The embarrassing situation at Tottenham that revealed two unexpected leaders

Here are our Tottenham talking points after their 2-1 defeat at Fulham in the Premier League on Sunday left them stuck in the relegation battle

What to do with a team like Tottenham Hotspur - a team that cannot defend, cannot attack and has to turn to youngsters to lead them?

This is the worst version of Spurs to have existed in decades. There have been some poor Tottenham sides over the years but they all had a superstar or two to pull them out of trouble. This one does not.

The travelling fans sang such ditties as 'We want our Tottenham back', 'You're not fit to wear this shirt' and 'We want ENIC out' in the minutes after Alex Iwobi was given the freedom of Craven Cottage on Sunday to side-foot a shot from outside the box and into the net via the left-hand post.

Igor Tudor was brought in to fix the problems of Thomas Frank, who was brought in to fix the problems of Ange Postecoglou, who was brought in to fix the problems of the three head coaches in the dugout in the six months before that. You can see the trend. There are always problems at Spurs but this is something else.

What will concern both Tudor, who remains without his trusted assistant coach Ivan Javorcic, and Tottenham is that there has been no instant lift to performances or the style of play.

Opposition goalkeepers could still take part in 'Bring your kids to work day' and not worry one bit about the little ones getting hit by a football.

It's somewhat ironic that Tudor told football.london on Thursday that he had not seen his friend Antonio Conte's explosive final press conference at the club three years ago this very month, because his own effort after the defeat at Fulham on Sunday contained similar themes only with less rage and use of the word 'alibi'.

Spurs' players are treading dangerously close to the precipice of relegation and appear to have their fingers stuck firmly in their ears, unable to hear the warnings.

It's perhaps a club thing. The 'R word' is not one to be uttered around Hotspur Way and the team appears to play with that mindset. There is no sense of danger, no need to scrap and claw away from what lies beneath.

On Sunday afternoon, alongside the River Thames, Fulham joined the ever-growing list of clubs that Tottenham have made look like world beaters. Yet simple foundations were key to Marco Silva's side's success.

They fought for every ball and, just as importantly the second ball and they moved that spherical thing forward, along the floor and in the direction of the opposition goal.

Tottenham did very little of that. They are not competing for second balls, the bare minimum asked of any team whether title challengers or relegation battlers.

They were not helped by refereeing decisions or Tudor's formation, which unsuccessfully tried to hammer various square pegs into round holes. However, it is the basics that are missing from a Spurs side that still appears to have no structure or plan at either end of the pitch and therefore no belief in itself.

It's now 10 Premier League games without a win for Spurs, their joint longest winless streak in the competition, matching a run way back in 1994 under Ossie Ardiles. They are incredibly fortunate that every other team around them also lost during a weekend which really showed why the bottom half are the bottom half.

"It's a complicated situation, a lot of problems, I cannot tell you nothing new. Nothing new," Tudor said in his post-match press conference. "We need to find the voices inside each of us, I said to the players, ‘it's always what you're going to do, what you want to do with yourself,’ you know? More personality, more wish to do before reacting, plenty of things and a lot of things.

"We lack when we attack, we are lacking the quality to score the goal, we are lacking in the middle to run and we are lacking behind to stay there to suffer and not concede the goal. So, an amazing situation. Amazing."

It's amazing that Tottenham have allowed themselves to get into this situation. Whether that falls upon the players, their former head coach or the current one who looks fed up already or the powers-that-be that were complacent enough to believe that no short-term options would have helped steer Spurs away from this looming disaster.

Too much hope is being placed on the injured players to return before the season ends as if any evidence over the past 18 months has shown that is a route that pays off. Even Spurs' Europa League triumph at the end of last season was managed amid further injuries arriving on top of the previous one.

Tottenham are a club constantly looking at what might happen in the future, whether that's signing young players with potential, hoping other clubs fall foul of PSR rules and now hoping injured players return. They're always looking at the horizon while tripping up on what's right in front of them.

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The decisions made at the club in what was meant to be a new era have so far proved to be as disastrous as those that came before, if not more so, especially if that word nobody is allowed to say becomes a reality. The Tottenham fans will never forgive any of those involved if that comes to pass and nor should they.

The sight of two of Spurs' three most expensive signings this season - aside from the injured Mohammed Kudus - getting hooked before the hour mark said everything about the mess the club finds itself in.

Xavi Simons and Conor Gallagher, signed for a combined figure of £81million, offered almost nothing against Fulham. The Dutchman continues to be inconsistent with both his talent and his efforts and is utterly wasted on the left flank.

Both he and Dominic Solanke were among those watching Iwobi run into the space between them after Archie Gray had needed to step inside to cover another man.

