The Tottenham Hotspur head coach has been speaking about his attacking players and why he believes they can save the club this season
Roberto De Zerbi loves Richarlison's "pure" face and believes the Brazilian, Mathys Tel and Randal Kolo Muani can seize the moment for relegation-threatened Tottenham.
The new Spurs boss has just four games left to save the north London outfit from the drop, starting with Sunday's trip to Aston Villa. He must do so with eight players out injured and many of them his attacking stars. With no Dominic Solanke, Xavi Simons, Mohammed Kudus, Dejan Kulusevski or Wilson Odobert to call upon, and James Maddison not yet ready to start matches, the attacking trio of Richarlison, Tel and Kolo Muani will need to score the goals to keep Tottenham up.
Richarlison has seen off relegation before with Everton, scoring crucial goals to keep the Toffees in the top flight before his £60million move to Spurs in 2022. Now Tottenham's top scorer must evoke those memories to save his current club.
"Richarlison is a great guy because he is a sensitive guy, I like him as a player and as a man. What he thinks you can understand immediately from his face, or his eyes. It’s pure," said De Zerbi. "We have to put him in the right condition to score. I want to put all the attackers in the right condition to attack the space, to shoot, to go one to one, to play between the lines, to make the assists. In the second half at Wolves, we didn't."
Richarlison has more than 50 caps for Brazil and De Zerbi believes people have forgotten how good his players actually are, including themselves.
"This is my problem. I would like to remember every day what they are and what they have done," he said. "But not three, four, five years ago, because Tottenham finished the Champions League [league phase] in fourth position this season."
With Xavi's ACL injury, Tel will likely get the chance to show what he can do down his favoured left flank and De Zerbi has high hopes for the 21-year-old, who he tried to sign for Marseille.
"He is a potential big player, a potential big talent at the moment and we have to help him become a top player because he has the right qualities to do that," he said. "I’m sorry because I used him in not his favourite position. He played two games as a right winger, against Wolves and Brighton.
"His favourite position is left winger but at Wolves he was important to win the corner for the goal. Now maybe without Xavi, Maddison and Odobert and all the other players he can feel more comfortable because he can prepare his game for one week without the thoughts of whether he plays or not. The responsibilities can be better for us and for him."
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So can the France U21 international fulfil the talent that saw Bayern Munich sign him at just 17-years-old from Rennes?
"I don’t know but it can be the right moment for him. The players become great when they understand the right moment to become better," said De Zerbi.
"Xavi in my time, spent the time [well] and was becoming great, and I could feel something different from him in personality and confidence, in performances as well. I don’t know if the credit is mine but maybe he understood the right position, had the right confidence and the ideas of the coach so he made the most of the opportunity."
The final member of the attacking trio is Kolo Muani and De Zerbi is keen for him remind everyone why PSG splashed out almost £75million on him from Eintracht Frankfurt less than three years ago.
"Muani? He’s another of my problems. I have too many problems!" said the Italian. "But it’s not problems, I love working in this part of my job because when I was a player, I wanted to work with the coach to help to transfer more confidence, to believe, to show what his idea was about me.
“Sometimes coaches forget about this part of our work, but in this part, I want to be the first level. I can lose on the pitch, I can lose something in the tactics, but in terms of relationship, I want to give my best with all the players and not forget anyone."
With the game against Villa sandwiched between two Europa League semi-final legs against Nottingham Forest, Unai Emery could potentially rotate his team to face Spurs but De Zerbi is not expecting that to change much for the Premier League's fifth-placed team.
"Aston Villa have 20-22 players of first level. Douglas Luiz, Bogarde, Bailey, Sancho, Abraham, Mings are not the second level," said the head coach.
"It will be a tough game with the same players of Thursday or if he goes to change, I don’t know, but nothing changes from the level of the opponent."