Igor Tudor has shelved plans to impose his full-throttle brand of football at Tottenham after realising his players are not in good enough physical shape.
Tudor has forged a reputation for an intense, man-to-man, high-pressing tactical style during his 13-year coaching career.
It was part of his appeal for Spurs where fans demand adventure and ambition but just a fortnight and one game into his tenure, he admits this will not be possible with the tired and depleted squad he has inherited.
‘Physically, we are not in an amazing situation,’ said Tudor. ‘They have played lots of games in the last period without lots of players available and the physical condition of the team has dropped down. So, we need to use this period where we don’t play the games to put some petrol in the engine, so the engine starts to work better.
‘They are fatigued and to press high you need to be fit. But all of them. If someone is not in the right shape, there is a problem because someone is coming [pressing] late. And the second thing, is that there is the other goal to protect. It is easy to run there but you need to run back so if you run up and don’t run back it’s a problem.
‘For sure, we will improve and do these things better over time but in this moment it’s a big question what we can do and what we cannot.’
Igor Tudor has revealed that he was shocked by his players’ fitness at this point in the season
Tudor has surprised some Spurs players with some gruelling running sessions in training overseen by the fitness coach he brought with him Riccardo Ragnacci.
‘That’s the only way, running,’ said the Spurs interim boss. ‘The pitch is a hundred yards, it’s long. You need to run. There are habits. Maybe you have habits to work a bit less. Players never like runs without the ball so we put in some runs without the ball.
‘There is no time to think too much about what somebody doesn’t like. And the best thing is that they understand this.’
Tudor’s initial assessment is not dissimilar to predecessors Ange Postecoglou and Thomas Frank, who both concluded that the squad was neither strong nor robust enough to cope when coupled with the expectation to play adventurous, exciting football and attack four competitions.
But the urgency of these circumstances, four points above the relegation zone without a win in nine Premier League games, together with the Croatian’s imposing stature and taciturn delivery gave his message the ring of a chilling wake-up call for his players.
‘There is some pressure here in this club,’ said Tudor. ‘Some players are still young. They were brought here to help and now maybe they are in a moment where they need to solve the problems.
‘If you have too many of these players because of injuries who are playing together it does create some problems, but it is also an opportunity and a challenge to grow fast, to become a man.
‘To grow fast and say, ‘Come on, I’m the guy, give me the ball, I will score’ instead of just, ‘What can I do, I’m just here you know’. This is the challenge for each of them. Why not say, ‘Come on, I will be the guy, give me the ball, I will not cry, I will take the ball, I will defend my box’.
‘It’s always how you see the situation. You can always see it both ways. Or ‘I’m not, I’m just here and we had 15 players and I was always left out and now we have 10 players out, so I play’. How do you really see that situation? If you are the right guy, positive there is opportunity.’
When asked ahead of Sunday’s trip to Fulham if he thought there were enough soldiers for the fight ahead, Tudor said that he hoped and believed there were and promised not to read too far into performances in his first game, a 4-1 defeat against Premier League leaders Arsenal.
‘If you play against the best team in the world, at this moment, for us, I need to be honest, it’s not a realistic game to show we are soldiers or we are not soldiers,’ he said. ‘That’s the truth. For long periods in the game we had problems, in defence especially. It’s not easy against them. Let’s see in the next games.’
