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Igor Tudor described the situation Tottenham find themselves in as “amazing” and suggested they have just three major problems as they fight relegation: the attack, the midfield and the defence. Spurs’ 2-1 defeat at Fulham was their fourth in a row in the league and leaves them four points above the relegation zone.
“I cannot tell you anything new,” said a downbeat Tudor. “We need to find the forces inside each of us. I said to the players: ‘It’s always what you’re going to do, what you want to do with yourself,’ you know? More personality, more wish to do before reacting, plenty of things … We are lacking when we attack, we lack the quality to score the goal. We are lacking in the middle to run and we are lacking behind to stay there to suffer and not concede the goal. So, an amazing situation. Amazing.”
Insisting the 4-4-2 formation he selected was not the problem – “It’s not about systems at the moment” – Tudor accused his players of lacking “brain”. “They arrive before us,” he said. “They predict and we are always late on everything. That’s the problem.”
It was striking how deflated Tottenham’s interim manager seemed compared with his relatively bullish demeanour after last week’s 4-1 home defeat by Arsenal. He spoke of “big problems” at the club that ran beyond attitude or commitment, although it might have been different had Spurs not conceded after seven minutes, Harry Wilson volleying in – but only after Raúl Jiménez had got away with a slight push on Radu Dragusin that looked very similar to the contact for which Randal Kolo Muani had a goal ruled out last week.
Tudor said he was too upset to speak to the referee, Thomas Bramall, about the incident. “It was so obvious,” he said. “They don’t understand that even a small contact – a push with the hands when you didn’t touch the ball, it’s an easy way to get an advantage. It’s ridiculous to not give the foul, because the consequences are so big. It’s not a small foul in the middle of the pitch – it’s a goal because he takes advantage not thinking about the football but about how to cheat. It’s logic: he’s cheating so it’s a foul.”
Marco Silva was understandably delighted with a win that lifts Fulham into the top half. The Fulham manager said: “The amount of chances we created, the score doesn’t reflect our superiority.” He had particular praise for the centre-back Issa Diop, who was a late call-up after Joachim Andersen was ruled out with illness. “He was at home last night,” Silva said, “not even in the hotel. But he’s a top professional.”
