Igor Tudor is flailing in the face of panic with Spurs staring at apocalypse now

Tottenham Hotspur’s interim head coach Igor Tudor stood before the media on Thursday night clutching for positives after another wretched evening at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, but the numbers scream louder than any carefully chosen sound bite. A 3-1 home defeat to Crystal Palace means Spurs have won only two Premier League fixtures on their own patch all season – the worst home record in the division – and have now lost five league games in a row, 11 without a victory overall for the first time since 1975. Relegation, once an abstract fear, is sharpening into a very real possibility.

Tudor, appointed just under three weeks ago after the sacking of Thomas Frank, has cycled through three markedly different tactical blueprints in as many matches: a 3-3-3-1 against Arsenal, a 4-4-2 at Fulham, and a safety-first 5-4-1 versus Palace. None has produced a point; each has deepened the sense of a coach improvising in quicksand. After Sunday’s reverse at Craven Cottage he publicly lamented that his side were “lacking” in defence, midfield, attack and, most startlingly, “the brain”. He questioned the squad’s fitness levels and labelled the predicament an “emergency” tougher than any he has faced.

Post-Palace, the message flipped. The Croatian spoke of increased belief, of finally detecting “energy and passion” from his players. It sounded like a man who had tried the stick, found it ineffective, and now hopes a carrot might work. Yet the first-half damage had long been done: 3-1 down at the interval, reduced to ten men after Micky van de Ven’s red card, Spurs merely avoided further humiliation rather than mounting a credible comeback. Palace, content with the advantage, eased off after the break.

Supporters filing out of the stadium oscillated between apathy and raw anger; many are openly asking whether Tudor should be removed before the situation calcifies into outright free fall. Inside the boardroom, sources insist no knee-jerk decision is forthcoming after only three matches, not least because the managerial market remains as barren as it was when Frank departed on 11 February. High-profile names were sounded out then; none fancied the assignment. Nothing, insiders concede, has changed.

Injuries continue to gut the squad. Djed Spence is expected to return soon, possibly in time for Tuesday’s Champions League last-16 first leg at Atlético Madrid, while Cristian Romero will be available domestically after suspension. Yet Van de Ven must now sit out a league game, further depleting a back line that has conceded at least twice in nine consecutive top-flight fixtures. The club accept that swapping the head coach again would not magically heal the treatment-room cohort.

Privately, hierarchy figures believe salvation lies in regaining bodies and, just as crucially, confidence. Tudor, communicating in his third language, has struggled to convey nuance, and the squad appear paralysed by inhibition: aware of what they want to execute yet unable to translate thought into action. The result is a brittle outfit that concedes early and frantically claws at dignity when the contest is already lost.

The touchline optics against Palace were telling. After inheriting the armband from Van de Ven, Pedro Porro raged at goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario, railed at an assistant referee, and on being substituted thumped the dugout seat before hurling a water bottle to the turf. Passion, perhaps, but also the snapshot of a leadership group wobbling on its axis.

Nine league matches remain, beginning with a daunting trip to Liverpool a week on Sunday. In the meantime, Spurs must somehow regroup for Madrid. Players speak of “rock-bottom” morale; staff talk of an “apocalypse” unfolding in real time. Tudor, hired precisely because the club needed a steady hand, now resembles a man flailing for a life-raft that keeps slipping just out of reach. Unless something shifts dramatically, and quickly, the abyss edges ever closer.