Tudor issues rallying call to Spurs: 'You can cry or you can fight'
Interim Tottenham manager Igor Tudor said his beleaguered team must stand up and "fight" if they are to avoid the embarrassment of relegation from the Premier League.
Tudor has lost all four of his matches since taking charge last month, during a club-record run of six straight defeats in all competitions.
Spurs are just one point above the relegation zone ahead of Sunday's daunting trip to Liverpool and are at risk of dropping out of England's top division for the first time since 1977.
Tudor's men were hammered 5-2 in the Champions League at Atletico Madrid in midweek after a series of calamities.
Goalkeeper Antonin Kinsky was substituted early in his Champions League debut after gifting Atletico two goals, either side of a slip from Micky van de Ven that presented Antoine Griezmann with the Spaniards' second goal.
"You can cry or you can fight," said Tudor on Friday, after surviving calls for his dismissal this week.
"You can be the victim or you can say 'I can change something' and this is the message I want to start with and what I communicate with the players."
To add to Tottenham's woes, a sickening head clash between captain Cristian Romero and Joao Palhinha in the final seconds in Madrid has ruled both out of the trip to Anfield due to concussion protocols.
Van de Ven also misses out due to suspension after being sent off in a 3-1 defeat to Crystal Palace last week.
Yves Bissouma has joined the club's lengthy list of absentees due to injury, alongside a clutch of players including James Maddison, Dejan Kulusevski and Mohammed Kudus.
"We have a lot of problems to make a first eleven. This is how it is at this club," said Tudor. "We start to build something and then something happens like a red card in the last game or three or four injuries.
"It is very rare, I have never had this situation in my career where you have two players missing every game. It is very unusual but you have to accept this and try and change the things we can change."
The former Juventus boss was criticised for his decision to throw Kinsky into the lion's den of the Metropolitano stadium and then his failure to acknowledge the 23-year-old as he left the field.
Former Manchester United goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel said he had "killed" the Czech under-21 international's career.
Tudor defended the call to give Kinsky a chance to shine but confirmed that normal number one Guglielmo Vicario would start against Liverpool.