A former Premier League player, who has also served as a manager, has aimed pointed criticism at a tactic that Roberto De Zerbi is employing at Tottenham.
While De Zerbi has a reputation for being an innovator as a coach and getting his sides to play free-flowing, attacking football, that is a far cry from what we have seen from his Spurs side this season.
Alarmingly, the Lilywhites have not scored a single goal in six hours of Premier League football this season, which has been a big talking point, not just across England, but also Europe.
The fact that Spurs spent nearly £400m on 10 new signings in the summer has brought a lot of attention to their plight, and some pundits are convinced that the fault lies with the man in charge.
Roberto De Zerbi accused of not innovating his tactics at Tottenham
Former Burnley and Porto midfielder Steven Defour, who has also managed Belgian club Mechelen, has not been convinced by De Zerbi’s tactical ideas this season.
He suggested that the Italian has failed to adapt and still follows some of the same methods that brought him success at Brighton several years ago.
Defour told Sporza (via Sport Witness) about the Tottenham boss: “He claimed he’d already be the best coach in Italy just because he’d kept two clean sheets. He’s already starting to become irritating.
“He did a fantastic job at Brighton, famously having the goalkeeper keep his foot on the ball until the opposition started pressing. Back then, teams actually thought: ‘It’s Brighton, so let’s press high.’ That created space. But now, teams just let the goalkeeper do his thing.
“The idea is outdated because everyone has seen the footage by now. Everyone knows what he’s planning. Guardiola went through a similar phase, but he kept innovating. De Zerbi, on the other hand, just keeps doing the same thing. Whereas all his imitators struggle after a year.”
De Zerbi accused of being arrogant in the transfer market
Meanwhile, fellow pundit Filip Joost pointed the finger at the bad decisions that the Spurs head coach made in the transfer window.
He suggested that De Zerbi was arrogant to think that he could transform two players who had failed at Man City: Omar Marmoush and Savio.
Joost added about Tottenham’s poor start to the season: “It’s disastrous. Yet they actually started well against Everton last weekend. For ten minutes, they were in full flow, thanks to Gray and Savio. That last one has really come into his own since changing his name from Savinho to Savio.
“But that transfer also reveals De Zerbi’s hubris. You take on two players who failed at City – Savinho and Marmoush – for a huge sum, thinking you can turn them into top-tier players yourself. No way; forget it. When he panics, he really panics,” notes Joos. “And he’s not the easiest person to work with then.”