Igor Tudor has implored Tottenham’s players to get out of their comfort zone as the threat of relegation looms ever larger.
Spurs could find themselves in the Premier League relegation zone by the time they kick off against Liverpool at Anfield on Sunday, with West Ham and Nottingham Forest both playing before them.
West Ham host Manchester City in the late kick-off on Saturday evening, while Forest take on Fulham at the City Ground on Sunday afternoon.
It leaves Spurs facing the very real prospect of dropping into the bottom three for the first time this season as they try to avoid being relegated to the second division for the first time since 1977.
Tudor has faced criticism for his tough love approach with Spurs’ squad, questioning, among other things, their fitness and commitment, as relations have appeared to fray during a disastrous three-week spell at the helm.
Asked whether his players should be able to handle his combative style, Tudor said he was not intending to criticise, but rather advise his squad to become better players.
“It’s not criticism. I give advice. It’s not about criticising players. We are together. It’s not that I say to you: ‘You are not good, you need to do this.’ It’s not about that,” Tudor said.
“It’s about you making them understand that this is advice for you to become a better player, and when you become a better player, we become a better team.
“It’s about accepting this, which is something not easy because it’s easy to stay in comfort zone. When you stay in comfort zone, you don’t change.
“So it’s a lot of time about that – to be ready to get out of the comfort zone and thinking it’s also about you why we are here.
“That’s the main thing that the coach needs to arrive to the player.”
Confidence has drained from Spurs’ squad, as evidenced by their error-strewn performance away to Atletico Madrid in the first leg of their Champions League round of 16 tie on Tuesday, and they have now lost six consecutive games in all competitions for the first time in the club’s history.
Mistakes from stand-in goalkeeper Antonin Kinsky and centre-back Micky van de Ven effectively killed the tie dead inside 15 minutes against Atletico, but Tudor is adamant he saw positives from his side’s performance and said mistakes were part of the game, but something they would have to learn from.
“I can say that apart from those 15 minutes [against Atletico], I saw progress. I saw more compactness, more quality in the play, more structure, more energy. Good pressing. So apart from that [the 15 minutes] it was an equal game,” Tudor continued.
I saw progress. I saw more compactness, more quality in the play, more structure, more energy
“This can sound now very strange, but it’s the truth. So we were there second-half trying to do our things, which is not easy because psychologically what happened in 15 minutes will kill everyone.
“Instead, I repeat, not easy to say after what happened but this is true. So when we start … and I think I said this even before this game … I will repeat it – when we start not doing mistakes we start to win.
“Football is a game of mistakes, so when you do mistakes, you lose the points. So we need to stop doing mistakes. When we start doing this we start to perform better. We will have more confidence, we will start to win.”