Gallagher has left one club where he was frustrated at being played out of position on the right to join another that is asking him to do exactly the same. The England international does not lack desire, but asking him to play as a winger exposes limitations in that side of his game.

Spurs looked better without both of them which either speaks volumes about the tactics and starting line-up employed by Tudor or the transfer dealings of the north London club.

Fortune rarely aids those who are struggling. Right now for Tottenham, when push comes to shove, others can shove but they cannot even appear to push.

Radu Dragusin was clearly pushed out of the path of the ball by Raul Jimenez just seven minutes into Sunday's encounter as he flicked on the ball that was eventually sent back via Gallagher's head to Harry Wilson to hook home past Guglielmo Vicario.

Referee Thomas Bramall decided nothing was wrong with what Jimenez had done and VAR did not step in to deter him. It was the opposite of Randal Kolo Muani's grazing of fingers on Gabriel's back seven days previously only for the referee that day to signal for the foul and VAR again to decide that it was happy enough that there was no clear and obvious error to get him to take another look.

Yet Jimenez's push was far more than anything Kolo Muani produced. The inconsistency between decisions made by the referees is maddening and it infuriated Tudor on the touchline and two hours later in his press conference.

"Of course it's a foul. Ninety-nine of 100 people will say it's a foul, I believe, because it's so obvious, you know," said the 47-year-old. "Sometimes the criteria don't have consistency, last week what happened in our game against Arsenal, same thing, also one situation before, we conceded a goal, they didn't get a foul after they give, so, incredible."

When asked whether he got an explanation from the referee as to why it was given as a goal, as opposed to the one last week, Tudor, as part of the centre-back's union, launched into what could be called the 'cheat' rant.

"No, no, no, no, I was too nervous to speak with him, because it's so obvious, you know. Sometimes they don't understand it's enough, even small contact, you know, if it gives you advantage to score the goal, you need to cancel this, finish it," he said.

"It's not about a normal duel when he's soft, no, when he pushes with the hands and don't watch the ball, no. Sometimes it's just easy to get advantage.

"So, this is ridiculous to not give the foul, because the consequence is too big. It's not a small foul in the middle of the pitch, it's a goal after. So, there is a logic in that, so the referee, beautiful thing to keep playing here, let's play strong, duel, it's fantastic, I like it.

"But there is a logic, if the goal is, because he takes advantage, not thinking about football, he was not thinking about the ball, he was thinking how to cheat. So, he cheated the player with pushing and they scored the goal. So, it's a logic, it's a cheating and there's the foul.

"It's not the thing of duel and they want that here is a football is more, you know, tough and we like the duels, it's nothing with that. So, there was no logic in this decision and logic is above everything, after come other things."

Spurs look rudderless on the pitch. Their suspended captain is still sticking it to the club over the lack of available players by being...well unavailable.

Micky van de Ven is a talented player but he's not a captain at this point in his career. Right now the Dutchman is spending too much time sprinting around trying to cover for others and instead leaving huge gaps where he was meant to be.

To say his on-pitch relationship with Radu Dragusin is a work in progress would be a very kind way of putting it and nothing about the defence worked as a unit on Sunday, despite having both Joao Palhinha and Yves Bissouma patrolling in front of it.

As has been so often the case this season, a couple of first time passes are all that is required to cut open Tottenham's midfield and backline. How Fulham did not score four or five goals on Sunday mystified Marco Silva as much as it did the crowd inside Craven Cottage.

Yet the home side somehow allowed Spurs a way back into the game when Tudor changed things up by bringing on the width the initial system had required, mainly in the shape of Mathys Tel.

The 20-year-old has started just six Premier League games this season and he must be wondering what those in front of him in the pecking order have done in such a dreadful season to ensure that happened.

Yes, the young Frenchman can occasionally run into a cluster of people with his head down, mainly due to the lack of movement around him, but he's unpredictable for opposition defenders.

Tel can stay wide or he can cut inside and most of all he believes in himself to make things happen and that's something that few Spurs players can say right now.

On 66 minutes he dribbled his way down most of the left flank before picking out Gray's run and the teenager took a touch before chipping a pinpoint left-footed cross to Richarlison to head home at the back post. In doing so, he became the first Brazilian player to score 20 headed goals in the Premier League with former Spurs midfielder and later assistant manager Gus Poyet the only South American to net more with 21.

It was the only moment of attacking quality from Tottenham in the entire match and their sole shot on target from 13 attempts.

Once again it showed an embarrassing situation with a lack of leadership within the playing group that a 19-year-old and a 20-year-old had to step up and show the way by trying to grab the game by the scruff of the neck for their senior team-mates.

Gray has done it on a number of occasions this season: in Bodo, at Selhurst Park, against Newcastle and Manchester City this month and now at Craven Cottage.

