Igor Tudor has revealed that he has really taken to a Tottenham midfielder and a striker in his first two weeks at Hotspur Way as he finally looks to get a reaction from the playing squad in their battle against relegation.
The Croatian coach has had just a little over two weeks in the hot seat, and the size of the challenge ahead has already become clear to him.
Tottenham now sit just a point off the relegation zone, and they have 10 Premier League games remaining to avoid disaster.
Tudor is quickly learning about the personalities, as well as the strengths and weaknesses, of his players, and there are a couple of them he has already taken to.
Igor Tudor is a fan of ‘sensible’ Tottenham midfielder
Conor Gallagher has seen Thomas Frank, the manager who signed him from Atletico Madrid in January be sacked just a few weeks after he arrived at N17.
However, thankfully for the former Chelsea man, it appears that the new interim boss is also a fan, with Tudor insisting that the midfielder has ‘amazing skills’, both offensively and defensively.
Tudor said about Gallagher (via Football.London): He’s a very sensible guy. A fantastic person and a very good player. I like him very much as a player. He’s a player who has amazing skills in both directions. I saw him this week better [in training]. He can give us what we need with his experience, his quality, his knowledge. He’s working good. He can be [a leader].”
The Croatian played the England international wide on the right against Fulham, and Tudor admitted that the choice had been forced on him due to the team’s current injury situation.
The former Juventus boss said: “We need to adapt sometimes the players who are not [natural to certain positions], but he played as a winger in Atletico. A winger who is a little bit inside. We don’t have anyone. We have problems with the players. So sometimes someone needs to adapt a little bit their position to do it. When you have this emergency, someone needs to do something.”
Tudor reveals what he likes most about Richarlison
We also saw Richarlison find the back of the net on his return to the side on Sunday, with the Brazilian’s goal tally up to nine across all competitions.
Tudor praised Tottenham’s top scorer this season and is confident that he will contribute during the team’s final run-in.
When asked about Richarlison, he said: “I like the guy, I like him. It’s simpatico, it’s a guy who is always interesting to speak with him, of his style of speaking. Fantastic player, fantastic player, he can play all positions, with two strikers, with three. So, he will give us something for sure in the next games.”