Five reasons Igor Tudor is the perfect man for Tottenham, and two big concerns - opinion
Igor Tudor has 12 games to save Tottenham’s Premier League status, and there are plenty of reasons to believe he’s the right man for the job.
The search for a new manager didn’t last long at Spurs, with Thomas Frank sacked on Wednesday morning and Igor Tudor brought in on Saturday.
With Spurs sitting in 16th place in the Premier League table and just five points above the relegation zone, the pressure is on the Croatian.
There are winners and losers in the wake of Tudor’s arrival, but hopefully, Tottenham as a club can thrive over the next four or five months and be in a much better place come the summer.
Here, we have five reasons why we’re feeling positive about Tudor, and two niggling concerns.
Why Igor Tudor is perfect for Tottenham
He has big-club experience
Throughout his managerial career, Tudor has coached the likes of Juventus, Galatasaray, Marseille, and Lazio. They are some of the biggest clubs in Europe, all with very passionate, demanding fanbases. He knows how to handle that pressure, and that will be key to him being a success at Spurs.
Tudor can fix clubs
If we look more closely at Tudor’s career, he has a great track record in short-term projects. In fact, the longer he is at a club, the worse things get. But, when Tudor is tasked with fixing clubs in the immediate, he does really well. His record in the first few games at Juventus was great, for example, and hopefully he can experience a similar bounce at Tottenham.
His formation works for Tottenham right now
We know Tudor’s preferred formation is a 3-4-2-1, which is a drastic change for Spurs, but that’s a good thing. For a start, whatever we’ve been doing for the past eight months has not been working, so change is needed.
More specifically, the fact that he doesn’t use wingers is really useful, seen as Spurs don’t have any fit wide players right now. When the likes of Mohammed Kudus come back, it’ll be another matter for Tudor to solve, but for now, the squad actually works for the system he’ll employ.
Tudor’s no-nonsense style is needed
One of the main issues with Thomas Frank, if we’re being honest, is that he just seemed to be too soft. At least in the media, he did not demand enough from his players and it felt like the standards of this football club took a massive hit.
Igor Tudor is the exact opposite. He sounds desperate to win at all costs, and we know from his past managerial spells — and indeed, his playing career — that he is not a man who will shy away from telling people what they need to hear and taking action to resolve things. This Spurs squad needs that kind of no-nonsense approach right now; they need to wake up and fight, and Tudor will demand just that.
Randal Kolo Muani can benefit from Tudor at Tottenham
After struggling this season, we could see Randal Kolo Muani thrive under Igor Tudor. They worked together at Juventus, and Kolo Muani excelled there. If Tudor can figure out how best to utilise the Frenchman here, it’ll be like having a new signing.
Downsides to the Tudor appointment
He has no Premier League experience
It may or may not be an issue, but Igor Tudor does not have any Premier League experience. On the one hand, that means he may need some time to get used to the demands of the game and to better understand the different challenges each time bring.
However, there’s also a good argument that it won’t matter at all. Thomas Frank had plenty of Premier League experience and look how that worked out. Also, Arne Slot came in last season and won the league with Liverpool in his first season in England. So, hopefully it’s not an issue at all, but it is a concern for now.
Does Tudor really care about long-term Tottenham success?
Again, this really shouldn’t be an issue, but there’s always the concern that an interim manager simply won’t care as much as someone who’s signed on for the long-term. Tudor is here for five months, and has already been told he won’t be staying on beyond the summer unless something incredible happens between now and then.
He’ll have no interest in the long-term development of players, is unlikely to enact any real changes on a large scale behind the scenes in terms of how the club operates, and at the end of the day, he could feasibly walk away from this job without a care in the world, regardless of what happens in the next 12 games.
Obviously, Tudor will want to protect (and even enhance) his own reputation. Being involved in the relegation of one of the Premier League ever-presents and a member of the Big Six would naturally harm his chances of getting another job. We have to believe that, even if he is only here for a few months, Tudor will care deeply about how he does at Spurs. But there must be a slight difference in mentality, even subconsciously.
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