project ROBERTO DE ZERBI
Roberto De Zerbi is Tottenham Hotspur’s 3rd manager this season.
Yep, you read that right. Spurs have their third manager this season. Roberto De Zerbi is seen as a long-term appointment by Tottenham Hotspur, but also the man who is tasked with keeping us from being relegated. Will that happen? Right now, I don’t think it’s all on the manager, I believe it is majority on the players. There’s only so much you can do as a coach with 7 games left, so let’s hope we can go on a purple patch of good form to close out this season, because if the worst does happen, it could be the collapse of the club. But let’s not focus on that.
A lot of talk has come out about RDZ, and how he will go at Tottenham Hotspur; some say he is the wrong appointment, others say his attacking philosophy is what we need. Then some say his support of a certain ex-Manchester United player means he shouldn’t be given the chance to coach our great team. I don’t have an opinion on the matter; call me. a cop out, but that’s just how I feel about the situation, as I don’t know the full details, as I was not there. For me, the only thing I’m concerned about is Tottenham staying in the league. Now, can we do that under Roberto De Zerbi? I believe we can.
RDZ is known for making sure his teams are the best at breaking a press, mainly by baiting them and exploiting open spaces up the pitch. This style of play means we will be playing out from the back A LOT, and I know we have very bad memories of our team playing this way, especially during the Ange era, but we have players who can play under pressure; however, when your confidence is low and you're being asked to play so many different ways, it takes it’s toll. Now, what difference can a week make when we’ve had one of, if not our most terrible season ever? We won’t know until the end of the season, or at least until the Sunderland game.
The players I believe will benefit the most in these final 7 games will be Archie Gray, Cristian Romero and Dominic Solanke. Archie Gray has gone up another level, I believe as he has been playing in his more comfortable central role, his calmness under pressure will be helpful too as he forms a likely partnership with Bergvall (I hope). Now, Cristian Romero is someone whose not stepped up this season, in a time when we’ve needed him the most, he’s made many costly errors, disciplinary mistakes and overall not lead by example but under De Zerbi, he may be able to redeem himself and his line-breaking passes will be key in build-up play. The last one may be a shock, but I think Dominic Solanke can thrive in this system as he’s a much better out and out striker whose strengths are shown in an attacking style of play and we saw that when he was fit under Ange, Richy is better at hold-up play which can be helpful when players make runs as he can lay it off to one our more creative players to kickstart an attack.
Will this appointment be there right one? We’ll never know until we see progress but the bigger issue goes much higher than the manager, those who are making the decisions for this club are currently running it into the ground and not for a lack of patience because we are not seeing the decisions of a year ago yielding rewards or improvement and that comes down appointing the right people to take this great club to the heights that we expect. Here’s hoping De Zerbis appointment is a stepping stone in the right direction. GOYS.
