Igor Tudor Faces Biggest Test of His Career as Tottenham Fight to Halt Collapse

• Spurs winless in nine league games after heavy Arsenal defeat
• Tudor admits scale of task but insists training ground work will bring improvement
• Defensive reinforcements set to return ahead of Fulham trip

Tottenham Hotspur interim head coach Igor Tudor has admitted that his current role represents the biggest challenge of his managerial career, as Spurs battle to arrest a dramatic slide in form.

Tudor was drafted in during the winter after a damaging sequence of results left Tottenham’s Premier League campaign in serious trouble. His first match in charge ended in a chastening 4-1 home defeat by Arsenal, extending Spurs’ winless league run to nine matches and leaving them with just two victories from their last 18 games in the division.

Asked whether this was the toughest rescue mission he had faced, Tudor was candid in his assessment.

“Probably, if I see, if I recognise the difficulties there are, probably, yes,” he said. “It’s even a bigger challenge, even a bigger motivation to do this and we do it.”

The former Juventus coach admitted the task has proven harder than anticipated, but remains convinced that focused work on the training ground can deliver improvement ahead of Sunday’s London derby away to Fulham.

“Probably yes. Yes, very tough, but it’s what I said before, I don’t change my opinion,” Tudor explained. “Daily work, focus, raising in all things we need to do, physical condition, mental confidence, performance and waiting for the players to come back.

“We need to be focused on us, what we can do, less thinking about others, that’s always good and it will be good.”

Tottenham will discover their Champions League round of 16 opponents on Friday, with either Atlético Madrid or Galatasaray awaiting them. However, Tudor insisted the draw would not distract him from the immediate priorities.

“I don’t think too much about the draw,” he said. “If you ask me whether I expect the draw tomorrow, it won’t change for me nothing.”

The Croatian will be encouraged by the return of defender Kevin Danso and full back Pedro Porro for the trip to Craven Cottage. The pair could line up alongside Micky van de Ven, who has faced scrutiny following a social media clip suggesting he ignored instructions to push up against Arsenal.

Tudor was keen to defuse the issue, stressing it was a collective instruction rather than criticism of an individual.

“It was not an instruction to Micky, it was an instruction to the team to go up,” he said. “We want to go up because we want to have this style where we press high, but in this moment it’s too much for them.

“We didn’t even speak about this me and Micky because there was nothing to speak about. He’s a fantastic guy, a very good professional and he would never do these things.”

With reinforcements returning and fixtures tightening, Tudor’s immediate challenge is clear. Restore belief, steady results and guide Tottenham away from a season spiralling out of control.