Igor Tudor defended his tactical tweaks after Tottenham’s 2-1 loss at Fulham but promised to find a winning formula for his faltering group.
Tudor defends new Spurs system
Injury-hit Spurs are without a victory in 10 Premier League matches, which has equalled a club record set back in the 1993-94 campaign.
Tottenham were second-best for an hour at Craven Cottage and while a triple substitution by Tudor sparked a late rally, they slipped to another defeat. The Croatian had moved away from his favoured 3-4-2-1 system to a flat back-four formation against Fulham.
Pushed to explain why he made that decision, Tudor insisted: “It’s not about system. System is not important at this moment. The last thing that is important is the system.”
Tottenham were without 10 players for this London derby with captain Cristian Romero still suspended and multiple key individuals like Destiny Udogie, Lucas Bergvall, Mohammed Kudus, James Maddison and Dejan Kulusevski sidelined.
Pedro Porro and Kevin Danso returned from injury to feature at Fulham, but Spurs are not set to get anyone back for Thursday’s crunch fixture at home to Crystal Palace.
At a time when Tottenham are low on options and short of goals, the midweek return of Europa League hero Brennan Johnson, who was sold for £35million at the start of January, will be a painful reminder of the club’s poor winter transfer window business.
“The situation was complicated because we know how many players (are out),” Tudor reflected.
“Now the players are coming back. One thing is when you have a complete team then you can choose. One situation is when you cannot choose, you know, because you need to choose the quality to score the goal.
“You need to have quality players to score the goal otherwise you cannot defend all the time, but when you are in a bad moment, you put the players, but then you lack defending and running and winning the duels.
“So, what to do? That’s the big question in the future to choose what is right for this team. To find a formula of what we want to be and what we can be in this moment.
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“That’s very difficult to understand, that’s the thing. To understand because you have the quality, but also football is a sport of running and duels.
“I have a sensation that Fulham players were always running and even with the brain. They arrive before us, they predict and we are always late on everything. That’s the problem.”
Gold names Spurs star who must start vs Crystal Palace
Speaking on his YouTube channel, Alasdair Gold said Tudor’s system did not work until he brought on some width, namely Mathys Tel.
“Mathys Tel, when he brings him on, 20 years old, he’s only started six Premier League games, which is mad when you think about the impact he’s made a lot of the time.
“He must be wondering, when he looks at the pecking order, looks at the dreadful season they’ve had, he must be thinking, ‘what have they done to be ahead of me?’
“Yes he can occasionally just run head first into a cluster of opposition players, but I would say on the main he’s a player who brings the unpredictable, and that’s a nightmare for opposition defenders.
“As soon as he was on, they started to have problems. He can stay wide, he can cut inside, and he’s got something the other players don’t have – belief,” Gold explained, before adding a message to Tudor.
“If he does not start vs Palace it’s utterly ridiculous.”