in a game ever
- World Heritage Sites Hit in Airstrikes on Iran