He did have a torrid time as a left-back dealing often single-handedly with Wilson and Iwobi, but the returning Pedro Porro fared little better with Oscar Bobb, another player available in the January transfer window, and former Tottenham man Ryan Sessegnon.

It's worth noting that Sessegnon has played 24 matches so far this season for Fulham after escaping the injury hell that is Tottenham Hotspur.

Despite his struggles, Gray never shied away from receiving the ball or trying to drive up the pitch. At any other club he would have been brought through in the right way in the right position over the past two seasons. At Tottenham, he's had to learn on the job to do everything but what he will eventually excel at.

A bit of experience of other positions is helpful to round out a player's game, but two near full seasons of it places Gray's development at risk of being stunted.

In the final stages of the derby everything from Tottenham was just hopeful launches forward, other than Tel sending the lesser spotted Souza into the Fulham box before Pape Matar Sarr latched on to the Brazilian's scuffed pass and fired the ball into the side-netting.

Tudor even brought on Kevin Danso for Dragusin in the final moments in order to hurl the ball into the hosts' box after the Romanian had done his best impression of a Tyrannosaurus Rex taking long throws.

Richarlison battled for everything and finally gave Calvin Bassey a fight or two after the big defender had bullied Kolo Muani for much of the game alongside the disappointing Solanke.

There was a last-gasp shot from Palhinha in the final seconds from a deep free-kick but it was blocked in front of goal and it would have been an undeserved leveller anyway for the visitors.

Tudor has a huge job on his hands. The Tottenham players have little confidence and they're getting progressively worse over the course of the season.

Vicario, for example, made a big save from Emile Smith-Rowe but his kicking was abysmal at times. The Italian is one of the bigger voices in the dressing room but if he is struggling, who is there to pick him up?

Tottenham look like a club where it is difficult to pinpoint strong leadership both on the pitch or off of it. It's a club teetering on the edge and it's going to take someone strong to grab it before it topples off the Premier League mantlepiece.

Bissouma said after the game that the players "just need to shut up and work hard" and Thursday brings a chance to do exactly that with huge derby at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium against Crystal Palace.

Oliver Glasner's men have only won two Premier League games in 2026 but that's still two more than Spurs have managed. Tottenham have racked up just four points since the turn of the year.

Brennan Johnson will return to north London off the back of his first assist for Palace in their 2-1 defeat at Manchester United. That game turned on centre-back Maxence Lacroix's red card and Spurs will at least not have to face the Frenchman, who has started all bar one Premier League game this season for the Eagles.

Tottenham will be told they need to treat this game like a cup final but they should be doing that for every game. St Totteringham's Day has now come and gone, sooner than ever before, with 35 points between the two sides and long gone are the consecutive years when Spurs would finish above their north London counterparts.

Djed Spence missed Sunday's game with soreness in his calf but Tudor will need far more than one returning full-back to take Tottenham out of turmoil and he knows it.

This squad needs characters and personality, people who will fight for everything on the pitch and not look to others to make things happen. Spurs have been aware of this for some time, hence the move for Andy Robertson, but this is buying potential rather than ready-made players coming home to roost.

Tudor pointed to people like Richarlison, Porro and Danso as being important returnees but he knows he needs more at a club that is a mess.

"The problems are much bigger, the problems are much bigger. It's not enough, it's not enough," the Croatian said of any positives in this latest performance.

"The situation was complicated because we know how many players [are out]. Now the players are coming back. One thing is when you have a complete team then you can choose.

"One situation is when you cannot choose, you know, because you need to choose the quality to score the goal. You need to have quality players to score the goal otherwise you cannot defend all the time, but when you are in a bad moment, you put the players, but then you lack defending and running and winning the duels.

"So, what to do? That's the big question in the future to choose what is right for this team. To find a formula of what we want to be and what we can be in this moment. That’s very difficult to understand, that’s the thing.

"To understand because you have the quality, but also football is a sport of running and duels. I have a sensation that Fulham players were always running and even with the brain, they arrive before us, they predict and we are always late on everything. That’s the problem."

Even if he is not entirely blameless, Tudor is just another Tottenham head coach trying to get a tune out of a broken instrument.

The players need to show they truly care about this once great club, one that they have played their part, along with others, in dragging down to new depths.

This is not Tottenham Hotspur as we knew it. It's a pale imitation of the grand old team that once plied its trade under the name.

There are 10 games left to give everything. The Champions League is a shiny distraction. Make no mistake, all focus and energy must be placed upon ensuring Spurs are a top flight club next season.

Someone must stand above the rest and point the way. The long-term future of Tottenham Hotspur might just depend on it.

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