Tudor: Danso fit for Palace, but no news on Spence, Udogie, Kulusevski
· Yahoo Sports
Tottenham Hotspur play another critical Premier League match tomorrow, hosting Crystal Palace at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. It’s another big opportunity to pick up some points at their fellow relegation-threatened clubs’ expense, but they’ll need to play well and actually score some goals to get a result.
Interim head coach Igor Tudor faced the media again in his regular pre-match press conference and gave an injury update ahead of tomorrow’s match. The good news is that Kevin Danso will again be available for selection after he returned for a late cameo in Sunday’s loss at Fulham. The bad news is that there’s NO news about Djed Spence, out with a knock, or Dejan Kulusevski, who is reportedly training on grass.
Visit asg-reflektory.pl for more information.
“No Djed is out, he’s not ready for the game tomorrow. No [news about Spence or Kulusevski]. Kevin (Danso) is back, last game already. Yeah, so he’s back. No other news. There is no other news.
“We hope [Djed] will be [available] for the Champions League [vs. Atletico Madrid].”
That’s not GREAT, but it does suggest that Spurs might be able to field a back line that includes both Danso and Micky van de Ven, and that would be a huge boost for Spurs’ defense. The absence of Spence and Udogie means Spurs are still very light on fullbacks. One option would be to play Radu Dragusin at central defense and push Micky wide left, or start new boy Souza and see if he cooks. But that’s a decision for Tudor.
Igor did say that the biggest thing hampering the team is the availability of players, and that selecting the right players for the right positions and ways they can be effective has been a challenge in the short time he’s been here.
“We need to choose the right players of course. There are a lot of things to improve, you work day by day, you see that the players want to come, that’s the thing that makes me positive, makes me believe that we will do it.
“That’s the key in the end, waiting for other players to come back to give something to the team. Like Pedro [Porro], last game he came out and immediately you see that he gives something to the team-mates, so Kevin [Danso] is coming back, we’re expecting Cuti [Romero], [Destiny] Udogie who will come back, Djed [Spence] will come back, so it’s important to have all pieces together.
“All the teams in the Premier League struggle without seven, eight, 10 players, so it’s not that the other teams, when they have players to complete, it’s one team where they don’t have so it is how it is. So we’re waiting for the players to come back to give the energy, to give the quality, until now, until then we work to do things better.”
After the Fulham loss, Tudor talked about how the players need to be angry when results don’t go that way, and to channel that anger into improved training and improved performances. When asked about that, Tudor clarified his comments, but maintained that channeling the frustration Spurs have experienced in this difficult period into positive motivation will be key for the club turning things around.
“To not accept defeat as something normal, first reason and last reason, that’s why the reason when you play with, it’s about mentality, when you play with your friend you can have mentality. Okay we go to play tennis and then we lose, okay it’s the same for me or you can be different, you know.
“So for sure in this moment we need to recognize this but also to have belief that we have quality to do it. So my point is to give both things to the team, you know, and that’s how it works, this job, this sport. So I’m trying to touch them in all kind of things I can touch, you know, and as I said I saw the good will from the side to change things, we need something, we need small details, we need something to change of course, but I saw small progress, so tomorrow we need to keep going in the direction that I believe we will take and make one good performance as a team.”
Yesterday’s league action saw defeats for Burnley and Leeds United, giving Spurs an opportunity to make up ground with a win. The match kicks off at 3 pm ET / 8 pm GMT.