Igor Tudor has described Tottenham Hotspur’s situation as “an emergency”, as the interim head coach prepares for a 12-game rescue mission in the Premier League – starting with Sunday’s north London derby against Arsenal.
Tudor is a specialist in short-term fixes – in 12 previous coaching jobs, he has only been hired before the start of the season three times – and succeeds Thomas Frank with Spurs five points above the relegation zone after one win in their last 12 league games.
The 47-year-old, who was sacked by Juventus in October, says he is “100 per cent” confident that Spurs will still be in the top flight next season.
While results are all important, there will also be focus on Spurs’ style of play under the Croatian after supporters quickly grew frustrated by the team’s cautious approach when Frank was in charge.
Asked about the importance of style at his first press conference on Friday, Tudor said: “Style of play comes from pre-season when you have 50 days in pre-season and you have 20 players.
“But now this is an emergency, an emergency situation when you need to find (out) fast what suits the ten plus three players (we have available) and it’s totally different.
“It’s also a problem because you cannot now go and say that you have five or six things that you want to achieve. One, two, three (things) maybe.
“But let’s see what we can do. If you ask me what we are going to see on Sunday, then I believe something concrete, good that the people will like.”
Tudor has arrived at Spurs amid a crippling injury crisis and is set to have just 13 senior players available this weekend, although he confirmed that forward Richarlison is set to be among them after recovering from a hamstring injury.
“This very rare situation that you find with 10 players injured, with big injuries also,” Tudor said. “We made training with 13 players. It is how it is. It is not fantastic (or) beautiful but in this case it’s an even bigger challenge to succeed and come out of this situation.
“Thirteen players we will have for sure and it’s quite enough to achieve what we want on Sunday. And…of course I understand the importance of this game, this is a derby, a north London derby. Everybody expects the three points from us. We are aware of this.
“But what was my goal in this first (training) sessions we made is that we became a team. That we became a team with a really right way of going to war, a team who want to suffer, we need to suffer – to fight, to run, to have the right mentality.”
Striker Dominic Solanke is expected to be available against Arsenal despite a throat infection but the game will come too soon for Pedro Porro, who is expected to return from a hamstring injury next week.