Tottenham's Struggles Under De Zerbi: The Search for Goals
Tottenham have spent £320million on new talent, loaded their squad with attacking options – and four games into the Premier League season they still haven’t scored. Coventry City are the only other side in the same boat.
So what on earth is going on?
This isn’t a team short of forwards. It’s a team still learning how to play for Roberto De Zerbi.
De Zerbi’s gamble: invite pressure, attack space
The Premier League De Zerbi has returned to after leaving Brighton in 2024 is not the same league. The Italian, though, has not abandoned himself. His Tottenham side already show the same core ideas that defined his previous work.
De Zerbi wants opponents to come after his team. He slows the game down, encourages passes backwards, tempts the press. The moment the opposition steps up, he looks to slice through them.
“The stronger the pressure of the opponent, the more vertical [our] action becomes. [The fewer opponents behind], the easier it becomes to go and score,” he said at a coaching seminar in 2020.
That is the blueprint. Draw them in, then go straight for the throat: direct passing, powerful ball-carrying, forwards running into huge pockets of space. We’ve already seen Spurs’ attackers receiving the ball in big areas, facing fewer defenders.
The problem? Turning those promising patterns into actual goals needs almost everything to click at once.
Right now, it isn’t.
A 2-3-2-3 with moving parts
In possession, Spurs often resemble a 2-3-2-3. It’s not always obvious at first glance, but the structure is there.
Rodrigo Bentancur usually sits in front of the two centre-backs, forming a fixed trio at the base. Ahead of them, the wingers, full-backs and central midfielders rotate constantly. The shape stays roughly the same; the faces in each zone change.
If a player vacates a space, someone else has to fill it. That’s non-negotiable. De Zerbi wants rotations, not chaos.
On top of this positional framework, he layers his principles: provoke the press, play centrally, be brave in tight zones. It’s a method that delivered at Marseille between 2024 and 2026, where his side averaged 2.3 goals per game.
It hasn’t broken open the Premier League yet with Tottenham. But the structure is visible, and the margins are thinner than the scoreline suggests.
Central lanes, tight spaces – and the need for the right players
De Zerbi pushes his teams to use the centre of the pitch. That single choice changes everything.
When Spurs’ centre-backs have the ball and look inside, opposition forwards and midfielders step up. They try to shut off the middle. In doing so, they leave space between the lines for Tottenham’s attacking midfielders to receive.
Pull the defence infield and something else happens: the wings open up. Spurs’ wide players then have room to attack one-versus-one on the outside.
But threading passes into the middle is demanding. The receiver must be comfortable under pressure, able to take the ball on the half-turn with opponents swarming around them. Not every player thrives in that world.
Sandro Tonali, for instance, is better in big spaces, facing forwards. De Zerbi has already tweaked things, rotating him with Archie Gray, who starts at right-back. Gray has stepped inside to operate in those tight pockets. It’s not his natural role, but the 20-year-old has coped, and he clearly grasps what his manager wants.
The return of James Maddison changes the picture again. Back from a shoulder injury for last Tuesday’s Carabao Cup tie at Liverpool, he offers a natural solution between the lines. Maddison is built for those central zones, for receiving under pressure and feeding the next phase. He should help Spurs reach dangerous areas more often.
Still, individual quality is only part of it. De Zerbi’s approach relies on players fully internalising his instructions. That doesn’t happen overnight, especially for a squad that spent last season under Thomas Frank building almost exclusively down the flanks.
Back then, Spurs avoided the middle, wary of costly turnovers in central areas. Now they are being told to do the opposite: play through congestion, take risks, accept the danger.
That shift in mindset takes time.
The missing pass: when good positions go to waste
Tottenham’s build-up has frequently achieved the hard part. They’ve drawn teams on, broken the press, and found themselves running at defences with space to attack.
The issue is what happens next.
Three things need to align in those moments. The player on the ball must spot the best pass. The runners ahead of him must make the right movements. Then the pass itself has to be executed cleanly.
So far, the biggest blockage has been in the first part: decision-making. Spurs players have too often failed to see – or chosen not to play – the through ball in behind.
The runs are there. Omar Marmoush, in particular, has made sharp, aggressive movements off the shoulder. The passes haven’t always followed.
Gray has tried to slide balls down the line from right-back, but centrally, Spurs have been more hesitant. The killer passes that should punish high lines have been left on the table.
Pedro Porro could change that. For Spain this summer, as they went on to win the World Cup, he operated more centrally in possession and showed his ability to create chances from those areas. As he returns to this Tottenham side, his instincts should fit De Zerbi’s demands: look forward, play vertical, take the risk.
If he settles quickly, Spurs might start to enjoy the same kind of joy De Zerbi’s forwards had at Marseille.
Learning the runs: timing, angles, and chaos
While Porro builds rhythm, others are still learning the movement patterns De Zerbi wants.
At Marseille, diagonal runs from wide attackers on the last line were a key weapon. Vertical passers in midfield and defence would look early for those angled darts in behind. It became a reliable route to goal.
Igor Paixao’s strike in Marseille’s 2-2 draw with Toulouse last season summed it up: direct passing, a well-timed diagonal run, and a finish into space created by that coordinated movement.
We saw flashes of similar ideas at Anfield on Tuesday. Destiny Udogie repeatedly found space on the left as the game stretched. Andy Robertson has been excellent for Tottenham this season, but Udogie’s physicality and timing gave Liverpool real problems when the match broke open.
Those surges allowed Spurs to reach crossing positions against a disorganised defence. The patterns are emerging; the final actions are lagging behind.
Final ball, final finish – and the small details in the box
Once an attacking team accelerates play, defences tend to panic and drop. They rush back towards their own goal, trying to protect the six-yard box and the central channel.
That retreat leaves a different type of space: just in front of the back line. It’s perfect for late-arriving midfielders or strikers clever enough to peel off and receive cut-backs.
Marmoush has tried to exploit that zone several times, dropping off to offer a pull-back option. The pass hasn’t always come.
Some of this is chemistry. Players need to learn each other’s habits, their triggers, their preferred movements. Some of it is technical. Savio, a left-footed right-winger, is more comfortable driving to the byline than cutting the ball back on his weaker foot. Udogie and Robertson, both left-footed on the left, have produced clearer chances when crossing.
At Marseille, De Zerbi had a different balance. Both the right winger and right full-back were happy to chop the ball back onto their right foot and pick out runners. Inside the box, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, even at 37, was ruthless. His movement maximised the value of those cut-backs.
Tottenham do not yet have that same level of synchronicity or that same proven finisher in De Zerbi’s system. Their attacks often look “almost” right: the structure is good, the movement promising, the space created. The last detail goes missing.
That doesn’t mean the idea is flawed. It means the execution isn’t there yet.
Close to clicking – but time is not endless
De Zerbi’s history shows what this style can produce when the pieces fit. At Marseille, with forwards who thrived in space and finished chances clinically, his approach looked devastating.
This Spurs side is not there yet. The margins are small, but the league table is not interested in “almost.”
If Tottenham refine those details – the bravery to play the through ball, the timing of the diagonal run, the quality of the cut-back – they should generate more than enough chances to break their drought. Even if they miss a few, the volume will eventually tell.
The question is not whether the goals are in this team.
It’s how long the club, the players and the crowd are willing to wait for De Zerbi’s ideas to turn from theory into numbers on the scoreboard.
