Furious Igor Tudor branded Raul Jimenez a ‘cheat’ and ripped into his Tottenham flops after they extended a winless run to 10 Premier League games.
Spurs crashed to a 2-1 defeat at Fulham to compound their relegation fears and upset their new interim boss.
‘It’s a complicated situation, a lot of problems,’ fumed Tudor. ‘We need to find the voices inside each of us. We need more personality. We need more will to react.
‘So, an amazing situation. Amazing.’
Tudor, who replaced Thomas Frank last month, defended his decision to alter his tactical shape from the back three he deployed in his first game against Arsenal to the 4-4-2 at Fulham.
‘It’s not about system,’ said the 47-year-old Croatian. ‘The system is not important at this moment. The last thing that is important is the system.
Igor Tudor has ripped into his Tottenham players for lacking ‘personality’ after losing to Fulham
The interim head coach also branded Fulham’s Raul Jimenez a ‘cheat’ in the furious rant
Tudor agreed Fulham were the better team, especially in the first half, and deserved to win.
‘It’s very difficult to understand because you have the quality,’ he added. ‘But also football is a sport of running and duels. I have a sensation that Fulham players (are) always running and even with the brain. They arrive before us, they predict and we are always late on everything.’
Tudor was also unhappy about Fulham’s opening goal, scored by Harry Wilson after a push by Jimenez on Radu Dragusin very similar to an incident ruled as a foul when Randal Kolo Muani had a goal ruled out against Arsenal, in the previous game.
‘Of course it’s a foul,’ said Tudor, who said he was too ‘nervous’ to take up the issues with referee Thomas Bramall. ‘Sometimes they don’t understand even small contact is enough if it gives you advantage to score the goal.
‘It’s not a normal duel when he’s soft. He pushes with the hands and doesn’t watch the ball. Sometimes it’s just easy to get advantage. So, this is ridiculous to not give the foul, because the consequence is too big. It’s not a small foul in the middle of the pitch, it is a goal after.
‘Let’s play strong in the duels, fantastic, I like it, but he takes an advantage, he is not thinking about football, not thinking about the ball, he was thinking how to cheat.
‘So, he cheated by pushing and they scored the goal. So, it’s logic, he is cheating and there’s the foul.’
