Igor Tudor has hit back with a furious admission following Tottenham's 5-2 defeat at Atletico Madrid and confirmed a new injury blow ahead of this weekend's trip to Liverpool
Igor Tudor has claimed that he is not about "all this bull***" when assessing Tottenham's dire form and has called on his players to "stand up" ahead of Sunday's trip to Liverpool.
Tudor, 47, has endured a nightmare start to life in north London, losing each of his first four matches since replacing Thomas Frank as the club's head coach. The Croatian signed a contract until the end of the season but he is under serious pressure after failing to turn Tottenham's fortunes around.
Losses against Arsenal, Fulham and Crystal Palace have left Spurs in serious relegation danger near the bottom of the Premier League table, with Tudor's side 16th and one point above Nottingham Forest in 17th and 18th-place West Ham, who sit inside the bottom three. Attention then turned to the Champions League on Tuesday, but Spurs' dismal form continued as they were thrashed 5-2 at Atletico Madrid.
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When asked about how difficult this week has been after the defeat to Atletico, Tudor said his team must roll their sleeves and fight with Liverpool to come on Sunday afternoon. "Tough," the ex-Marseille and Juventus manager said. "For sure. Not just because of the last game but because of the period.
"Not easy situation, not easy moment. Big challenge to change things. Like everything in life, you can choose how to see the situation. You can cry or you can fight. You can be the victim or you can change something. This is the message I communicated to the players. The bottle is either half empty or half full.
"Those who stand up with the courage to change these things will become better people and players afterwards. I said it's about all of us. Not about all this bull****."
Tudor then confirmed a double injury blow with Cristian Romero and Joao Palhinha ruled out for the trip to Anfield this weekend. "No they're out," Tudor said, when asked about Romero and Palhinha.
"Micky is out. Bissouma has a problem and Conor has a fever but we hope he will be ok. Always something happen. Very rare and I've never seen this in my career."
Romero and Palhinha add to Tottenham's injury woes with Wilson Odobert, James Maddison, Dejan Kulusevski, Rodrigo Bentancur, Mohammed Kudus, Ben Davies, Lucas Bergvall, Destiny Udogie the others sidelined.
After Tottenham's Premier League trip to Liverpool on Sunday, they then host Atletico in the Champions League Round of 16 second leg three days later.