Igor Tudor will take on Arsenal in North London derby action in his first match in charge of Tottenham Hotspur.
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Tottenham Hotspur interim boss Igor Tudor faces the tricky task of going up against league leaders Arsenal in his first match in charge of the side following the sacking of Thomas Frank.
The 47-year-old has been handed the hotseat until the end of the season and is tasked with steering Spurs away from a relegation battle. Tudor needs to get points on the board soon and a first clash with the Gunners is not an easy outing.
Spurs had seen their character as a squad criticised under Frank with the former Brentford manager struggling to maintain harmony within his team. Club captain Cristian Romero lashed out at the club’s fitness problems in Frank’s final week of tenure, before picking up a silly red card against Manchester United.
Mikel Arteta and Arsenal may be licking their lips at the prospect of facing an out-of-sorts Spurs but, according to one former Spurs academy star, the Gunners could be up against a new-look Tottenham.
Tottenham players will ‘run through brick walls’ for interim boss Igor Tudor
William Troost-Ekong came through the academy at Spurs but never made a first team appearance. He played under Tudor at Udinese and has said that the manager will have the squad ‘running through brick walls’ for him, in an enticing verdict.
He told talkSPORT: “He's a manager who likes to play 3-5-2, or a variation of it, of course, attacking football, a high back line, tries to press high, can be quite direct. He's definitely also someone who's not intimidated by anything like that. So, a big personality, and he's going to get everyone trying to run through a brick wall."
Tudor himself has given a first full interview to the club this week ahead of Sunday’s meeting with Arsenal. He said: “The first priority is to give everything the team needs in these moments. The team needs, I believe, first of all, to get some confidence, to get some courage, but also in the same way, the concrete things in the pitch.
“Of course, I'm coming here knowing the situation. There is no time to find excuses. What I said from the first day here, each of us, each of the players, needs to give something, something more, something extra, because the position of the Club in this moment is not (one) that anybody can accept - every fan of Tottenham (Hotspur) cannot accept the situation. We are aware of that, but it's not enough to just be aware of that.”
“The situation is not easy because, as you know better than me, we have a lot of injured players, so, we need first to find the best system that suits the players that are available at this moment. So, (it is) a very particular moment.
“Maybe this can sound strange, but I believe that the thing that we need to be focused on is the training. So, the training from today, that's the key, because, as I always like to say, Sunday and the game is a consequence of the training. So, that needs to be focused. The coach needs to show the path, where is the way we want to go, how we want to go, and the players need to accept this and together we, in this way, we prepare - preparing during the week is the best thing for Sunday.”
In other news, Sam Allardyce demands Igor Tudor to axe 'flawed' Tottenham player given free pass by Thomas Frank.