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Tottenham star Yves Bissouma admits that the club face a “big emergency” after they slipped to a disheartening defeat to Fulham that increases their Premier League relegation anxieties.
There has been nothing even remotely resembling a new manager bounce since Igor Tudor took over from Thomas Frank, with a pair of defeats in London derbies from his opening two matches – a 4-1 shellacking at the hands of bitter rivals Arsenal followed by a 2-1 loss to the Cottagers.
Thankfully for Spurs, Nottingham Forest and West Ham also both lost at the weekend but they still lie 16th in the table, just four points above the relegation zone and are without a victory in 10 Premier League matches – equalling the club record set back in 1993-94.
There had been talk that Tottenham might be ‘too big to go down’ but midfielder Bissouma has acknowledged the depth of concern around the club.
“We lost again,” said Bissouma after the Fulham defeat. “It is not easy, especially for us, for the club. It is not good for everyone.
“We know this is a big emergency. We need to change a lot of things, we need to put effort into the game to try and win games. At the moment, it is just hard.”
Speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live, pundit Chris Sutton responded to those words by Bissouma: “If you’re a Spurs fan and listening to that Bissouma interview, there are alarm bells ringing. They are in real danger of going down.”
A listless Tottenham were outclassed by Fulham for the first hour of the game at Craven Cottage and deservedly trailed 2-0 to goals from Harry Wilson and Alex Iwobi. A triple substitution seemed to spark Spurs and Richarlison pulled a goal back with 25 minutes remaining but they couldn’t find a way to snatch a point.
Tudor shifted from his usual 3-4-2-1 system to a flat back-four formation against Fulham but hit out at suggestions those tactical tweaks cost the north Londoners.
“It’s not about system,” he insisted. “System is not important at this moment. The last thing that is important is the system.
“It is a confidence problem, it’s not about systems. I don’t want to speak about relegation all the time – I give the same answer, my answer is always the same.
“We don’t need to think about that [relegation], not because it cannot happen, but we must focus on growing mentality as a team, concentration, physically.”
“We need to find forces inside each of us, where are we going to go? When we attack, we lack the quality to score the goals. I want to see everything more, more personality, more wish to do things. We were not good, lacked everything. Attacking and defending, Fulham were much better.”
Spurs are injury-bitten at the moment, with 10 players missing against the Cottagers. Captain Cristian Romero was suspended and key individuals like Destiny Udogie, Lucas Bergvall, Mohammed Kudus, James Maddison and Dejan Kulusevski are all injured.
Pedro Porro and Kevin Danso returned from injury to feature at Fulham but Tottenham won’t get anyone else back before Thursday’s crunch fixture at home to Crystal Palace.
“The situation was complicated because we know how many players (are out),” added Tudor. “Now the players are coming back.
“One thing is when you have a complete team then you can choose. One situation is when you cannot choose, you know, because you need to choose the quality to score the goal.
“You need to have quality players to score the goal because you cannot defend all the time. When you are in a bad moment, you select the players but then you lack defending, running and winning the duels.
“So, what to do? That’s the big question in the future to choose what is right for this team. To find a formula of what we want to be and what we can be in this moment.
“That’s very difficult to understand, that’s the thing. To understand because you have the quality, but also football is a sport of running and duels.
“I have a sensation that Fulham players were always running and even with the brain. They arrive before us, they predict and we are always late on everything. That’s the problem.”