Igor Tudor exit from Tottenham paints humiliating picture for Arne Slot and Liverpool

• 

• Liverpool FC News
• Features
• Liverpool FC

Tottenham has confirmed that Igor Tudor has left the club after only 44 days, with the interim manager suffering a torrid time in charge — apart from when he faced Liverpool

Igor Tudor's only point in charge of Tottenham came against Liverpool(Image: Getty Images)

Tottenham finally confirmed the departure of Igor Tudor as its interim manager on Sunday. That it took this long to come to that decision is a damning indictment of Liverpool right now.

The news came to no one’s real surprise after a dreadful run of results that culminated in a disastrous 3-0 defeat at home to Nottingham Forest, which leaves Spurs just a point above the relegation zone. Liverpool fans won’t need reminding where that point came from.

With just seven games remaining, Tottenham has decided that it needs to make a change to save its season, with Tudor departing after just 44 days in charge. It should have been an even shorter spell.

The writing looked to be on the wall for the former Juventus boss when he brought his side to Anfield earlier this month. He had just overseen a humiliating defeat against Atletico Madrid, in which he looked to have completely lost control of his squad, and had suffered losses in each of his four games by that point.

This was a team in the deepest depths of a crisis — that much was clear beforehand, and it has been evident since then. Yet, Liverpool somehow contrived to hand Tudor the only point of his reign.

It isn’t an overreaction to say that might have been the worst result of Arne Slot’s time in charge of the Reds - and there are plenty of contenders this season.

Liverpool's draw against Tottenham was perhaps the worst result of Arne Slot's time in charge(Image: Robbie Jay Barratt - AMA/Getty Images)

The manner in which Liverpool allowed that rag-tag group of players, with nearly all of its best players missing through injury, suspension or any other means, to get back into the game just about sums up the malaise that has descended upon Anfield this season.

Slot and his team deserved the boos that greeted them at full-time. They deserved nothing more than the point they claimed. Quite frankly, if they don’t qualify for next season’s Champions League, they’ll deserve that too.

For that Tottenham side to have shown more fight than the Reds during those closing stages was the most damning moment of what has already been a dismal season. It even, somehow, managed to overtake a 4-1 defeat at home to PSV Eindhoven as perhaps the lowest moment of the campaign.

Jamie Carragher summed it up well as he branded it a “disaster” for Liverpool, and Tudor’s departure now only paints it in a more humiliating light.

Yes, he would go on to pick up a win in the second leg against Atletico, but Diego Simeone just had to put his side in cruise control to avoid throwing that tie away. Tudor was out of his depth from the moment he stepped in at Tottenham, and Liverpool should have been his final game in charge.

That it wasn’t reflects so badly on Slot and his side that the rest of the season feels as though it’s make or break now. The Dutchman has to make sure that remains the lowest point of his time in charge, but even if it does, the damage caused by that draw leaves him a mountain to climb to earn back the support of some.