Tottenham Hotspur’s 3-0 home defeat to Nottingham Forest means the position of Igor Tudor may now be untenable.
Tottenham Hotspur’s survival bid took another blow on Sunday as they were beaten 3-0 by Nottingham Forest at home.
Spurs had been the better team in the first half at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, but it was the visitors who took the lead right at the stroke of half time. Igor Jesus headed home from a corner to silence the Tottenham fans. Nottingham Forest doubled that lead through Morgan Gibbs-White after the interval, and the Lilywhites could not respond before Taiwo Awoniyi scored a third in the 87th-minute.
To make the afternoon worse, the fans felt that Igor Tudor’s side had picked up a new injury. Micky van de Ven appeared to suffer a knock during the first half of the game. The defender collided with an advertising board and wasn’t able to move freely afterwards. The Dutchman, who surprised the supporters by starting at left-back, was replaced at half time by Destiny Udogie.
Bruno Saltor reveals reason behind Micky van de Ven’s substitution at half time
Micky van de Ven started at left-back in a flat back four. He struggled to cope with Omari Hutchinson’s trickery and directness, especially after sustaining a knock. When the players came out of the tunnel for the second half, the centre-back was not spotted. Instead, it was Destiny Udogie and Lucas Bergvall that entered the fray, with the latter replacing Djed Spence.
Speaking after the game, assistant coach Bruno Saltor gave the reason behind Van de Ven’s substitution. The Spaniard, who covered the media duties for Igor Tudor, said (h/t Football London):
“No, it was a sub with the intention to give more dynamic in the left side and have more legs going forward. And yeah, I thought that was like a tactical sub.”
Udogie replacing Van de Ven led to a shift to a back three, but it did not pay off for the hosts as Forest scored two goals in the second half and comfortably won the game. To put things straight, Tudor got his team selection horribly wrong on Sunday. Playing Van de Ven at left-back was one of the worst decisions he made, similar to playing Pedro Porro in a back three vs. Crystal Palace.
The Croatian understood he got his decision to use Van de Ven at left-back totally wrong and tried to rectify it at half time. Udogie didn’t pull up trees either, but being a natural left-back, he actually gave some stability and width that was lacking.
Nonetheless, the defeat to Forest further exposed how tactically limited Tudor is, and he must leave.