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Tottenham’s season has somehow found a new low just days before they head to Anfield. Igor Tudor’s side were humiliated 5-2 by Atletico Madrid in the Champions League, a result that stretched Spurs’ losing run to six games. Tudor has lost each of his first four matches in charge, making him the first Spurs boss ever to start with such a run, yet he is still expected to sit in front of the cameras for the pre-Liverpool press conference and take the team on Merseyside.
Off the pitch, things sound even worse.
The Athletic’s Jay Harris has detailed a fractured dressing room, where confidence is shattered and belief is in short supply. “Expectations are low for Sunday’s game against Liverpool but a positive performance could help them to at least regain some momentum.” He adds that “the strain of an historically bad season can be seen in this squad. Some members who are determined to arrest the team’s decline have expressed displeasure at the application of others, who they believe are not motivated to help their cause.”
Most damning of all is the suggestion that at least one player has mentally checked out. According to Harris, “The Athletic has even been told that one player has expressed to his team-mates that he is not too concerned by the possibility of relegation because he believes he can and will leave the club this summer.”
For a side hovering just above the drop zone, that kind of attitude paints a picture of a club in open civil war.
From a Liverpool perspective, all of this turmoil can only be a good sign ahead of Sunday, even if no game in the Premier League is ever a formality.
Anfield has seen struggling teams raise their levels before, and Spurs still possess enough quality to be dangerous on the break. But with the manager under fire, results in freefall and senior players openly questioning team-mates, Tottenham look like the last side that should relish a trip to one of the toughest grounds in Europe.
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